Free Republic

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox ripped rowdy irreverent fans who chanted “-—- the Mormons” during a football match between Oregon and BYU Saturday. “Religious bigotry alive and celebrated in Oregon,” the Republican governor tweeted in response to a video of the hateful chant at the University of Oregon home game. Oregon Ducks fans can be heard repeating the line at least twice before the ugly chant trails off in one video. The school and its student section both apologized Sunday for the “offensive and disgraceful” chant in a series of tweets.

hile money is not the root of all evil, it is undeniably responsible for the transformation of the University of Oregon (UO). It changed from a typical state flagship where athletics were a nice diversion for some students and alums into a sports powerhouse where the quest for glory in football and basketball dominates the school. The person directly responsible for that is Phil Knight, the founder of the athletic shoe and apparel giant Nike. At a time when the university’s president was desperately looking for outside funding for the school, Knight, an Oregon alum and huge athletics booster, was...

Earl Averill Jr., a Snohomish High School graduate and a seven-year major league veteran, died Wednesday in Tacoma. He was 83. The Mariners scheduled a moment of silence in Averill’s honor just before the start of Thursday’s game against the Red Sox. Averill is the son of Baseball Hall of Famer Earl Averill.

Florida State Seminoles players returned from the Rose Bowl to find their cars keyed and their tires slashed. The Florida State Seminoles carried a 29-game win streak into the Rose Bowl match up against the No. 2 Oregon Ducks on Thursday. The game serving as a semi-final match up for the first ever College Football Playoff. The defending national champion Seminoles felt disprespected to be seeded despite and undefeated 2014 regular season. That ranking looked fair after Oregon handily defeated the Seminoles in the Rose Bowl, 59-20. It was an embarrassing loss for the Seminoles, but an impressive victory for...

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Spurned by the BCS, the Oregon Ducks had to settle for the next-best thing — a late-December trip to San Diego. The No. 6 Ducks (10-1), whose only loss was to top-ranked USC, accepted an invitation to play Oklahoma in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 29 after they were passed over for an at-large BCS berth. "I think 'disappointed' is more the word than 'surprised,' " Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said on a conference call on Sunday. "I didn't quite understand the Notre Dame deal. But obviously I have not been a student of the BCS,"...