Every week we zoom in on a different American university, this week the university of Slamstox tennis player Myah Petchey is in the spotlight. Before leaving for the University of Oregon, Myah lived in London and South Africa. Throughout her youth, she was ranked first in South Africa’s under-18s, as well as 179th in the ITF junior rankings. She achieved that ranking by winning four tournaments on the ITF junior circuit!
Now Myah is almost done with her second year at the University of Oregon. She started very strong in 2019 by winning 7 of her 8 first matches! Would you like to know more about Myah University? Read more below!
Campus
Every year, almost 23,000 students walk around on the UO campus, you can imagine that this requires a large campus! The campus is located in the place ‘Eugene’, it has 150,000 inhabitants. This means that Eugene is not known for its large number of inhabitants, but for something else: Eugene is the most sustainable place in the USA! That’s cool right? You will find a lot of cyclists there, so that’s quit Dutch. The photo below shows a part of the campus.
Athletic facilities
Every university in the USA is different, but like in every university spotlight we zoom in on the athletic facilities that the university has to offer. Just like the rest of the campus, they are wonderfully beautiful at UO.
Autzen Stadium is where the American Football team of the University of Oregon comes into action. As we see at many universities, the American Football team has one of the largest and most beautiful facilities, which is also the case at UO. No fewer than 54,000 fans can fit in this stadium at the same time! Bizarre right?! In 2002, the stadium underwent a major renovation, allowing more seating and luxury options to be realized.
You may still be impressed by the stadium above, but we are already moving on to the next one. And that’s the Matthew Knight Arena, the place where the basketball and volleyball teams come into play. Named after Phil Knight’s son, the arena features two basketball halls, a volleyball hall, offices, a gym and more!
The Hayward Field is the place where the track and field teams come into action. In 2017, the annual NCAA Tournament was organized for the fifteenth time. That is not surprising, given the professionalism of the facility and the seating for no less than 10,500 fans. In addition to sports competitions, the facility is also used as a film set, as it has already appeared in three different films!
How all these great facilities are funded? You can read more about that in the paragraph below..!
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Athletics
UO’s sports teams compete in the NCAA Division I and are part of the Pac-12 conference. The student-athletes at UO are called the Oregon Ducks. Fun fact: for years the mascot was the world famous Donald Duck. That’s because the athletic director made a ‘handshake agreement’ with none other than Walt Disney years ago, which made the Disney figure associated with the university. However, after the death of Walt Disney, the company lawyers found that no contracts had been signed, so Donald slowly turned into the Fighting Duck. You can see both mascots in the photo below!
There are a total of 18 different varsity teams, of which 7 are men’s and 11 women’s teams. There are men’s teams in: baseball, basketball, cross country, american football, golf, tennis and track & field. And theres women’s teams in: acrobatics, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, volleyball and beach volleyball. You can take a look at this page if you want more information about the different sports and teams.
Relationship with Nike
UO has a special relationship with one of the biggest brands in the world, Nike. Nike co-owner Phil Knight studied at UO. This intensive collaboration brings many great benefits to the university and its students, such as: new Nike clothing for every game, trying out new color and model combinations and exclusive sports shoes for the basketball and American football team. Finally, five scholarships are awarded to UO athletes worth $2,000 each year! Finally, every year Nike promises a job to one of the UO graduates.
Curious about Knight’s donations to the university? Hold on tight, because these are bizarre amounts! He donated $35 million to the Autzen Stadium, $41.7 million to the John E. Jaqua Academic Center, $100 million to the Matthew Knight Arena and $68 million to the American Football team’s training facility. Whut!
Civil war
The fighting ducks’ biggest rival is the beavers of Oregon State University. The first game against each other was played in 1894 and the rivalry now ranks among the 5 most-played college football rivalries ever. The nickname for college matches is ‘Civil war’. Both universities will participate in the PAC-12 conference, making an annual meeting inevitable.
The most memorable moment between the two came in 1972, when UO beat the Beavers. An amazing victory since the beavers had already won eight times in a row. The fans of UO were so happy that they all stormed onto the field and even knocked down the goal posts. Below you can see a cool video on UO’s YouTube channel ‘Duckflix’ about the civil war. Thats cool right?
Academics
According to the US News College Rankings, UO is one of the top 5 public universities in the United States! In addition, according to the Princeton Review, UO is one of the most sustainable universities. Something to be proud of right?!
On average, the student-faculty ratio is 16:1 and almost 40% of all classes consist of fewer than 20 students. The 5 most popular studies at UO are:
- Business/Commerce
- Social sciences
- Economics
- Psychology
- Advertising
Curious whether your major is being offered? Check it out here!
Did you start thinking: “What Myah does, I want that too!”? Reach out and we will help you!
