Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1977)
Grad peddles to fame City cyclist in national championships By JOE RHODES Of the Emerald The ones who had fallen off, broken down or simply worn out, walked around in a daze, wet to wels over their heads and looks of frustration and exhaustion on their faces. But for Terry Green, the long, hot Sunday afternoon of June 26 had gone as he had hoped it would. Of the 53 riders who had begun the Oregon-ldaho District Senior Men’s Bicycle Road Race Championships near Crow, southwest of Eugene, only 12 had gone the 120-mile distance. Green finished second to earn one of four spots in the national championships, July 31 in Seat tle. It had taken five and a half hours of constant peddling over hills and around curves and it had ended with nine riders sprinting downhill toward the finish. Robert Wilkins of Eugene won the event with Green dose behind. Green, a 1977 University graduate, and Wilkins are mem bers of the Eugene Cyding Club, (ECC), which has 70 members, 35 active riders and a fast growing reputation as the strongest bike racing dub in the state. "We re a team ail the way in races,” Green said. "We'll do anything to help the other guy. One guy will get in a breakaway and the others will sacrifice by sit ting back and docking the rest 9f the pack so he can get away." ’ Positioning is vital in bike rac ing. The rider at the front of the pack blocks the wind, forcing him to work considerably harder than those in the rear. The Eugene Club doesn’t limit its organization to the racers. Dur ing Sunday s race, dub members accompanied the racers on motorcydes equipped with two way radios, reporting on the posi tion of the leaders to ECC riders back in the pack. “The University is what made cyding in Eugene," Green said. "We started a dass in bike radng my freshman year and the next year bike radng got accepted as a dub sport. It's understandable that serious bike racers would be short of time for organizing dubs. Green rides over 200 miles of practice a week. That’s about 100 miles less than the average racer. “After a long, hard ride you just can’t study. You’re so worn out that you just can’t sit down and read that book,” Green said. And it gets even tougher when you have to work for a living. “There's no way you can have a full-time job if you want to be good,” said Green, who like most racers works in a bicycle shop. “They (the bike shops) are real understanding about when I need to go train or need Saturday off to go to a race." Kim Carlson, an ECC member who won the women’s district championship Saturday in Salem to qualify for the nationals, stres ses the importance — and cost — of having a good machine. “It costs $700 to $800 for a bike and you have to keep in tires. Plus there’s the cost of traveling to races," said Carlson, a junior physical education major at the University. Carlson won the 36-mile women’s race with a two-minute margin over the runner-up. “Bike racing is expensive and not very well-publicized,” she said. "But there are a lot of facets to it, it’s not just a physical thing.” Carlson, like Green and many other bike racers, was at one time a distance runner. The main reason he got into bicycling, he says, is that it satisfies their need for competition. “You definitely don’t get into it in this country for your ego. There’s no recognition,” Green said. “I know that because of it I’m not as competitive on other areas. Otherwise I’d probably be meaner than hell.” There are signs that bike rac ing, long a popular sport in Europe, is on the verge of going big-time in this country. There is talk of a pro circuit, and it is talk of this kind that keeps Green going. “It seems to me that the United States is getting into the Euro pean way of sports,” said Green after the race as a bucket of water was poured over his sunburned face. “Over there it's not the ab normal person — the 265-pounder or the guy who’s seven feet tall — that they look for. They're the guys of average Leaislature mav not help school districts By KEVIN HARDEN Of the Emerald The Oregon Legislature may not be obligated to provide finan cial support for state school dis tricts that don’t obtain voter ap proval of their tax levies and can not meet minimum educational requirements, according to State Attorney General Jim Redden. In a seven-page opinion pro vided last week in response to a request by Oregon Senate Pres. Jason Boe, Redden said the state constitution "requires only that the legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of a un iform, and general system of common schools.” No mention of special aid for school districts in financial distress is made in the constitution. According to John Reuling, as sistant to the Attorney General, Redden’s opinion came at a time when the Legislature is consider ing several alternatives to finance school districts with inadequate funding. The opinion was a culmination of decisions made by the United States and the Oregon Supreme Courts. Both found that educa tion itself wasn't a basic constitu tional right, and that states were only responsible for providing the system for education, Reuling said. "I don't particularly agree with that, but our purpose is to do our best to predict what the court will do in most cases," Reuling said. Voters may not agree with the funding for school districts, the At torney General explained, but they still agree with the system. “The most effective way the voter can make known his dissatisfac tion with the school board’s budget or policies is by a no vote or by not voting at all," he said. Failure to approve a levy, Red den maintains, does not neces sarily mean the system is no longer working. “Historically this system has worked,” he pointed out. “This state has never had an instance when the schools of a district have been closed the entire school year.” Three schools were required to close during portions of the 1976-77 school year because of inadequate district funding. The minimum length of the school year, according to Oregon law, is 175 days. At least one school dis trict will be short of 170 days of instruction this year. Those school districts not meeting minimum standards are often classified as “nonstandard” and can lose their eligibility for fi nancial support from the basic school support fund. For those falling into the nonstandard category, waiver provisions are available for approval by the State Board of Education for fund ing if the district could not reasonably comply with the stan dards. Citing legal precedent used to shape the present opinion, Red den said the issue facing this year’s Legislature is not whether a better system could or should be devised, but what the Legisla ture is obligated to do in case of a school district levy defeat. “We are concerned with the question of whether voter refusal to pass levies until the third or fourth election, with a consequent shortening of the school year below state minimum standards, imposes on the Legislature a constitutional duty to devise a dif ferent system or to modify the present one. We think not,” Red den said. Constant refusal to approve any school levy, as Redden sees it, may be voter perception that a particular school board is not re sponsive to community needs. “To require legislative support in such situations would be incon sistent with the concept of local control through the ballot,” he said. Voter incentive to approve tax levies in other districts may be hurt if the Legislature provided funds for certain troublesome dis tricts, Redden explained. Redden, however, believes the future of the levy problem may be parallel to the state's political di mate. “If at some time in the future, failures become sufficiently wide spread and persistent so as to in dicate that the general political dimate of the state and voters' at titudes toward the property tax have changed to the point where the system is no longer capable of functioning, then the Legisla ture would come under a duty to establish a new educational sys tem or to modify the present one,” he said. According to Jim Redden Jr., Boe’s administrative assistant, the Attorney General’s opinion confirmed what had been thought throughout most of the legislative session. “What we re ally had in mind was to try a little preventative medicine, but it doesn’t look like we re going to get to fixing it up this year," he said. Cole Porter’s Musical Masterpiece! KISS ME. K7TTE July 15, 16, 21-23, 27-30 Tickets: $4.50. All Seats Reserved. LCC Performing Arts Box Office (10-4:30, 747-4559) Meier & Frank and Penny’s, VRC Carl Greve Jewelers, Downtown Lane Community College Summer Theatre 77 Pua 7 size who play soccer or run track are their sports figures. “I think we re leaning that way now.” And that would suit Terry Green, all five feet eight inches of him, just fine. GENTLEWOMAN presents new ideas for your summer wardrobe Where clothes are more than a look, they're a feeling. 1639 E. 19th Ave. 19th & Agate 343-9555 MWF 10-8, T-Th-Sat 10-6, Sun 1-5
