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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1982)
Play-for-pay in athletics Sometimes there's compromise By Carol Morton Ot the Emerald It's no secret that, in the struggle to maintain winning and profitable teams, college officials are willing to com promise the academic integrity of a university They often concede to the athlete a package deal that in cludes lower academic stan dards, relaxed entrance requir ements doctored transcripts, the failure of many athletes to graduate despite a free ride, and an end to scholarship funds once the athlete ceases to per form satisfactorily Basketball and football are the two sports regularly ac cused of such transgressions As early as 1946, newspaper speculation that UCLA alumni agreed to repay highly recruited running back ‘Buddy" Young with a job upon graduation caused a minor uproar among Pacific Coast Conference of ficials This was at a time when con ference recruiting rules effec tively tied the potentially gener ous financial hands of college alumni Coaches were not al lowed to dangle any monetary or subsidy aid in the faces of prospective well-muscled ath letes Young allegedly linked his close friend Kenny Washington with a Bruin pay-for-play plan An Emerald sports column reported, tongue-in-cheek, “Whether Kenny actually was paid $130 a month for chasing canaries out of the men's gym at Westwood is not important at the moment He completed his eligibility at UCLA and was ac claimed one of the finest run ning backs in the country in his season " America has the dubious dis tinction of being the only country that demands sports entertainment from schools with academic superiority. In addition, unlike other sports (baseball and hockey, for example), professional football and basketball teams did not develop until long after colleges had developed highly skilled teams Professional organiza tions in these two sports carry no financial burden of main taining minor leagues, profitting instead from athletes' training and maturing in college sports programs Most college athletic budgets are strained by costs of traveling, equipment, recruiting, and scholarships Inflation and increased spending to keep up with other teams in the confer CLIMB UNDER THE BRIDGE FOR A GLASS OF BUD! (Leave your ladders outside, please) Barney tables Under the Ferry St. Bridge 375 E. 7th 484-7085 Intercollegiate athletics have come a long way from the good ol' days (above left) to the big-time productions ot today. ence make efforts to keep ath letic departments financially afloat a desperate struggle, especially in the face of big-time college sports' attempts, of ficially at least, to pay for their own programs University of Michigan s ath letic director, Don Canham es timates that his is one of no more than 20 to 25 schools whose sports programs pay their own way Big-time college sports equate winning with self sufficient programs Some schools with good sports reputations earn money, but the temptation to recruit highly skilled, ignorant athletes who are totally unfit for r academic work is overpowering when winning is so financially important James A Michener divides American athletes into two groups in his book, "Sports in America In addition to being proud of their all-American honors, the first group of ath letes boast all-American brains The second group of athletes, Michener says, "must not be deluded into believing they are going to get an education They are going to play for money in a supervised system, and if they have the will, they can gain an education free on the side " Reacting to a story in the Arizona Daily Star about a recent report that 27 University of Arizona football players and nine basketball players had remained eligible for intercol legiate sports even though all 36 were on academic probation Sports Illustrated charged Arizona authorities with reluc tance "to weed out athletes in capable of doing college work, with the result that those ath letes tend to be academic mis fits " Hitting at the heart of big-time college sports is the oft-cited hypocricy of describing the in ducements offered in bargain ing against other colleges for athletes as scholarship aid Continued on Page 3B i TRACK TOWN PIZZA The only thing that surpasses our pizza is our personality. Track Town now Delivers! 1 Delivery Hours: 5 pm - Closing: Weekdays 3 pm- Closing: Sat. and Sun. $1.00 off ■-Coupon offer any Medium, Large or Giant Pizza with this coupon 1809 Franklin Also good with Deliveries, -—offer expires March 15 — 484-2799
