All five home games were played on campus in Eugene at the new Autzen Stadium, opened this season with a natural grass field (and replaced with AstroTurf two years later).
Under first-year head coach Jerry Frei, the Ducks were 2–8 overall and 1–5 in the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU, later renamed Pacific-8), in a tie for seventh place, and were outscored 193 to 104.
The Ducks met USC for the first time since 1958, the final Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) season.
After opening with five losses, shutouts in the last three,[1] the 31–6 win over the Vandals on October 21 was the first for Frei and the first for Oregon in Autzen Stadium.
[4] In between, they lost 28–6 to top-ranked USC in Los Angeles,[5] but held junior running back O. J. Simpson to just 63 yards on 23 carries.