<I>Elane Dickenson/Chieftain</I><BR>Enterprise Elementary librarian Gail Hillock wears her colors to cheer her Ducks on Civil War day.

The Civil War that broke out all over Oregon last week, reached all the way to Wallowa County.

Battlelines were drawn throughout the county, even in school halls and lunchrooms where students spontaneously dressed up in green-and-yellow in support of the University of Oregon Ducks or orange-and-black for the Oregon State University Beavers to reflect their loyalties.

Thursday, Dec. 3, was the big game, the first one-ever where the state’s two biggest university knew ahead of time that the winner of its tradition rivalry in the annual Civil War game would compete in the Rose Bowl on New Years Day.

The Ducks hadn’t been to the Rose Bowl since 1995 and the Beavers, whose football team experienced a few bad decades, since 1965.

“It’s gotten everyone stirred up,” said Tim Kiesecker, maintenance/ transportation superintendent for the Joseph School District, dressed in orange-and-black with a Beaver hat. “I’ve got a daughter at OSU, so I have to root for the Beavers.”

“The Ducks are going to win, because they are awesome,” said Jo-Hi senior Anna Bird, decked out in U of O colors. “My mom went to Oregon, my brother is there and I’m probably going there.”

Sixth grader Natalie Williams was definitely rooting for Oregon State University. “My mom and dad went there,” she said. “The Beavers are going to win because they are really good.”

Duck and Beaver fever extended through Enterprise – where U of O fan Gail Hillock publicized her loyalty on the bulletin board in the elementary school library – down to Wallowa.

“Yes, everyone is talking about it,” said Wallowa High School secretary Linda Lewis. She said that some of the students were dressed in rival school colors in honor of the game, and that almost everyone took sides. “I have to go with the Beavers, even though I’m afraid Oregon will win. … My son went to Oregon State.”

In the end, of course, the Ducks beat the Beavers, 37 to 33, in a hard-fought, nationally-televised gridiron contest in which the fans of both universities could take pride.

So it is that University of Oregon will face another OSU – the Ohio State University Buckeyes – in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. Fans are rooting for the Oregon team to win for the first time since 1917, the year of its only Rose Bowl victory.

Beaver fans can take some consolation in the fact that there’s always next year – 2009 was only one battle in the continuing Civil War.