page_title: Oregon Ducks football
section_title: Bezdek era (1913–1917)
hierarchical_section_title: Oregon Ducks football / History / Bezdek era (1913–1917)
caption_attribution_description: English: University of Oregon football team, with head coach Hugo Bezdek on the right. This team was the Pacific Coast Conference champions and defeated the University of Pennsylvania in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1917.
context_page_description: The Oregon Ducks football program is a college football team for the University of Oregon, located in the U.S. state of Oregon. The team competes at the NCAA Division I level in the FBS and is a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Although now known as the Ducks, the team was commonly called the Webfoots until the mid-1960s. The program first fielded a football team in 1894. Oregon plays its home games at the 54,000 seat Autzen Stadium in Eugene. Its main rivals are the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington Huskies. The Ducks and Beavers historically end each regular season with the Civil War rivalry game in late November.
context_section_description: Oregon changed coaches frequently during this era, going through sixteen different head coaches in nineteen seasons, until Hugo Bezdek, who had coached the Webfoots to a 5–0–1 record in 1906, returned to Oregon from the University of Arkansas in 1913. Bezdek, Oregon's first truly professional coach, led the team from 1913 through 1917. A versatile motivator of athletes, during his tenure Bezdek was also the West Coast scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
  In the 1916 season, Oregon went undefeated with seven wins and one tie under Bezdek, shutting out all but two opponents. They opened the season against Willamette University, defeating them 97–0. The game against Washington ended in a scoreless tie. Oregon used ineligible players in two games and the Pacific Coast Conference title went to Washington, but Oregon was given the invitation to the 1917 Rose Bowl, then known as the Tournament East-West Football Game at Tournament Park due to the cost of a train ticket to Los Angeles being significantly less from Eugene than from Seattle. The Oregon football team defeated the heavily favored University of Pennsylvania Quakers 14–0, securing their first Rose Bowl victory.
  In 1918 Bezdek quit Oregon to become general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was succeeded by Shy Huntington, one of the heroes of the 1917 Rose Bowl.
caption: The 1916 football team
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