- ■ ■ • i, ' "
‘Club Autzen’ is high, but it’s not dry
It’s an hour and a half before the
California-Oregon kickoff. The
tailgaters are congregating in the
Autzen parking lot. Few, save some ill
fortuned fraternity pledges, have
entered the stadium itself.
High up on the east side, however,
above the empty seats and the conces
sion stands, behind the tinted glass of
the Don Barker Stadium Club, the
festivities are already in full swing.
Wealthy alumni mill around in small
groups, exchanging pleasantries and
clinking glasses.
The club is the only place in Autzen
where alcohol is allowed. Guests are
entitled to choose from a wide variety
of liquor at the temporary bar.
“This is really nice. The way you can
look down on the stadium. It really has
class,” a woman tells her husband.
That class cost the University about
$600,000 in donations to attain, says
Steven McBride, the athletics events
manager. And according to him, the
facility was really constructed for a
less-celebrated purpose.
"The team has meetings there every
day during practice,” McBride says of
the room, which can be partitioned in
five different ways. "Before then (the
club’s construction), it had no place to
meet. I’m sure the vast majority of the
hours are used by the team during the
week.”
During the game, however, the team
is on the field, and wealthy dignitaries
are in the club. And entrance is not
easy by any means. Guests must first
have donated at least $1,000 to the
athletic department before they can
even be considered for an invitation to
the $10-a-plate pre-game buffet.
From there, the requirements
become even tougher. To be able to
view the game from inside the year-old
facility, one must make an annual
$10,000 donation, which entitles the
donor to two fairly nice, enclosed end
zone seats.
While some 200 people attend the
buffet, only about 60 are privileged
enough to stay there for the game.
Back in the club, the Ducks'
chances against the Bears has'taken
over most of the conversation.
’What do you mean, mental
mistakes?"
“Those three plays lost the whole
game."
"It's been disappointing the last
three or four years.”
“Do you think we’ll win it?”
“Well, the governor’s here and he’s
a UO graduate. Ask him.”
Victor Atiyeh enters the room and is
immediately surrounded by smiling
alumni. Most in attendance seem ac
customed to the governor’s presence,
though.Their appearance is generally
old, well-dressed and as clean as be
ing well-heeled allows them to be.
But here and there, amid all the con
servativism, a certain unusual, almost
bizarre flair of fanaticism is noticeable.
A woman looking so very normal in her
nondescript dress flaunts green and
yellow-striped stockings. A man, dress
ed in bright yellow pants and a green
coat, tries to tell me that his kind of
attire should be mandatory at football
games.
"They oughta all wear green and
yellow," he grumbles. “You know, in
Nebraska they all wear red. All these
people up here can afford to buy green
and yellow clothes."
The catered buffet begins. Gray
uniformed, white-gloved waiters stand
by as the guests mull over a table of
salads and hors d’oeuvres, cold cuts,
Continued on Page 5B
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