Acts of Oregon Faith Finally Have Been Rewarded : Freedom Bowl: After spending 14 seasons cultivating a winning attitude, Brooks has mellowed.

On a recent afternoon, Rich Brooks autographed special-edition Freedom Bowl footballs. Another day, he rode Montezuma’s Revenge at Knott’s Berry Farm.

A rainy, wind-swept morning found him surveying his team--115 Oregon football players--as it prepared for Saturday night’s game against Colorado State at Anaheim Stadium.

There are finally moments to be savored at Oregon. There have been so many to forget.

The battle to reach this point has been brutal enough. Who knows when Brooks will pass this way again? It might be next season. It might be never.

After 14 seasons at Oregon, Brooks’ record is 68-84-4. Of the nine NCAA Division I-A coaches who have been at the same school 14 seasons or more, Brooks is the only one with a losing record.

Times have been tough, but Brooks has never run.

He has lasted because Oregon had faith in him, and because Brooks had faith in Oregon. The school was patient--maybe not always understanding, but certainly patient.

Even through a miserable stretch in 1981-83, when the Ducks were 8-26-2, when many others would have fired their coach, Oregon let Brooks make the call.

“I felt I could bring in Knute Rockne, and he wouldn’t have won much more at Oregon then,” Rick Bay, the former athletic director, said in a Tacoma, Wash., newspaper earlier this season.

Brooks had opportunities to leave, kind offers to escape Eugene. Others knew a good coach, and a good man, when they saw one.

He chose to stay.

He liked Eugene. When he found time, he fished for steelhead in the McKenzie River and skied on Mt. Bachelor. But solitude in the Oregon backcountry soothed the wounds caused by losing only for so long.

Brooks needed to win.

“I was dumb enough to think I could go up there and turn the program around in one or two years,” Brooks said.

Instead, the Ducks took halting steps. There have been winning seasons, and players with NFL potential, but it took Brooks 13 seasons to reach a bowl game.

And then it wasn’t Pasadena and the Rose Bowl against Michigan or Ohio State. It was Shreveport, La., and the 1989 Independence Bowl against Tulsa.

Oregon won, 27-24, and improved to 8-4. It hadn’t won eight games in a season since 1963.

The Ducks are playing in another bowl game. Again, it’s not the Rose, but winning would mean the first nine-victory season for Oregon (8-3) since 1948.

“I guess I’m pleased,” Brooks said. “I don’t know what the right adjective is--pleased, content. I’m still not satisfied.”

LEARNING TO WIN

When Brooks went to Oregon in 1977, he discovered an appalling lack of expectation in Eugene.

As long as the Ducks were competitive, didn’t get blown out by USC or UCLA, won five or six games and managed to beat Oregon State, it was a good year.

You could get by with a 6-5 record at Oregon.

“Instead of becoming irate, people in Eugene tend to become indifferent,” said John Conrad, sports editor of the Register-Guard. “Losing was expected.”

Right from the start, winning was a tough sell for Brooks. When he couldn’t turn the program around in two seasons, as he thought he could, expectations and interest waned even more.

He could teach the Ducks to block and tackle--that part was easy. Brooks had a successful career as a defensive back and backup quarterback to Heisman Trophy winner Terry Baker at Oregon State in the early 1960s. He served as an assistant coach to Dee Andros at Oregon State, Tommy Prothro with the Rams, Dick Nolan with the San Francisco 49ers and Terry Donahue at UCLA.

But Brooks couldn’t accept losing, even as others put up their arms in helpless resignation, dismissing it as routine.

“I take losing personally,” Brooks said. “I look first at what I did wrong, what I could have done differently.”

Was all that second-guessing healthy?

“I prefer to call it self-evaluation,” he said. “I believe when something doesn’t go right, you’re a lot better off questioning yourself rather than pointing fingers.”

Through the lean years, folks could point out Oregon’s problems.

For one thing, the Ducks had a difficult time recruiting top players.

With the exception of 45,000-seat Autzen Stadium, the Ducks were operating in the dark ages. Assistant coaches were jammed four to an office, and weight facilities were outdated.

All played a part in Oregon’s losing record, but Brooks soon recognized the heart of the problem:

Oregon didn’t know how to win.

“The struggle was mental as much as physical at Oregon,” Brooks said. “The feeling always was, ‘Oh, we’re going to play well and be competitive, but we’re not going to win.’ It’s the hardest lesson to learn. When you lose so often, it’s easy to say, ‘Uh-oh, here we go again.’ ”

And so Brooks plunged headlong into the fight against losing.

“He’s a battler,” said Bill Musgrave, in his fourth season as the Ducks’ starting quarterback. “When he’s been backed into a corner, he’s always fought his way out.”

Brooks ranted at his players. He got into spats with reporters. He suffered. And he lost.

After seven seasons, Brooks was 24-49-4. With only two winning seasons, his future looked grim after Oregon was 4-6-1 in 1983.

But Conrad said Oregon’s athletic administration was convinced it couldn’t find a better coach, and stood by Brooks. And Brooks stayed because he hadn’t yet turned the program around.

“If I had left, I would have felt like I didn’t accomplish what I wanted,” he said.

WINNING TIME

In Chris Miller and then Musgrave, Oregon has had two superb quarterbacks for the past eight seasons.

Miller plays for the Atlanta Falcons. Musgrave, whose 57 career touchdown passes are second only to John Elway’s record 77 in the Pacific 10, probably will be an early selection in the next NFL draft.

Of Brooks’ nine assistants, only two have been with him for fewer than five years.

Stability, as much as anything, seems to have helped Brooks lead Oregon out of its doldrums. The Ducks are 44-35 in the past seven seasons, more pleasing numbers to Brooks.

Hurdles seem easier to clear these days.

When Oregon beat UCLA this season, it was the first time since 1933-34 that the Ducks had scored consecutive victories over the Bruins.

And Oregon’s successive bowl appearances are a first in the school’s 95 years of football.

“Postseason play is usually a measure of success of most football programs,” Brooks said. “I’d like to think we’re at a level where our team expects to be in postseason play.”

Indeed, the losing cycle has been broken, and a winning one has emerged.

Oregon is winning, and recruiting is easier. And because recruiting is easier, the Ducks are winning more.

“Hopefully, back-to-back bowl appearances will enhance our chances of staying at this level,” Brooks said. “It gives our program extra credibility. And we have a lot more credibility when we’re on the recruiting trail.”

And as Oregon has won more, Brooks has mellowed.

“You don’t see him going nuts at practice as much as he used to, and you don’t see him getting into it with the media like he used to,” said Conrad, a reporter at the Register-Guard for 20 years. “He feels people aren’t going to pull the plug on him any more. The only pressure he feels is self-imposed. He proved he can coach and build a program. The program is pretty solid now.”

As one who helped put Oregon on solid ground, Musgrave is happy to have played a part in it all.

“He’s coached here a long time,” Musgrave said. “To finally reach the end of the rainbow, I’m sure that’s real satisfying for him. It’s real satisfying for us to be his first team to reach bowl games.”

So where does the road lead from here? To the Rose Bowl? To the top of the national rankings?

Brooks wants to continue hammering on Oregon’s mental approach.

“We have been a team that others chalked up as a win,” he said. “I think our mental attitude now is we can beat anybody, not just the team that finished last in the Pac-10, but the first-place team, too.”

HANGING IN THERE Records of Division I-A football coaches who have stayed at same school 14 years or more:

Coach School Years Won Loss Tie Pct. Joe Paterno Penn State 25 229 59 3 .792 Grant Teaff Baylor 19 113 86 6 .566 LaVell Edwards Brigham Young 19 175 58 1 .750 Tom Osborne Nebraska 18 177 40 2 .812 Don James Washington 16 131 54 2 .706 Bobby Bowden Florida State 15 131 42 3 .751 Terry Donahue UCLA 15 116 51 8 .686 Johnny Majors Tennessee 14 101 56 8 .636 Rich Brooks Oregon 14 68 84 4 .449