Growing up in a family strongly tied to Oregon State, Eric Steimer was more likely to walk on Mars than to walk on as a football player at the archrival University of Oregon.

His grandfather had served as president of the local Beaver Club in Albany and as a member of the club’s board of directors on the state level. Such was Don Steimer’s stature in the Oregon State community that when he passed away in 2000, those in attendance at his funeral included former OSU football coach Dee Andros, the legendary “Great Pumpkin.”

Eric’s grandmother, whose childhood home in Corvallis was located on the fringe of the Oregon State campus, had worked for administrators in the OSU athletic department.

And his father had played baseball for the Beavers and graduated from Oregon State.

“When Eric was born,” Todd Steimer, Eric’s dad, recalled, “he came home from the hospital in a little Beaver sweat suit that my parents had given him.

“Everyone just always assumed that Eric would be a Beaver.”

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“I definitely grew up a Beaver,” Eric Steimer said this week from — of all places — Eugene. He’s in Eugene because, despite his lineage, he’s a Duck. An Oregon Duck. And this afternoon at Autzen Stadium, he’ll line up as a senior long-snap specialist in the annual Civil War game against his once-beloved Beavers.

Truth is, Steimer might well have been a Beaver. After he graduated from Bend High in 2003, OSU was among the favorites for his services as a long snapper and/or tight end. He was being courted as a walk-on prospect by both Oregon State and Oregon, but any advantage the Beavers might have had was lost when their high-profile head coach, Dennis Erickson, left the program for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

The Beavers may have figured that Steimer would naturally follow his ancestry to Corvallis and turned their attention to other recruits. But the Ducks stayed in touch with Steimer, showing him enough love to win his commitment.

And Steimer decided to walk on at Oregon.

Billie Anne Steimer, his grandmother, was not amused by the news.

“When Eric told her he had made the commitment to Oregon,” said Todd Steimer, “she just looked at him and said, ‘When can you transfer?’ Then she turned and walked away.”

“And I’m sure my grandfather,” Eric recalled, “turned over in his grave.”

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But even granddad would be proud of his grandson’s accomplishments as a Duck. He earned both a football scholarship and the first-team position as the long snapper, a job he has held now for three seasons. And Steimer has yet to make a bad snap — not for a punt or a place kick — in 36 games going into today’s Civil War.

His role in Oregon’s success, especially this season, has been enough to make Duck fans — begrudging ones, for sure — of the rest of his Beaver Believer family.

“It hasn’t been easy for a lifelong Oregon State fan,” said his father. “But now we root for the Ducks. It’s Eric’s team, and we’re proud of him.”

As far as Eric is concerned, though, the real pride of the family is not the son who will be fighting to win the Civil War today. Rather, it is the son who is fighting an altogether different kind of war.

Austin Steimer, Eric’s younger brother, is a Marine lance corporal who was recently sent to Iraq.

“He left about a month ago, right after the USC game,” said Eric, noting that Austin had watched Oregon’s thrilling 24-17 Oct. 27 victory over the Trojans at Autzen Stadium on TV from Camp Lejeune, N.C., just before shipping out for the Middle East.

The Civil War football game each year stokes the passions of Ducks and Beavers alike, and both sides want desperately to win — the players, the coaches and the fans. But with a brother now involved in a war with far more at stake than any football game, Eric Steimer enters today’s contest with a different view of the true significance of the outcome.

“What I’m doing in football seems pretty mediocre compared to what he’s doing,” said 22-year-old Eric in reference to 19-year-old Austin. “It definitely puts it all in perspective.”

Austin Steimer enlisted in the Marines shortly after graduating from Summit High School in 2006. “The most unselfish thing I can even think of,” Eric called it. “The most courageous thing you could do on this earth.

“We’ve always been really close,” he continued. “He’s my little brother, so I’ve always been his protector. But now, he’s mine.

“And I just pray for him every day.”