At the women’s lacrosse game, the Daisy Ducks gathered at mid-field to be recognized. With smiles on their faces, the Daisy Ducks celebrate 50 years as an organization.
When Jim Mann walked into his first Daisy Ducks meeting several years ago, he remembers his exact feeling.
“Thankfully I had my wife there to hold my hand, since I was one of the only guys,” Mann says.
When the Daisy Ducks were formed 50 years ago in Eugene, having a man serve as a Daisy may have been a preposterous idea. Over the years, however, this historic organization has evolved with the ever-changing world.
“I didn’t view that as making me stand out or not fitting in,” says Mann. “It made me realize I was in a special position, and I got heavily involved within the group.”
The Daisies are a volunteer organization made up mostly of retired women in their 70s, 80s and 90s. They contribute to the University of Oregon Athletic Department in countless ways, through funding, mentoring and caring. Most Daisies share strong connections to the UO community in some way. The group is made up of 190 people with 90 volunteer positions including Board Members, Bingo Cards and Team Chairs for each of the 16 athletic teams on campus.
As a division of the Oregon Booster Association, a nonprofit group that raises money and provides support for extracurricular activities, the Daisies meet weekly to talk about the latest in Oregon sports and how they can help. Some of their efforts include providing snacks for all athletes, cheerleaders and band members during games, selling bingo tickets at men's basketball games to raise funds for athletic scholarships and small yet thoughtful tasks like sending personalized birthday cards to athletes or providing extra volunteer hands during game days.
Founded in 1972, the Daisy Ducks started as a luncheon meeting at the Eugene Hotel, where Oregon head football coach, Dick Enright, said he’d be in attendance to explain the game of football to women who were interested. Sure enough, 350 people showed up. From there, the Daisy Ducks were born.
What bonded these hundreds of women together back then was their love for the Ducks community and its athletes, a love that continues on today. That, and the need in their heart to support these athletes and make their transition and lives away from home much easier. Later in 1972, the Daisy Ducks' weekly meetings became a consistent Tuesday affair. Each meeting consisted of a different coach, athlete or administrator serving as a public speaker to inform the women about their sport and what they do.
“Every meeting is so stimulating,” says Sandy Karsten, the current president of the Daisies. “It’s remarkable how rich the history is.”
Soon after, as a way to show support, the Daisy Ducks began baking for Oregon athletes. Starting in 1983, a yearly potluck open to athletes of each and every sport was hosted by the Daisies.
The Daisy Ducks are known among athletes for their baked goods, including chocolate chip cookies.
Then came the cookies.
What first started as a casual treat laid across the training table quickly became a goodie bag for each and every one of the hundreds of athletes during or before a game. White treat bags wrap around four cookies, stickers and, on occasion, an encouraging note.
Each year, the Daisy Ducks baked and delivered over 25,000 cookies, and, starting in 2007, the Daisies added homemade Rice Krispies Treats to the dessert roster. They made about 5,000 each football season for the players.
“Their baking is amazing,” says Gabby Cleveland, a junior on the women's lacrosse team. “It just reminds me of home.”
Baking has been and remains one of the Daisies' most iconic traditions. The football team still receives Rice Krispies Treats, the track and field teams get banana muffins and volleyball players are gifted chocolate chip cookies.
“Don’t mess with their chocolate chip cookies,” jokes Barb Morgan, a two-time past president of the Daisies in 2015 and 2021.
Like so many members of the group, Morgan shares a rich history with the UO community. Her son attended and graduated from Oregon and was part of the marching band. Ever since he started in 2010, Morgan has been the chair of the marching band through the Daisies as a way to show her support.
13 years later, Morgan is one of the the only Daisies to ever serve twice as president. The president facilitates weekly meetings, maintains organization across all sports the Daisies help with and represents the Daisies during booster meetings. With the start of the university’s fiscal year on July 1, a Daisy begins their year-long term of presidency after serving a mandatory year of vice presidency.
Daisies, Terry Spencer, Karen Donner, and Anne Smith, connect and watch the lacrosse game as it heats up. These members may not know about the world of lacrosse, but their love for sports and the University of Oregon have brought them together.
Morgan took over the presidential reins in 2021, during a time of pandemic-related uncertainty, after no Daisy wanted to step up to fill the shoes of Kay Thompson, the president in 2020. Thompson herself was grateful.
“I didn’t want to be the last president of Daisy Ducks. We’d just been through too much as a group,” says Thompson. “Someone had to come forward. Thankfully, Barb came through.”
A member since 2000, when she’d attend the weekly meetings during her lunch breaks, no one has seen the Daisies change first-hand like Morgan.
“Through the years, the NCAA rules and regulations have really changed,” Morgan says. “When we started, we were able to do more things, but now we don’t want to step on any toes or get the university in trouble. Plus, the athletic department has gotten so good that they don’t need our help like that.”
Then, of course, several other men, like Mann, have joined the group.
“The organization has evolved with the rest of the world,” says Karsten. “We include all genders. Some of us are also more aware of the buzzwords that people use now that help understand what we’ve been doing all along, which is tending to the mental health of the athlete. We’ve never used those words in the old days. We were just very open-hearted.”
Karsten graduated from the UO with her graduate’s degree in 1973 and her master’s in 1991. She’d managed Meals on Wheels in Lane County for Senior & Disability Services before, which required hundreds of volunteers.
Upon Karsten’s retirement in 2019, she was searching for meaningful things to do with her free time. That fall, at a UO football game, she overheard a woman a few rows in front of her talking about the Daisies. That woman was Lynda Hadeen, the president at the time, and a current member. Hadeen has been a mentor and great friend of Karsten ever since.
“In order for the Daisies to live on, it needs to perpetuate amongst new people,” says Hadeen.
Much like Hadeen ignited the spark for Karsten to join, Morgan was a big reason Hadeen joined. Morgan’s husband had served as her accountant, and she heard about the Daisies through him. When it was time to end her 30-year career working at the campus Duck Store, Hadeen decided to join the Daisies, too.
There’s a classic story that floats around the Daisies about a past member who taught a student athlete how to use a washing machine and dryer by taking them back to their home and demonstrating many years ago. The story is seen as a humorous legend within the Daisies now, but it doesn’t stop them from reflecting on its meaning.
“When we first started, we saw ourselves as moms and grandmas to the athletes,” says Karsten. “We try to see them more as whole people and less as a product. I sometimes think in college sports that it’s a product now. This product is made up of real people who are at a vulnerable stage in their lives.”
Much like the Daisies were forced to adapt to current times, they were also forced to adapt to COVID-19.
When the pandemic hit the United States in March 2020, the Daisies didn’t meet until two school years later, in September 2021. Members had to wear a mask and be up to date with all their shots in order to attend meetings. Goodie bags weren’t brought back until October 2022. The yearly potluck for student athletes has yet to return.
But all is far from lost. The Daisies still bake for the student athletes at a plentiful rate. Volunteers are back at Matthew Knight Arena during every men's basketball game, hoping to sell bingo cards that’ll raise money for athletic scholarships. They currently have one scholarship endowment for $150,000, and are hoping to add a second in the future. The group still leads each meeting with the fight song and invites new guest speakers to their weekly Tuesday affair at Roaring Rapid Pizza Company in Eugene.
“What a fun, caring, connected, spirited, resourceful group of Duck fan doers they are,” says Garry Weber, an operating partner of Roaring Rapids Pizza Company.
As the Daisies have helped UO athletics for decades, the appreciation has gone both ways.
As president of the Daisies, one may attend an away Oregon game with the trip fully funded. Hadeen and her husband went to Las Vegas in 2020 for the Women’s Pac-12 Championship, where she saw the No. 1 ranked team with Sabrina Ioenescu, Ruthy Hebard and more. Morgan went to Tucson, Arizona, in 2016 to see Oregon snap Arizona’s 49-game home winning streak in men’s basketball. Thompson once got to see Oregon play at the Seattle Seahawks field in Seattle, Washington, when the University of Washington’s football field wasn’t playable.
“We’re the only organization of its type in the United States and the NCAA,” says Hadeen. “There’s no organization like it. It’s a heartfelt organization that loves the student athletes and loves Oregon.”
Currently, Karsten, Thompson and other Daisies are facilitating the Daisies 50th year anniversary celebration. The festivities have already begun with tailgate parties, and this May, a banquet at Shadow Hills Country Club marks the final celebration. The Daisies are also working to get recognized at each sporting event, too.
Looking to the future, the Daisies hope to continue emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community for another 50-plus years.
“I do think the world needs more people actively helping people with similar interests, for their own good and the good of the community,” says Karsten. “It’s very challenging for people to realize that human-to-human contact is really important, and giving back is really important.”
