Football's longest tenured coach

— -- LOS ANGELES -- Oregon running backs coach Gary Campbell has been in Eugene for a long time.

"He coached in the 1937 Rose Bowl. Did you know that?" Ducks secondary coach John Neal said. "I think Oregon lost 10-7, and Gary was the running backs coach then, in the single-wing offense."

While we wait for Google to get back to us on that, it is true Campbell has been at Oregon longer than the longest tenured FBS head coach, Frank Beamer, has been at Virginia Tech. Beamer took over in Blacksburg in 1987.

Here's what else is true: In Campbell's first game with the Ducks, they lost to the University of Pacific. If that name doesn't ring a bell, it's because Pacific discontinued football in 1995. The year was 1983 -- when Miami had yet to win its first national championship, when Bear Bryant died, when Oregon football hadn't been to a bowl game in 20 years.

"I had coached at Pacific the year before," Campbell said, "so that was a real painful loss because we had just got fired from there."

This is not that Oregon program, and it hasn't been for some time. In Campbell's 32 seasons, Oregon has won 256 games. The Ducks have had 17 1,000-yard rushers in their history. Campbell has coached 15 of them, including Saladin McCullough, Reuben Droughns, Jonathan Stewart, LaMichael James and this season, freshman Royce Freeman.

"Just seeing him more as a father figure to me, just a lot of trust I have in him," said Freeman, who has rushed for 1,299 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. "Seeing the results, the things he taught me, the things he stressed, it just really means a lot. I just want to play hard for him out there. I know he's got my back."

Oregon football has come a long way. Off the field, Campbell no longer shares working space with three other coaches.

"Yeah, I look back. I can remember when we were recruiting, we had to get under our desk when we were talking" -- Campbell held an imaginary phone with one hand and cupped his hand around his mouth with the other -- "so we wouldn't hear the other guy behind us ... Now my office is bigger than that room."

He no longer has to look through the sale bin for his players.

"When I got to Oregon, our pool of players came from southern California," Campbell said. "That meant we were going to get everything that UCLA and 'SC and even Washington had picked over ... We'd go to different states, like Florida, back east, and guys would say, 'Oregon? Where's that?' And even in California, when I was recruiting guys, I would say 'Call me up.' And they would say, 'Well, coach, what time zone are you guys in?' In California!"

Oregon recruits the top-line players now. Campbell marvels at how he can walk into a high school in Alabama and see kids wearing Oregon gear. What those kids won't see is Campbell wearing Oregon gear. He wears an Oregon pin on the lapel of his custom-made suit. To say Campbell is a clothes horse is to say Secretariat was a race horse. He came about his love of fashion at his home in Ennis, Texas, where his mother used to make her own clothes and hats and re-cover her shoes to match.

He likes to stand out, both as a fashion statement and a recruiting statement.

"I go into high schools, and the kids knew who I was when I came in," Campbell said. "I didn't have to wear Oregon gear. They knew, 'There's that coach who dresses. He's from Oregon.'"

It worked with Freeman, who came to Oregon from Imperial (Calif.) High School.

"I like when he wears red, with the red shoes and his Louis Vuitton briefcase," Freeman said. "He's styling out there on everybody. When he showed up at my high school, it was like 100 degrees. He was still dressed, suited and booted."

Campbell said he likes to have 52 suits -- "one for every week. But right now, I just bought three more." He's partial to Super 150 wool because it won't wrinkle. His suits hang in his newly redone closet, where one wall is devoted to shoes and hats.

"He might be the best dressed man in America," Neal said. "Not coach. You don't even [have to] say that as a coach. Like right now? This is the most dressed down he is. But I guarantee the hat, the color and the shoes will match."

Neal walked over to where Campbell sat in The LA Hotel ballroom and peered down at his colleague's shoes. Campbell wore green-and-black Nikes to go with his green-and-black Oregon ensemble. His black ball cap sported a silvery O.

"See! I told you!" Neal said.

Campbell, 63, looks 10 years younger than his age. He and his wife Alola have three grown daughters. Their son, Bryan, born with spinal muscular atrophy, a condition that prevented him from moving, breathing or eating without assistance, died last year at age 29. Bryan's condition helped keep Campbell rooted in Eugene. Now it's hard to imagine him being anywhere else.

"Ageless," Neal said. "Look at him. He's actually over 60, and he might have the most perfect skin of any man I've ever met in my life. He does the same routine every day. He gets on the Stairmaster, and there he goes. Exact same thing. Exact same time."

Campbell has worked for four head coaches: Brooks, who was succeeded by his offensive coordinator, Mike Bellotti, who was succeeded by his offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly, who was succeeded by his offensive coordinator, Mark Helfrich. Oregon's success is rooted in its stability, and Campbell is the rock.

Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost is 39 years old, which would make him 8 years old during Campbell's first season in Eugene. He marveled at Campbell's ability to reach young men.

"I think the two most important things a coach has to be able to do is establish a relationship with the players where they trust you, and then communicate clearly what you want them to do," Frost said. "If the players trust you and believe you have their best intentions in mind, then they'll do what you say. There's no doubt these guys know Cam wants what's best for them."

In an age in which coaches are itinerants, job-hopping before they get fired, it doesn't take a custom-made suit for Campbell to stand out.