Bo-Dacious: A History of Duck Football Billboards

Nothing beats the staying power of a dope poster.

Here’s how Canzano would start this story:

Phil Knight never does anything small.

Just last month, it was Knight’s Swoosh-like forward-thinking that allegedly tipped the scales and convinced Oregon to join Washington and jump to the Big Ten.

The Nike co-founder donates large sums of money to his alma maters; to his choice in political candidates; and he donates even more to cancer research across the state.

That’s why I’m not the least bit surprised to see that he likely signed off on yet another building-sized billboard in Midtown Manhattan that features Oregon senior quarterback Bo Nix under the cheeky headline: “Bo-dacious.”

Oregon should buy Knight a billboard of his own. One that reads: “Audacious.”

*Chef’s kiss*

I’ve always wanted to do that.

But Canzano/me is spot on with his lack of shock at the appearance of a building-sized Bo Nix.

Bo being plastered all over NYC is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also really just another entry into the “Top Ten Oregon PR Stunts of All Time” and—more specifically—it can never be the most famous billboard in Oregon history.

The Ducks are no strangers to a Heisman campaign. Back in August of 2001, we bought another Big Apple billboard featuring Captain Comeback himself, Joey Harrington Heisman.

This larger-than-life depiction of the hometown hero was the brainchild of our friends at Nike, and was followed up with Joey’s likeness on the covers of ESPN The Magazine and the NCAA ‘03 video game.

But it was this billboard, that loudly (over-confidently?) declared our senior quarterback to be the bound for Heisman glory—in the city where they literally give out the award—that defined Oregon’s unabashed self-promotion.

And it worked.

Of course, Joey had a magical 2001 season, capped off by a conference title and a should-have-been berth in the BCS title game. And then, he landed right back in Times Square that same December as Oregon’s first ever Heisman finalist. I’m comfortable saying that the press from that billboard absolutely helped his case for attention from the east coast voters.

Our first foray into billboards may have been hardware-focused, but our next goal was something much more personal and future-forward: Los Angeles recruiting.

That following year, our athletic department planted their flag in Downtown LA with a giant poster of Samie Parker, Keenan Howry, and Jason Willis.

If we were going to dominate in the conference, we were going to need to spend our Nike money in the most talent-rich region we could touch. And USC was just going to have to deal with it.

That billboard worked too. It worked so well that the Trojans just tried to run away from having to recruit against us by leaving the Pac-12.

We saw how that worked out for them.

From 2002 to present day, there have been a few other iconic (mostly local) Duck billboards.

From Tim Day’s iconic “GameDay” poster—a warning of name puns to come—or the evergreen “Go Ducks Drink Pepsi” billboards featuring *insert current coach here*, it’s safe to say that Eugene knows how to utilize out-of-home advertising.

And that’s why this Bo-Dacious poster warms my heart.

It’s an homage to Joey Harrington, and to our modern, attention-demanding history. It’s also absolutely perfect that Oregon can somehow make even the most traditional form of advertisement still feel provocative and exciting.

And it’s worth noting that—along with this poster of Bo in NYC—there’s apparently one that’s about to pop up in the Dallas area, where the College Football Playoff committee meets.

Now, if history tells us anything, that must mean that our move next summer will be to buy up some ad space along the highway between Columbus and Ann Arbor.

Billboard. Trophies. Recruiting. Repeat. That’s the playbook and we’re sticking to it.

Stay bodacious, y’all.

Go Ducks.