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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1958)
OrtgonDatfy 0EMERALD Unwise Decision The Inter-fraternity Council lias finally demonstrated that, if nothing else, it is capable of arriving at a decision. After hem ming and hawing for nearly a year on the question of deferred rush, IFC Thursday night gave the plan a resounding defeat— and in doing so it may have set the stage for outside influences to step in. IFC was standing on the edge of a swim ming pool, testing the water with one toe. The water was fine, but IFC apparently just didn't want to go swimming. Ray Hawk, dean of men and advisor to the council, pointed out that deferred rush is a nation-wide trend and will come even tually, but IFC members seemingly felt that their groups were not yet ready for it. A two-man committee was appointed to investigate the plan again, but this move was obviously only a sop to Hawk and the minority of house presidents who favor de ferred rush. A previous committee returned a hearty recommendation for the plan last fall—and several of its members had been against deferred rush when they started the investigation in the spring. What this new committee decides will probably carry less weight than did the first. IFC now faces the problem of what to do about the pressure that will undoubtedly be brought to bear on it from the administra tion, parent groups and alumni. The pres sure won’t be pleasant, and it won’t get any better as the years pass. Also, IFC had better set about indoc trinating next year’s potential members. They might make the mistake of agreeing with their committee. Pasadena Dividends Oregon’s fine performance in the Rose Bowl is starting to pay dividends already. Athletic director Leo Harris’ announcement that he has scheduled Ohio State for the 1961 Ducks is undoubtedly a direct result of the nation-wide interest that Len Casano va's eleven stirred up at Pasadena. And OSU isn't the only “name" school the Ducks will be playing in the years to come. Next season, for example, Oregon meets Oklahoma and Miami University— both have been powers of the grid world for many years. The Air Force Academy is on the schedule for 1959, by which time the Falcons should be producing top teams. Another Big Ten power, Michigan, is on tap for 1960. We heartily endorse the athletic depart ment's selection of opponent^. Top teams on the schedule will make the University’s position much stronger when it comes time to try to patch the Pacific Coast Conference back together. But we sincerely hope that Oregon-the national-power will not lose sight of the ideals which have characterized Oregon the-conference-watchdog. Winning against these “big-time” teams should not become so important that we can wink at the same violations of athletic ethics for which we have condemned other schools. Webfoot Comeback A victory over the University of Wash ington was just what the Oregon basketball team needed. After a pre-conference rec ord of seven wins and one loss, the Web foots dropped three games in a row to tough California schools. Saturday’s victory over the Huskies was a real team victory and ended the shooting slump which had plagued Coach Steve Belko’s crew in its three previous Pacific Coast Conference losses. The Wehfoots played Washington like few PCC teams have clone. They didn't con centrate all their efforts on the Husky All American candidate Doug Smart, hut vir tually stopped the rest of the team cold and effectively blocked the big center from con trolling the rebounds. * As a result Smart scored 27 points but Oregon won the game 57-53 for the first victory over Washington by a Northern Di vision club since 1955. It was a big step in the improvement plans of Helko and his Webfoot basketball team. There's still a big job ahead of them. Next weekend, for instance, they move north to meet Washington State and Idaho. The Cougars, which Oregon meets on Friday night at Pullman, is not a strong team but is capable of giving any team trouble. The Vandals, the Webfoot’s opponent next Sat urday night at Moscow, have been a big surprise in the conference. Winner in four of six conference battles, Idaho boasts the PCC’s leading scorer in guard Gary Sim mons. The victory over Washington was only Oregon’s first in PCC play, but it was a comeback start. Already the eight victories racked up by the Ducks this year are twice as many as the 1956-57 team made all sea son. Dads Or Snow? The Emerald has often commented on the paradoxical character of winter term at the University; that is, we’ve said that now is the time to make grades, if the number of week-long and long weekend activities per mit. 'I his^ tends to be an overstatement, in that a comparison of this term to the one just past finds fall a winner, activity-wise. Hut we must plead a current case: when we do have an activity weekend this term, need we have two activities? The weekend in question is February 8-9, which will feature the annual Dad’s Week end festivities on campus and the Inter collegiate Winter Carnival at Mt. Hood. The Winter Carnival is not, of course, an exclusive Oregon production. But it is expected to attract a major share of Univer sity .-ki (and lodge-ski) enthusiasts to the snow country. Naturally, a Queen contest has been included. Meanwhile, visiting dads will be kept busy here in Eugene, with the usual round of luncheons, tours, dinners and entertain ment planned. For a while, circumstances would have forced the \\ eekend to do without its usual chief attraction—a Saturday night basket ball game This year’s game, with Idaho, was to be televised and thus played in the afternoon. But NBC may have saved the day for harried weekend chairmen by announcing their suspension of the Pacific Coast Con ference basketball series on TV. We assume . that the game will now be switched to the normal evening time. The merits of the Dads’ Weekend super cede those of the Winter Carnival, if only because of the number of people involved. But might not some more far-sighted sched uling have been arranged? We admit that such a feat might be difficult, but our exam ination of the term schedule shows only house dances, the Frosh Snowball and bas ketball games on weekend slates. At any rate, a word of reminder is in or der. Decisions should be made quickly whether to plan a mountain trip or to in vite Dad down for the weekend. At this point, we’ll have to make the best of a bad situation. South of the Border? I I'm only a junior- Hey, you with th' pook^—? WHERE'S -TH' U0ERJZ.Y?' J Willi lam Big-Time College Athletics Have No Place In University After Oregon's Rose Bowl success in January, It appears that the University is now, once and for all. committed to big time inter-collegiate athletics, particularly in __ football. The' athletic depart ment has sign-. ed some of the "biggest names" • in football to play Oregon during the next i few years. I This gives rise to the natural question of whether such big time athletics have any place at Oregon, or at any good univer sity. How can athletic teams — for all practical purposes pro fessional athletic teams be jus tified as contributing any aca demic values to an educational institution ? The traditional arguments in support of inter-collegiate ath letics are many and varied: Teams build character, spirit and sportsmanship. Participa tion in athletics provides needed physical exercise. Team mem bers often achieve high scholar ship. Good athletic teams build a school’s name and so attract good students. - The values of character, spirit and sportsmanship supposedly developed by inter-collegiate athletics quickly disappear when they are set In the context of “winning at any cost" which has characterized modem col lege athletics. These values could be more easily realized if athletics were handled as rec creation — on an intra-mural basis, for example — where the corrupting pressure to win would not be so overpowering. Oregon has been acclaimed for scoring a “victory" in the Rose Bowl without actually win ning on the scoreboard. Lcn Casanova is a hero because he coached that team. But when Casanova’s teams were on the short end of the score for several games run ning, the talk on campus was strong to replace him. After a particularly disastrous loss to Stanford in 1956, Casanova was hung in effigy by students. This hardly seems like the promotion of sportsmanship or character or spirit on a very permanent basis. That team members get plenty of exercise is unquestioned. They could, however, receive the same physical conditioning in any of several other ways~without sub jecting themselves to inter-rol legiate athletics. The fact that a few college athletes achieve high scholastic records really proves nothing uImiiiI college athletics. The ath lete who does make high grades made them in spite of. not be cause of, his parti -ipation in athletics. If he hadn't turned out, he might have fared even Iretter scholastically. The argument that good, win ning athh»tic teams build a school's name and so attract good students is not very plau sible. A good university's repu tation is or a sounder base than that. Any potential student who picks a school to attend on the basis of its athletic teams is not likely to be much of an asset to the school unless, of course, he (Continued on par/e 3) OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily Emerald is published four time* in September and five day* a week during the school year, except dumig examination and vacation period*, by the Student Publication* Hoard of the Univer sity f>f Oregon. Entered a* second cla** matter at the post office, Eugene, Oregon. Subscription rates: $5 per year, $2 per term. Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of The Emerald and do not pre tend to represent the opinion of the ASUO or the University. ALLEN JOHNSON, Editor GARY CAPPS, Business Manager WILLIAM COOK, •Editorial Page Editor PHIL HAGER, Managing Editor GLEN GRAVES, Advertising Mgr. JACK WILSON, JERRY RAMSEY, Associate Editor* PEPPER ALLEN, News Editor BOB MJJLLIN, Sports Editor JOANNE MILLIGAN, As.s’t Business Manager Editorial Board : Allen Johnson, William Look, Phil Hager, Pepper Allen, Jerry Ramsey, Jack Wilsrm, Bob Mullin. Day Editors: Walfy Slocum, John Lengel, Don Jepscn, A1 Reynolds, Evic Olsen. Night Editors: Jerry Ramsey, Mike For rester, Pat Treece, Barbara Stepper, JoAnn Shore. Women’s Editor: Kathy Cook Photo Editor: Louis Parker Feature Editor: Pat Treece Religious Editor: Kay Jossclyn Entertainment Editor: John Lengel Ass’t Adv. Mgr.: Ron Dodge Promotions Mgr.: Bill Braynt Circulation Manager: Roger Gaffey Classified Manager: Warren Pucker Accounting Clerk: Erlenc Whiiehouse National Adv. Mgr.: Pat Holley Office Manager: Carol Eskola
