EUGENE, Ore. -- (Dec. 16, 2010) - The University of Oregon's student newspaper is coffee table-bound, with its agreement to produce a commemorative book about the UO football team's 2010-11 march to the BCS National Championship Game.

The Oregon Daily Emerald will use stories and photos from its student staff in "Duck Season: Oregon's Improbable Flight to the National Title Game." The book, a game-by-game documentary of the Ducks' season, will include a foreword by UO President Richard Lariviere.

"Readers are going to be treated to the viewpoint of student journalists covering their contemporaries," said Emerald Publisher Mike Thoele, an author, longtime journalism instructor and former reporter and editor. "No other set of writers and photographers is so uniquely positioned to depict the campus impact of a historic season."

Lucas Clark, the student newspaper's sports editor, said he never imagined his work would be featured in a book about the Duck football team. "The things I've gotten to do and be a part of due to the success of the football program are simply incredible," Clark said.

The book will be published by Pediment Publishing, a Battle Ground, Wash., company that specializes in what its website describes as coffee table books. Pediment worked last year with the Montgomery Advertiser - the daily newspaper in Montgomery, Ala. - to produce "How the Tide Rolls," about the University of Alabama's national championship season.

"Duck Season," believed to be the first hardbound commemorative book produced by a student newspaper, will be released two weeks after the Jan. 10 National Championship Game.

Thoele said students' direct involvement in the book project is expanding their educational opportunities beyond the typical journalism experiences in print, online and multimedia.

"Through the serendipity of this magical football year, we have students dealing with a publishing firm of national stature, meeting pressure-cooker deadlines and putting a finished book on store shelves within days of the championship game," he said.

Many of the newspaper's sports reporters, photographers and editors are studying in the UO School of Journalism and Communication.

"We are all still growing as writers, and I believe that will be a unique aspect as readers work their way through this book," Clark said.

The Oregon Daily Emerald has been the UO's student newspaper since 1900, and has been independent since 1971. It publishes a print edition five days a week during the school year and an online edition at dailyemerald.com.

MEDIA CONTACT: Joe Mosley, UO media relations, 541-346-3606, jmosley@uoregon.edu

SOURCE: Mike Thoele, Oregon Daily Emerald publisher, 541-346-5511, publisher@dailyemerald.com

LINKS: for more about project and availability of the book, http://ducksbook.com