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
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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
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Look, Phil Hager, Pepper Allen, Jerry
Ramsey, Jack Wilsrm, Bob Mullin.
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Lengel, Don Jepscn, A1 Reynolds,
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rester, Pat Treece, Barbara Stepper,
JoAnn Shore.
Women’s Editor: Kathy Cook
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