Tale of Two Pac-12 Cities: Eugene vs. Seattle
Saturday’s football game between the University of Washington and University of Oregon will settle some bragging rights for the coming year, but let’s not limit the rivalry to just the teams. Here at Estately we’ve compiled a comparison of the schools, alumni, cities, and even their housing markets to help people decide which one’s supreme.
FAMOUS ALUMNI
Both schools have their share of famous alumni, but U.W. has nearly double the Rhodes Scholars (37-19) and ten astronauts to Oregon’s zero. However, it also counts one of America’s vilest serial killers to its alumni list.
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
Phil Knight: One of the largest job creators for young children in all of Asia.
Ty Burrell: He didn’t graduate, but now he’s Phil Dunphy on Modern Family.
Chris Bliss: Pro juggler. He didn’t graduate either.
Ken Kesey: Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Chuck Palahniuk: Author of Fight Club
Ann Curry: Co-host of the Today show before that mean Matt Lauer pushed her out.
Charles Royer: Former mayor of Seattle—the irony would be rich if the meaning of irony were different.
Ahmad Rashad: NFL wide receiver, sportscaster, and married to Mrs. Huxtable (Phylicia Rashad)
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Rainn Wilson: Dwight Schrute from The Office
Chris DeWolfe: CEO and co-founder of MySpace (making a comeback)
Ivar Haglund: Revolutionized the fried clam industry (founder of Ivar’s restaurant)
Irv Robbins: Co-founder of Baskin-Robbins
Victor Mills: Inventor of disposable diapers
Ted Bundy: Serial killer that no longer receives emails from UW Alumni organization requesting donations because he was executed.
Hope Solo: Goalkeeper for U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team
Kenny G: Smoothest jazz saxophonist in all the land
Ryan Lewis: Makes music with Macklemore
Bruce Lee: The one with Fists of Fury
BEST CITY LISTS
There may be no more accurate way to judge a city than by its rankings on various arbitrary “Best City” lists. We should know because we create them. Here’s how Eugene and Seattle shake out…
EUGENE: #1 Best U.S. City for Hippies, 9th Most Bike Friendly City, and 10th Best Drivers in America.
SEATTLE: 5th Best U.S. Cities for Good Jobs, #1 U.S. City for Locavores, 3rd Smartest City in North America, #2 U.S. City for Childfree Living, and #2 Most Miserable Sports City.
UNIFORMS
When Oregon first cashed in all that Phil Knight money from Nike and revamped their uniforms, the whole country collectively dry heaved at the sight. Over the years SportsCenter anchors laughed openly at their bizarre unis, their opponents taunted them, and then… pretty much everyone started copying them, including the Huskies with their new, shiny tinfoil helmets.
EUGENE/SEATTLE HOUSING MARKETS
The median sale price for a Eugene home is $245,000, a number that’s obviously weighed down by the number of yurts, sweat lodges, fraternal communes, rusty school buses, and communal sheds on the market.
Seattle’s median sale price for a home is $406,000, but it’s considerably more if you want to live on one of those cute houseboats like in Sleepless in Seattle, which is probably the movie that made you want to move to Seattle in the first place. That’s so sad, but you can look for homes on Estately.com.
Did we leave out any pertinent information? Let us know in the comments.
