EUGENE, Ore. — The Oregon Duck — the Duck — was onstage, sitting between four men in suits while wearing a jaunty hat, a neckerchief and no pants. The Duck poured Froot Loops and milk and a pound of sugar into a bowl, then pretended to eat it. Crystals of sugar cascaded because, of course, the Duck has no lips.

“College GameDay,” ESPN’s traveling pregame show, was on campus Sept. 6 for No. 3 Oregon’s game with No. 7 Michigan State. At the end of every show, the hosts predict the winner of the day’s top games. The Duck pantomimed his picks — holding an elephant for Alabama, donning a leprechaun’s hat for Notre Dame, shooting a foam rocket for Toledo. The hosts giggled their way through their analysis and prognostications.

“Sometimes you pick like Daffy Duck,” Lee Corso said to the Duck.

That insult might have struck viewers at home, clicking on the early-morning spectacle over their bowls of cereal. They might have wondered, but probably did not, just why the Oregon Duck looks like Donald Duck, but in a different-colored sailor’s ensemble.

The short answer: because he is Donald Duck.

It has been this way since 1947. By then, the university’s original nickname for its sports teams, the Webfoots, had morphed into Ducks. Live ducks, usually named Puddles, took turns patrolling the sideline during games. But in the 1940s, Oregon wanted a consistent Duck image.