The University of Oregon cheer squad celebrates a Ducks touchdown on November 24, 2023. The Ducks were ranked No. 1 in the college football rankings this season but were bested by the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2025.
Joni Land / OPB
Valerie Jacques Lehman loves the Oregon Ducks. No matter their crushing defeat in the Rose Bowl. She says like many fans, she was devastated by that loss but says a real fan is loyal, win or lose. We talk with her about the big game and how she keeps on the sunny side even after the worst outcome.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: We end today with Oregon Ducks football. After a thrilling undefeated regular season and a conference title in their inaugural Big Ten year, the Ducks were then crushed last week in the Rose Bowl. Valerie Jacques Lehman is a lifelong U of O fan, who has stuck with a team through thin and thick. She joins us now to talk to us as a superfan. Valerie Jacques Lehman, welcome to the show.
Valerie Jacques Lehman: Thanks, Dave. Happy to be here.
Miller: How are you feeling now, almost a week after that really rough season-ending loss?
Lehman: Well, it was a rough week, especially the first couple of days. But it’s a sunny day today and our future is definitely bright. The Ducks have one of the best recruiting classes in the country and who wouldn’t want to play for Dan Lanning?
Miller: Did you think about going to the Rose Bowl last week?
Lehman: I did indeed, and I’ve gone several times. We usually go to all the big bowl games. But we were hoping and praying that we would go on past that game to the Cotton Bowl, which we had tickets for, and we also have tickets for the national championship game – both of which we won’t be needing now.
Miller: Oh, wow. That does remind me, just as a superfan, do you have superstitions – things you do, things you wear – that, even though you know better perhaps, that you think have an impact on the game?
Lehman: I don’t know better at all. In fact, I have made my husband turn the car around if I didn’t have the right jewelry.
Miller: OK. What do you need to wear?
Lehman: No, you would laugh if you saw. I look like Mr. T – and I wear it all. I have big, huge “O” earrings, and I just don’t waver … they have to be there.
Miller: What kind of necklaces do you have? I mean, I really think about Mr. T with chains.
Lehman: Well, I have the chain one with the big huge “O” now. That was a recent gift to me. I have a choker that’s silver, that just says “I Heart Ducks” on it. People try to buy it off me every game. But I have probably 20 necklaces and I wear them regularly, all of them.
Miller: Do you cycle anything out after a terrible loss, like you had last week?
Lehman: Well, I will say that I don’t wear pink to any games, because whenever the ducks wore pink for breast cancer awareness, we always lost those games. In fact, where I was watching the Rose Bowl the other day, I very politely asked a woman to leave because she was wearing pink. I told her, “Now, you realize, whenever we wear pink, we lose the game. So could you maybe change or depart?”
Miller: What did she say?
Lehman: I think she thought I was kidding. And I was clearly not. Anyone who knows me would know I wasn’t kidding.
Miller: I barely know you, but I know you weren’t. But I’m guessing she didn’t leave and that’s why they lost.
Lehman: I’m pretty sure, yeah. OK, don’t laugh, but when she left – and most people leave before the game is over, I never have, never will, ever – as soon as she left, we scored. So I do believe that, firmly, had we had a couple more quarters, we would have come back and won that thing cause she was gone.
Miller: Man, I hope she’s listening to recognize the error in her ways. You’ve provided almost scientific proof of your theory. [Laughter]
How would you rank this season among the decades that you have followed?
Lehman: That’s a lot of decades. My parents took me to my first Ducks game when I was 5. Anyway, that was many moons ago. In fact, that game was in the early ‘60s and it was at Hayward Field before they even built Autzen [Stadium], so I’ve been going … I told my parents it was better than Disneyland. I still feel like that when I go to the games to this day. It’s my favorite thing I look forward to all year.
But I would say as a lifelong fan. My first year at the U of O, we went 2-9 that year. That’s what it used to be. We rarely were 500 and to go 13-0 in the regular season, it’s something I could never have dreamed of. Never could have ever dreamed of, and that’s where we are now. It’s pretty miraculous. I’m getting choked up.
Miller: I want to go back to something you said earlier. First of all, that woman in the pink, she left when the Ducks were losing really badly and you said you never leave. So ...
Lehman: I have never left!
Miller: Never. How many games do you think you’ve been to?
Lehman: I have to say, I just thought of – once I left when my husband threatened to leave me because I was really, really sick. It was pouring and freezing. He said, “I’m outta here. Good luck getting home.” We live in Portland and the game is in Eugene. I’m heading back to my seat after halftime and he was heading out the door the other direction, for my health. And that’s the only game I’ve ever left. And it doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve seen us come around. Joey Harrington years, he would drive within 60 seconds to win the game – more than once.
Miller: What do you think of fans who grouse about the loss last week, or who leave early?
Lehman: You know, I don’t think they’re real fans or true fans. My thing is “win, lose or tie, I’m a Duck till I die.” And that’s how I feel. That’s how I live my life. And I don’t leave, number one, because I don’t think it’s fair to them …
Miller: The players.
Lehman: They’re working hard, they’re playing, yes! The team, they’re playing hard. And all the people that are complaining – I can’t even imagine how they feel. The players and the coaches who work so hard, they are probably more disappointed than we are by it. So I don’t talk smack about them. There’s no point in that. You just look forward to a better day, and it’s coming.
Miller: Is there one image that you think you’ll most remember from this season?
Lehman: That’s a hard one. I know our first couple of games, we didn’t look very impressive. And the longer the season went, we found a way to win. Then we started to dominate. I think maybe the fans on the field after the Ohio State win at Autzen – the joy and just to see how far our program has come from back in the day when we were 2-9. For the real fans and those of us that have been around forever, this is a gift that I will never forget.
Miller: Valerie Jacques Lehman, it was a pleasure talking with you. Thanks so much for giving us some of your time.
Lehman: My pleasure. Go Ducks!
Miller: That’s Valerie Jacques Lehman, a Ducks superfan.
Contact “Think Out Loud®”
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.
