As the University of Oregon Ducks and Oregon State University Beavers prepare to renew their storied football rivalry, an unusual trophy has captured the attention of ESPN's College GameDay. The Platypus Trophy, a maple sculpture created 66 years ago by a UO art student, has experienced a remarkable journey of disappearances, reinventions, and rediscoveries that has brought it back into the spotlight.
Raphe Beck, executive director of the University of Oregon Alumni Association, offers an intriguing theory about why the Platypus Trophy has struggled to gain widespread acceptance. "I think what's hard about it is, we love the Duck, and they love the Beaver," Beck explained during a recent interview at the Ford Alumni Center. "And to make room for this other creature that has parts of both a duck and beaver? It could not be more perfect. And yet, am I supposed to make room in my heart for a platypus? I mean, I'm all Duck."
The trophy's creator, 89-year-old Warren Spady, expressed bewilderment at the sudden surge of interest in his decades-old creation. "I really don't know where all the interest came from suddenly," Spady said earlier this week from his home in Carlton, just north of McMinnville. "I thought it was long-ago dead." The renewed attention culminated in a visit from ESPN senior writer Ryan McGee, who spent time in both Eugene and Corvallis researching the trophy's colorful history for a potential College GameDay feature.
McGee's investigation took him from Beck's office in Eugene to meetings with John Valva, executive director of the OSU Alumni Association in Corvallis. The ESPN writer, known for his weekly "Bottom 10" column that humorously ranks the worst college football teams, had previously listed the 0-3 Beavers seventh in his rankings, dubbing them "Oregon Trail State (You have died of dysentery)." His column noted that he was in the Beaver State working on a College GameDay feature about the platypus trophy that the Beavers and Ducks would play for during their upcoming matchup.
However, the reality of the trophy's current status is more modest than its media attention might suggest. Beck clarified that the trophy is simply shuffled between the alumni associations rather than being officially contested by the football teams. When the Beavers win, Beck drives the trophy north to Corvallis, and vice versa when the Ducks are victorious. The Ducks have maintained possession since their 2023 victory and retained it with their 2024 win, making them heavy 35.5-point favorites for the upcoming game.
The Platypus Trophy's origin story begins in 1959 when Warren Spady, then a University of Oregon art student, was commissioned by Willard Thompson, the university's director of public service, to create a trophy from a block of maple wood. The concept seemed logical: what better represents both a duck and a beaver than the duck-billed, beaver-tailed Australian platypus? Spady had only one month to complete the sculpture before the rivalry game then known as the Civil War.
Spady wasn't entirely satisfied with his rushed creation, later admitting that the sculpture's feet remained unfinished. He was told not to worry about the incomplete details since Oregon was heavily favored to win and he would get the trophy back after the game to add the finishing touches. The 15th-ranked Ducks were attempting to reach their second Rose Bowl in three seasons, while the Beavers limped into the game with a dismal record of two wins and seven losses.
In one of college football's great upsets, Oregon State stunned Oregon 15-7, and jubilant OSU students ran off with the trophy. The Ducks reclaimed it the following year despite a 14-14 tie in Corvallis in 1960, but it returned to Beaver hands in 1961 when OSU defeated Oregon 6-2 in Eugene. The trophy's whereabouts became murky after OSU fraternity brothers reportedly stole it from a glass case in Gill Coliseum a year or two later.
The sculpture resurfaced in an unexpected context during the mid-1960s when it somehow found its way to the University of Oregon water polo team. When the trophy was rediscovered in 2007, it still bore a brass plaque commemorating UO's claimed water polo championships against OSU in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1968. Spady, who went on to teach art and African studies at Eugene's Churchill High School from 1970 to 1995 before moving to Redmond in 1998, spotted his creation in a glass case at UO's old Leighton Pool in 1986. It would be another 21 years before he would see it again.
The trophy's eventual rediscovery came about through the efforts of former Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano, who wrote a 2004 column suggesting that the Civil War rivalry should have a trophy. Spady emailed Canzano to inform him that such a trophy already existed, though he hadn't seen it in years. Dan Williams, then UO's vice president and former student body president in 1961 who had personally delivered the trophy to his OSU counterpart across a muddy Hayward Field, also read Canzano's column and launched a search effort.
UO Athletic Department personnel eventually located the missing sculpture in storage at the Moshofsky Center, leading to the resurrection of the tradition of sharing it between schools. Ironically, it was Canzano who recently provided College GameDay with Spady's contact information, according to a column on JohnCanzano.com. Canzano noted that Spady had told him in 2004 that he never received payment or recognition for creating the trophy. "Well, old pal, your 15 minutes are coming," Canzano wrote this week, referring to the anticipated ESPN feature.
As the college football world prepares to learn more about this quirky piece of Pacific Northwest sports history, the Platypus Trophy stands as a testament to the enduring power of rivalry traditions, no matter how unconventional their origins or circuitous their journeys. Whether "Platty," as Beck affectionately calls the sculpture, will finally achieve the recognition its creator envisioned six decades ago remains to be seen when College GameDay airs its feature during the show's broadcast from Miami.
