It hangs in a busy corridor on the ground floor of the Erb Memorial Union, nearly six feet wide, hand drawn, meticulously painted and inked, capturing in cartoon fashion a colorful era and a smaller, simpler university. Football games were played at Hayward Field, the highlight of “Junior Weekend” was the Canoe Fete down the millrace, and a favorite escapade was a beer run to California to stock up on cases of Coors—the label preferred by Ducks but not then sold in Oregon.

It’s a mural of UO campus life circa 1960-64, created by Eugene artist and graphic designer James Cloutier, BS ’62 (art education), MFA ’69 (fine and applied art). Cloutier was commissioned by Andi (Berglund) Sandstrom, BS ’64 (elementary education), and Jim Sandstrom, BS ’64 (accounting), during their 50th reunion year, to raise funds for scholarships while reflecting upon gentler days. Prints are available for sale through the Duck Store.

Campus today is a far cry from the one in Cloutier’s world. Within steps of the mural, framed by wood salvaged from the recent renovation of the EMU, students connect their computers wirelessly to flat-screen TVs, spin out prototype creations on 3D printers in the Craft Center, or order a pint of craft beer from Falling Sky pizzeria—unimaginable back when campus was dry.

“The only beers available in town were Blitz Weinhard and Olympia—that’s what most of the students drank,” says Cloutier. “But Coors was the one that was really coveted.”

In the mural, a station wagon rolls down Franklin Boulevard, on a biweekly run to the California border and the town of Hilt to load up on cases.

One scene depicts two bare bottoms in full moon, peeking out from the windows of the Daily Emerald. “If I could drop my pants,” the Pioneer Father thinks to himself, observing the high jinks, “I’d moon you right back.”

While faculty, deans, administrators, and sports heroes such as Mel Renfro and Dyrol Burleson are captured in pen and ink, the painting is mostly populated with student Ducks. An errant javelin—a tribute to the 1962 team that won the UO’s first NCAA track-and-field championship—zings past scrimmaging football players. An errant baton, flung from the hands of a student conductor at the music school, barely bothers two tennis players, on courts where the College of Education now stands.

Seeking gender equality at a time when academia was dominated by men, Cloutier celebrates Lois Youngen, an assistant professor in physical education. Youngen, who later became director of physical activities and recreation services, was a professional baseball catcher and the model for the character played by Geena Davis in A League of Their Own.

Cloutier has had professional success. He sold 100,000 copies of his original “Orygone” comic books, and his cartoon maps of Eugene businesses have been perennial sellers. This project, though, was all about the cause—every copy sold benefits students through the Class of ’64 scholarship fund.

But it was also enormous fun. “I wanted to give people an opportunity to look back and laugh,” Cloutier says.

Visit the original in the EMU or survey all the puns, jokes, and history trivia with your own limited-edition, signed print, on sale for $269 each at the Duck Store and uoduckstore.com/alumniprint.

—George Evano, University Communications