The energy was electric when Autzen Stadium hosted its first College Football Playoff game against James Madison University in December 2025. While Ducks in Eugene were packing the stadium, the Central Oregon-based Crawford family was 8,178 miles away in Singapore, where they discovered a football watch party.
John Crawford, JD ’73, a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan, had always wanted to return to Asia. This trip provided the chance to share the experience with his wife, son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and niece. Traveling as avid Ducks fans, however, created a unique challenge: finding somewhere they could watch the game with a community of fellow Ducks.
Susan Crawford, BS ’01 (accounting), John’s daughter-in-law, is no stranger to finding Duck community when she travels.
“My family is in Colorado, so whenever we go back to Colorado, if there's a Ducks game we've done stuff with [the Denver Ducks]. We've been in New York City during certain bowl games, so we've joined the New York Ducks chapter and watched the games . . . so I just knew that the UO Alumni Association was already very established,” she said.
These experiences led her to look for a Singapore-based group of Ducks on the UOAA’s website. She reached out to Dennis Tan, BBA ’85 (finance and marketing), who organizes watch parties in Singapore. He was eager to welcome the Crawford family to Singapore and even offered to pick them up at their hotel.
From there, the Crawfords joined the Singapore watch party group, which affectionately refer to themselves as ‘Quack Attack.’
“We really enjoyed it. They were all wonderful people,” John said.
The Singapore watch party group has collaborated with other alumni groups from Penn State, Indiana, and more when their teams faced off. Photo courtesy of Dennis Tan.
That level of hospitality, Tan shared, is something he’s proud to offer to the many alumni who pass through Singapore, a city-state known as one of the world’s leading trade and business hubs.
“Any UO expatriates in Singapore know that there's a place where they can watch football. Most of the time when they come to Singapore, they don't have any connections at all, so at least they know they can find a place where they know there are Ducks fans and they can relate and talk to them,” he said.
Tan and the watch party group know firsthand how difficult it used to be to keep up with American sports across time zones and oceans, and it is thanks to founders Lynn Tuan Ming and Prakash Mulani that Singapore-based alumni can come together to connect Ducks across the Pacific to the energy of Autzen Stadium and Matthew Knight Arena.
While visiting with Singapore-based Ducks, Susan connected with several fellow alumni who graduated in the 1980s. She said it was meaningful to meet fellow Ducks from different eras of the UO’s history.
“It was neat to hear how Eugene was when they were in school and hear differences or similarities, like ‘I stayed in Bean East’ or, ‘I ate at Hamilton,’ and some of those places aren't even there anymore,” Susan said.
The Crawford family’s connection to the UO spans three generations (so far). John Crawford’s mother attended the UO, and he followed in her footsteps, attending the law school alongside his wife, Jody Stahancyk, JD ’73. Their son Seth Crawford, BS ’04 (political science) met Susan, and their cousin Weronika Budak, BA ’11 (journalism), who went to Singapore with them, also attended.
Three generations of Ducks—Susan, Seth, Chloe, and John Crawford—try to catch every Ducks game they can, even when across the world. Photo courtesy of Susan Crawford.
Now, John says he’s hoping his Duck family will extend across four generations of UO alumni. Susan and Seth’s daughter, Chloe, is a high school sophomore with quite a connection to the Ducks already.
“She went to the Rose Bowl when she was nine days old,” Susan shared. “We kind of have a history of picking up and going and seeing [the Ducks]. That's where her Duck journey started.”
As her daughter prepares for her own journey to college and beyond, Susan is grateful to share the experience of connecting with a global community. Across and miles and cultures, she appreciates the opportunity to share a love for the Ducks with fellow UO alumni.
“It's nice to know that almost wherever you go, you have friends somewhere, or at least a starting point to get to know people,” she said.
—By Sarah Bathke, BA ’25 (journalism) UO Alumni Association communications generalist