This was a busy week for the Ednold family, and I had a different kind of road trip scheduled for the weekend, so I opted for a Thursday night game this week. Mrs. Ednold had work commitments that were keeping her busy, so it was just me and The Bucket making the trip, along with our good friend Jimmy Buffet. Jimmy and The Bucket go way back, so I thought I’d give them both a treat and let them hang out together for the evening. For our first game of October, I drove through the Eugene rush-hour traffic and eventually crawled onto the interstate, where I headed south. As with many other exits on that big road, I’d been by the one for Creswell hundreds of times without once turning off and seeing what was there, but that was about to change. Just about ten miles south of Eugene, I did take that exit, for once, and followed the off-ramp into the small town of Creswell.
Creswell was settled just south of the railroad line in 1872, and the post office was opened the following year. Apparently in a show of conspicuous brown-nosing, the guy from the Oregon-California Railroad Company requested the office be named for the U.S. Postmaster General, a Mr. John Creswell. That was one request that was not going to be turned down. Creswell began as an agricultural community and has remained so over the years. It was incorporated in 1909, and the railroad, and later Highway 99, which still runs through town, gave it the transportation capabilities to keep the town growing. When I-5 was routed just east of the town, Creswell’s function as a bedroom community for Eugene grew also. The town has grown out to meet the interstate, and now flows out to the east side of it as well. Creswell has tripled in size over the past 40 years and is now home to almost 6,000 people.
The exit took me right onto Oregon Avenue, the main east-west road through downtown. It’s looks to be a thriving downtown area with shops and businesses lining the street for several blocks. I thought I would be making a right turn on 5th Street, but that street between 4th and 6th is called Harvey Road because… I don’t know. I guess someone named Harvey deserved to have a road named for them and they figured nobody would notice if they just didn’t have a 5th Street. So, I took Harvey north to Niblock Lane, on the northern end of town, and made a left turn that took me outside the city limits, though by the time a reached the school a quarter-mile later I was back in the city. When the high school was built in 1967 it must have been by itself away from the downtown area, but the town has expanded and grown up around the school, though it still feels more rural than it really is.
Gonzaga University basketball coach Mark Few was a standout athlete in the Bulldogs’ class of ‘81, but his college athletic career didn’t go quite as well. He went to Linfield to play basketball and baseball, but some old injuries kept him sidelined during his time there. Then he transferred to the U of O to play baseball, and they responded by cutting their baseball program. He’s done okay as a coach though, winning 22 conference championships in 24 seasons and leading Gonzaga to the national championship game in 2017. Another basketball coach from Creswell is Luke Jackson. Jackson led the Bulldogs to a state championship as a player in 2000 and then, unlike Few, he did play for the U of O before a 4-year career in the NBA. He recently accepted the job as head coach at rival Pleasant Hill High School.
The parking lot in front of the school is huge, and I imagine it’s plenty big enough for the 350 or so students at the school. There is another smaller lot around back by the football field, and another small one in between the two. I found a place for The Bucket in that middle parking lot and gave the whole place a once-over. If you had to take a wild guess at the school’s age, you’d probably come pretty close. The architecture is modern enough that you know it’s not pre-60’s, but it’s old enough to require a little TLC, which it appears to be getting, judging from the work currently ongoing around the main entrance. There’s also some type of work being done in that back parking lot, and I wasn’t sure which route to take to get to the entrance to the football field.
Fortunately, Creswell had employed a greeter who apparently had no trouble identifying me as a confused out-of-towner, and she waved me over to the correct side of the construction site. When I reached the ticket booth this same lady, learning that I was, in fact, completely unfamiliar with the Creswell football facilities, proceeded to take me on a verbal tour of the whole place. Creswell’s nickname is “The Friendly City”, and judging by this one lady, I can see why. I was a little too overwhelmed to think of getting her picture and name to include in this story, but I wish I had. We’re into our sixth year of this, and this is the first school I’ve seen with an official greeter at the games. It’s not something I thought I was missing, but now I wonder why every school doesn’t have one.
I paid my $6 for a ticket and printed program, then chose a seat in the uncovered aluminum grandstand just west of the entrance. The field is to the south, but there is no visitors’ seating on the other side of the artificial turf field, so the visiting fans took their places on the far-right side, while us Creswell Bulldog fans occupied the rest of the grandstand. The pep band was positioned in the first couple of rows right in the middle, with the students on the far left. I found a good spot at the top behind the students and settled in for the action. The field was in front of me to the south, with a rubber running track around it, with a low fence between it and us to keep the riff-raff in their place. Strangely, the visiting cheerleaders were on the opposite side behind their football team, with nobody but their players to lead cheers for.
The Creswell Bulldogs and their opponents for this game, the Madras White Buffaloes, both compete in Special District 3 of the 3A classification. The league also includes five teams from the greater Eugene area but, along with Madras, also includes teams from La Pine and Sisters, so there is a lot of traveling going on for the teams from Special District 3. The Bulldogs came in at 1-3, but that win came last week against Elmira, so they were hoping to continue their winning ways. Madras had dropped their first two games but had rebounded and came in with a 2-2 record. Creswell has never won a state football championship, and even spent several years playing at the 2A level. In 2022 they made the move back up to 3A and had a 3-6 record last season.
It was a comfortable 65° at gametime and, though fire season is winding down, the sky was a little hazy as the sun began its decent behind the hills to the west. I judged this to be a good time to hit the snack bar before the crowd got any bigger. The service was good and quick and the cheeseburger right off the grill hit the spot. I ate while perusing the Bulldog gear on offer at the Booster Wear window next door. I didn’t get anything, but I did notice later that Creswell fans wear a lot of Bulldog t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats. I could even have gotten myself a Bulldog blanket. That ticket booth/snack bar/booster shop in one little building is a good idea, and something else that I hope other schools will copy. The grandstand continued to fill, but it was never crowded and there was enough room to get comfortable before the game started. As the game went on, many chose the spacious concrete area in front of the concession stand to stand and visit with friends, and never did need anywhere to sit.
The game began with the Buffaloes moving the ball easily against the home team, using quick pitches around both ends to pick up big yardage on almost every play. But when they fumbled near the goal line and the Bulldogs recovered, it was Creswell that marched down the field and got on the board first. Neither team had a throwing game to speak of, but both had strong running games that were hard to stop. The Bulldogs did a better job of avoiding turnovers and costly penalties, and that allowed them to take a 20-0 lead into halftime.
Having chosen a seat above the student section, I had the cheerleaders in front of me throughout the game, and they did what cheerleaders do. They also provided the halftime entertainment with a short routine out on the field. It was some kind of dance to some kind of song, but I can’t tell you much more than that, because I was actually focused on the Bulldog mascot. The Bulldog cheered and danced along with the cheerleaders all night, doing all the kicks and dance steps, and was just as good as anyone else so this isn’t a complaint about them on a personal level. But the person inside the suit didn’t come close to filling it out and the Bulldog appeared to have a bad case of canine anemia, or maybe it was just anorexic. Maybe a few pillows inside the suit would make him a little more imposing. I suppose I’m the only one to care or even notice this type of thing, but if I were the cheerleader coach… That’s not going to happen, so I’ll just stop right there.
We also got to hear a little more from the pep band before play resumed, and it was a unique sound. The Bulldog pep band consists of three trumpets, a trombone and a drummer, accompanied by the conductor playing the bass guitar part on a little electric organ. They didn’t blow anyone away, and from where I was, I could usually only make out the bass lines with drums, but they weren’t bad, and if I’d been a little closer my critique may have been more positive. When the second half began, though, they picked up their instruments and went home. I don’t know what that was about, but if I was hoping for some band music in the second half I was out of luck.
Even the victory bell, which was rung for each of the Bulldogs’ scores in the first half, didn’t see any action after halftime. The Buffaloes came out and scored in the third quarter, and Creswell’s offense began to sputter. The momentum had changed, and it looked like we might have a close game on our hands, after all. But the Bulldog defense toughened and was able to keep Madras out of the end zone after that one score, and they held on for the 20-6 win.
So, the Creswell Bulldogs are now 2-3 on the season, and 2-1 in league play. This puts them in third place in District 3, and in position for a possible playoff spot if they can keep winning. The Friendly City had lived up to its name, and I like to think I returned the favor by bringing them a win over a tough Madras team. That bit of business taken care of, I hopped back in The Bucket all by myself. But Jimmy was still there, and he had some words of wisdom for me as I headed home: “Be good and you will be lonesome.” (He had stolen those words from Mark Twain, so he has to get some credit, too.) What, exactly, was he trying to tell me? Would my car have more people in it if I weren’t so goll-darned good? That's hard to imagine, and what would that even look like? That kept me occupied all the way home.
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