Ducks Digest

The Oregon Duck Mascot Is A College Football Treasure: Ranking Costumes, Pranks

A college mascot known worldwide for his antics, we dive into the most popular alternate costumes and pre-game pranks the Oregon Duck mascot has ever done. And believe us when we say, there was quite a lot to sift through.

Ally Osborne

Aug 31, 2024; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks mascot leads the team onto the field against Idaho Vandals at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images
Aug 31, 2024; Eugene, Oregon, USA; Oregon Ducks mascot leads the team onto the field against Idaho Vandals at Autzen Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images / Craig Strobeck-Imagn Images
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The Oregon Duck Mascot...

He’s one of the most iconic mascots in college football history. Turn on any NCAA game broadcast, and you’re likely to see a commercial featuring him. His head has graced the shoulders of College Gameday analyst Lee Corso many times. His recent stunt of traveling the nation to Big Ten Conference colleges has him placed on many football fandom watch lists. Heck, he even made it to the Pat McAfee show for his own segment.

The Duck has been an icon in college football since 1947, when Oregon’s first ever athletic director, Leo Harris, made a handshake agreement with Walt Disney to license Donald Duck to the university as their mascot. In fact, Donald Duck himself has an honorary degree from the University of Oregon. The current iteration of The Duck we know today was molded to look less like the Disney character in the early 2000’s to distinguish the two.

On top of his iconic history and unique ties to the Disney brand, The Duck is also known for playing dress-up. In the modern era of Oregon Football, it’s become common-place to see the fluffy white mascot don a unique, often handmade, outfit specific for each game.

Though it’s unclear when The Duck began to wear themed outfits, digging back into social media, the first instance of a costumed Duck appeared when he wore a “vigilante” or “Zoro” themed costume in 2009 when Oregon played USC at home. He also wore a costume for many years for University of Oregon’s Portland campus visit with “Santa Duck”. This meet and greet featured The Duck wearing a Santa costume, and freaking out young kids during photo opportunities. A calendar featuring The Duck was also released in 2014, where the mascot wore several different costumes. This is another touchpoint for when the webbed foot wonder was focused on fashion.

So, in honor of the fashion taste of this water fowl, we wanted to make a list of the top ten alternate costumes The Duck has worn in the past decade. Below are our suggestions:

10. The Grinch Duck

Unveiled during Oregon’s 2021 rivalry game against Oregon State, the Grinch costume The Duck wore includes a Santa hat, Santa coat with an Oregon “O” on the right chest, his signature bandana around his neck, and an entirely green painted body.

Though the green arms and legs look like they’re taken from a separate Grinch costume, The Duck face itself is fully dyed green, which we can only assume was a tricky task for The Duck and his handlers.

This ensemble looks like it took a lot of work to assemble, and the props of the presents and Santa sack make the costume all the more thought-out.

9. Blow-Up Duck

With a yellow blow-up tubed body, black hair and detailing, cartoon eyes, and a hole for his beak, The Duck truly emulated those balloons you’d see outside of car dealerships. The Duck also brought out an actual balloon and danced alongside it. 

This costume debuted at Oregon’s 2021 game against Arizona, where the Ducks won 41-19.

8. Bat Duck

Worn during Oregon’s 24-17 victory over Cal, Bat Duck arrived at Autzen in a custom cardboard BatMobile.

The costume itself has a black version of the Oregon Duck shirt with a yellow and black “O” logo made to emulate the caped crusaders’, a Batman mask to fit the Duck, and a cape.

7. Duck Vader

Worn in 2019, this Duck costume was truly custom made for the Mallard. This Darth Vader inspired ensemble includes a custom helmet, shoulder pads, cape, belt, chest piece, and a glowing light saber. However, we love that the Ducks’ ascot stayed with the costume.

6. Potato Head Duck

The most recent outfit to make its way to Rich Brooks’ Field is the Mr. Potato Head Duck! Prior to Oregon’s win against Boise State 37-34, The Duck raced Oregon cheerleaders out of the tunnel in a potato sack race. During the challenge, The Duck pushed over several cheerleaders in a hilarious display.

The costume includes a potato sack with painted details, a mustache and eyebrows, a set of comically large ears, and two large googly eyes placed above the hole for the beak.

Not only was the presentation of the costume funny, so is the potato joke for an Idaho team.

5. Lego Duck

Lego Duck debuted before Oregon’s 41-20 win against BYU. The Duck crashes through cardboard boxes made to resemble Legos while wearing a full cardboard suit also resembling the children’s toy.

What’s impressive about this costume is that The Duck is entirely wearing his original suit and outfit under the cardboard exterior. You can see in the video The Duck moving his arms under the Lego “shirt”. The Lego recreation of The Ducks’ signature outfit is very entertaining and looks like quite a lot of work went into the idea.

4. Deion Sanders Duck

This particular fit for The Duck was personal, and a great reference to an opponent.

Worn during Oregon’s 2023 game against Colorado, when Colorado head coach Deion Sanders made several jabs at the Ducks going into the contest, the iconic mascot decided to poke some fun at the football great.

Consisting of gold glasses, a white cowboy hat, black puffer vest, and gold chain necklace with a clock saying “times up,” The Duck was cosplaying as Sanders. The necklace in particular made light of the “our time” motto Sanders used in his debut year as Colorado’s coach.

The only reason this costume isn’t ranked higher is because during the mascot’s entrance, The Duck literally lost his head and had to exit the field to the locker room.

3. Toga Duck

First posted in 2015, The Duck has been seen wearing a toga multiple times due to the University of Oregon’s connection to the popular movie “National Lampoon’s: Animal House”, which was filmed on the Oregon campus back in the late 1970’s.

Animal House has a deep cultural impact on the college and it’s traditions, with the third quarter “Shout” sing along being a parody and recreation of the same scene from the film.

The Oregon Duck even wore this outfit on College Gameday in 2022 riffing on that same iconic scene as he strummed a guitar like a fraternity member in the movie does before actor John Belushi destroys the instrument.

Due to this costume being so relevant to Oregon’s history, it stands to reason this would have such a high ranking.

2. Bear Duck

In 2016, this adorable costumed Duck made his way onto the field and into the trending social media cycle of the day. During Oregon’s win against Arizona State 54-35, The Duck wore a teddy bear bodysuit with only his face sticking out of the brown fabric. His sailor hat was plopped on top of the fuzzy head.

What’s unique and cool about this outfit is the sheer size, craftsmanship, and creativity. The proportions of the “teddy bear” are able to emulate the toy without losing the mascot inside.

1. Forky Duck

Incredibly dumb, funny, and creative: that is the mark of the best alternate outfits The Duck has worn. The Forky costume is the emulation of these ideas.

Made of a huge amount of white-painted cardboard, The Duck was enveloped in a fork-shaped shell, with orange pool noodle arms that could be moved inside the cardboard shell, which made for several funny instances of The Duck waving with the pool noodle arms.

Huge googly eyes placed on The Ducks’ regular eyes added to the comedic effect, as the mascot bumbled around the field, looking limited in movement, but unrestricted in goofiness.

The Duck wore this costume in 2019, when Oregon took down Washington State 37-35.

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Ally Osborne

ALLY OSBORNE

A born and raised Oregonian, Ally was raised going up and down the steps of Autzen Stadium. Ally graduated from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communications in 2021. She currently works at KOIN 6 and Portland's CW in Portland, Oregon where she hosts the lifestyle program "Everyday Northwest" and reports for the KOIN Sports team. She's also a graphic designer in her free time, with several of her works created for Oregon athletes.

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