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Fourteen years have passed since we first sat at Snow Hall and learned the 1st Battalion of the 158th Field Artillery regiment was being called up for service in Iraq. A lot has changed during that time, so let's take some time to catch up, this time with Hangovers manager Adam F. Duffy.
Are you still in the 158? If, not when did you get out?
DUFFY: No. I moved to Wisconsin in January 2012. I transferred to the Wisconsin National Guard and spent some time initially in a Public Affairs unit, only to transfer and re-class again in 2015. I’m now in a Transportation Company as an 88M. What did you do post-deployment? DUFFY: In Iraq, I got sick and was ultimately diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. This caused me to miss the subsequent deployments with the 158. I did manage to stay in the Guard, as I mentioned. I divorced, moved to Wisconsin, married Cliburn's wife's best friend, had two more children, and now work for a transportation company based out of Mondovi, Wisconsin. My wife’s parents and grandmother ended up moving here to God’s Country also, so we pooled our resources and bought a big house south of Eau Claire. That’s it in a nutshell, although there was certainly a lot more that’s happened since the deployment. Where are your from and how did you make it into the 158? DUFFY: My parents are from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. My dad was active-duty, so I grew up in Lawton. We always called Wisconsin “home” though. It was only a matter of time before I ended up moving back; however, to finance school, I joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard. My dad was an enlisted artilleryman, so the 158 was the natural landing spot to begin my military career. I picked 13P for the enlistment bonus and G.I. Bill kicker. I ended up loving the MOS. I miss it. I don’t miss Oklahoma at all, but there’s a long list of people I miss, and the 158 was where I got to know many of them. What are your hobbies outside of FF? DUFFY: I play guitar and banjo and spend a lot of time doing yard beautification, talking politics, and listening to NPR. 
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 The NFC's Hangovers lost Monday night to DominationStation by a score of 164.50-164.45. In doing so, they set the OIL record for smallest margin of defeat. Congrats? As a reminder, you can access the full OIL Record Book year-round here. See the full matchup below:  After Hangovers manager Adam Duffy received a Cease and Desist letter from his beloved Packers, he asked Cliburn to review and edit a letter of apology he was to send to the Packers. Cliburn did not disappoint: When reached for comment, Cliburn said, "When he unveiled that logo, I thought 'what if the Packers sued him over that?' And then I thought, 'what if he thought they were suing him over that." From there, the plan unfolded.
 Yahoo! will soon conduct its annual National Draft Day, and the OIL will be a part of it. Commissioner Justin C. Cliburn and his arch-rival, Adam F. Duffy, will be in New York alongside industry experts Andy Behrens, Brad Evans, Liz Loz, Scott Pianowski and Dalton Del Don, who was the most accurate expert for draft rankings according to FantasyPros.com.
Hangovers manager Adam Duffy was the first OILer to have his team logo designed professionally. Duffy set up a contest at 48hourslogo.com after deciding Cliburn's original design wasn't good enough. The logo includes an homage to hangover-inducing beer as the negative space in the H. The oval shape was inspired by the original Green Bay Packers logo. The shadow is that of Vince Lombardi. For reference, below is the original logo that Cliburn "designed" in Photoshop:
Original Hangovers logo, "designed" in Photoshop
 Like recently-deceased Yogi Berra once said, it's deja vú all over again. TE Jimmy Graham has been traded from the 2014 champion Dirty Hippies to 2015 hopeful Adam Duffy and the Hangovers in exchange for WR Davante Adams. TE Jared Cook will assume Graham's role in Knoxville.
Compiled and edited by Justin C. Cliburn This is the first installment in our ongoing oral history project. You can read later chapters here. To understand the OklahomIraqis League ("the OIL"), one must know who its members are and what brought them together. The league began at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq in 2006. It was resurrected in 2007 and kept alive each successive season. It's the way they keep in touch and share news with the men they served with in Iraq. Sometimes it's the only way because, although the men of the OIL are incredible friends, they may have never known each other without the Army National Guard. They came from different backgrounds and followed different career paths, but they served together as soldiers. Their bond would never be what it is without the experiences they shared one year in Iraq.  Their story is important, even if only to them, because when historians chronicle the Iraq War, they will focus on the usual fare: the battles; the successes and the failures; the bombings and the civil war . . . and the presidents and generals who managed them. But it will be up to the everyday Joes, the boots on the ground, to tell their stories . . . because no one else will. Who were these men? Why did they join the military? What did they do over there? How are they now? And what has kept them close since they first went to war together? These questions may be important only to those who already know the answers, but they need to be shared just the same.  What follows is an oral history of the OIL, as told by the men who lived it, beginning with the combat mission that inspired it. It is by no means an exhaustive history of that combat mission in 2005-2006; such a history would fill a book of its own. But it is a decent overview of the year that preceded the formation of the OIL: where they were; what they'd experienced; how they felt. 152 Oklahoma soldiers served on that mission, but just a fraction of them are represented here. Each soldier below speaks for himself as an individual. Collectively, their memories form a history best expressed through the oral tradition of storytelling through conversation.
Soldiers are traditionally a guarded bunch, reluctant to show emotion or share their feelings, so the following is a rare look into the collective memory of one group of soldiers in Iraq almost a decade ago. While the OIL was born in Baghdad, the Hangovers/Arrogant Americans rivalry evolved slowly over multiple locations. The franchises were rivals long before the league permanently matched them up for Rivalry Week. And it came naturally. They prepare the entire season for their annual matchup.
Three more OIL franchises unveiled full uniform sets today. Duffy's Hangovers, Baldwin's Reapers, and Bruesch's two-time champion SoonerJack each have their uniform sets displayed on their manager pages. Uniforms for Pyle's original champion Lucky Enuf and Jessen's DominationStation will be unveiled shortly. Morgan's 2007 champion Whackers and Cobb's 2013 champion Dogs of War will each release new uniforms in the near future as well. |
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