The Opening of Oregon's New Basketball Stadium!

Thursday night was pretty special.  Our family got to go to the opening of the Mathew Knight Arena here in Eugene.  It has been a lot of fun watching this building being built on campus for the last 2 years, so it was really exciting to finally get to go inside and see the finished product.

The kids and I with Mom and Dad outside the new arena. 

 Pancho go the "fun" job of finding a parking space.  It was a nice coincidence that the Ducks were playing USC that night too  (always an interesting rivalry game in our family).

...another brother rivalry!

Most of the family was decked out in our Oregon gear from head to toe.  Then there was Pancho who was wearing an Oregon shirt, and a USC hat. . . . and then there was SAM!  He was fully decked out in USC. 

The whole evening was set up like a big party.  They had people making balloon hats, face painters and we all had free t-shirts waiting for us on our chairs.

It really was a fun night for all of us!

Sam got USC painted on his face. 

The face painting lady said that Sam was her only USC customer all night, but she liked his "individuality".  Later, he asked me what that meant :).

. . .getting ready for the pre game show to start.

We got there early, so that we could check out the whole arena and the controversial new floor!

There was so much to see!

"On the Rocks"  Oregon's famous a capella singing group.  They were on the TV show "The Sing Off".  On the Rocks opened up this exciting night by singing the National Anthem.

Then Phil Knight, or as the students were calling him "Uncle Phil", came out and spoke.

He introduced his wife and his son, and then talked about his other son Mathew who died in a scuba diving accident 4 years ago.  The Mathew Knight Arena is a labor of love devoted to his son.  He explained the logo and the meaning behind it, and told about the new floor as well.  It was quite emotional. I can't imagine losing a child.

Next thing you know, the Duck was being lowered from the ceiling!

The cheerleaders, dance team and band put on some cool entertainment as well.

Then the fireworks started going off.  The sold out crowd was going nuts!

USC kid!

Notice that we were sitting right next to the student section.

Sam was so into the game.  He was jumping screaming and cheering every time USC scored.  I was trying to get him to quiet down, as I was worried about what all of these Oregon fans around us would think.  Then I noticed that the student section was loving him.  They were all cracking up every time Sam got mad, then got excited.  At the end of the game, he was a mini celebrity.  At least 20 students came up to shake his hand, or pat his back and tell him that even though he was rooting for the wrong team, he was the best fan they had ever seen.  We kept hearing people say, "there's that USC kid, on our way out".  The funniest part was that Sam wanted nothing to do with ANY of this attention.  He was just really mad that his team lost!

Here is a close up of the new floor.  At first I thought it was ugly and looked like a dirty floor.  Then, when I saw that it looks like you are laying on a forest floor and looking up through the trees, I kind of got it.  Seeing it for real and up close on Thursday night was very cool though.  It looks so amazing in person.  I am so proud of Oregon and all of its innovative and original ideas .  Between the National Championship on Monday and the opening of the Arena on Thursday, it was a great week to be a Duck!