Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, November 09, 1983, Section B, Page 8, Image 15

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Q. Where can
you get ANY
drink for $l?
A. at
on Wednesday
INight!
Jack Daniels-Cuervo-Bailey s
l-lT sDaiquiries-Margaritas
Wall Bangers-Singapore Sling
Amaretto Sour Seagrams
y^OU NAME IT! ★ c
xcept Grand Marnier ,
/Oburg Rd • 343 1221 (
--oooc
U of O Foundation
Annual Fund
TELEFUND
STATISTICS
100.000
90.000
BO 000
70.000
60.000
50 000
40.000
30.000
20.000
10.000
On 11/2/83 23 Kappa Sigma
Volunteers received 508
pledges for a total of
$10,903.
First, second and third
place for most pledges
received are held by:
1st Kappa Sigma - 508
2nd ROTC - 371
3rd Chi Psi - 290
That brings the total for the
telefund to $47,356.
Tonight Chi Psi Fraternity
will attempt to set a new
record for total pledges
received
Recycle tMs
Recycle this paper
1
john healy
Pay up or get out
Sports are often full of
inequities.
I realized the truth to that
statement in the eighth
grade.
I only wish this University
would realize it now.
In the eighth grade, I played water polo
for the local Boy’s Club in Hilo, Hawaii. I
played right guard on a team with a part
time coach, an aversion to practicing and
an every-man-for-himself attitude.
We were entered in a tournament at the
local Naval Air Station pool, a tournament
that had drawn teams from all over the
Hawaiian islands to my home town.
After three games we were 0-3, had
scored but four goals and had given up 32.
In our fourth game we faced Kamehameha,
an all ethnic Hawaiian high school in
Honolulu that actively recruited quality
athletes from throughout the state.
We were behind 13-0 with just a few
minutes left in the game when I took a
long pass from our goalie and sprinted for
the opponent’s goal. As I reared up in front
of Kam’s goal, arm cocked for a mean
ingless goal, a Kam defenseman buried me
under six feet of water.
I didn’t score. I cried instead, my face
buried underwater so no one could see my
tears of frustration and pain.
That moment came back to me in vivid
detail late last week while I sat in Athletic
Director Rick Bay’s office.
Bay and I had talked of the problems at
this University, the lack of money, the los
ing football and basketball teams, the
cynicism and frustration that Bay has
fought through in his stay in the state of
Oregon.
As Bay searched for a light at the end of
a seemingly endless tunnel, I remembered
what my Boy’s Club team had done years
ago. We had gathered for a team meeting
with our coach, and we had argued for
hours over the form our water polo team
should take in the years to come.
The consensus had been to play teams
of our own caliber from that day on. Teams
that didn’t recruit players with scholarship
offers. Teams that didn’t practice year
round, or have two full-time coaches.
We decided to play at the level we could
support.
And that is what Oregon should do in in
tercollegiate athletics. Because of the lack
of public financial support for the Univer
sity’s athletic program, I think the Ducks
should leave the Pac-10 and go in search
of a conference more in tune with their
support base.
I have heard the arguments for staying in
the conference from University Pres. Paul
Olum on down to the bartender at my
favorite drinking establishment. The help it
gives to the University’s academic side, the
recognition it brings, the free advertising
nationally for our University, our city, our
state, even the Northwest.
But those arguments haven’t swayed my
conviction. Nor has the notion that stepp
ing “down” to a league like the Western
Athletic Conference would bring less ex
citing contests to Autzen Stadium or McAr
thur Court or Hayward Field.
A decision must be made about the form
and future of the University’s inter
collegiate athletic program. Either the peo
ple of this state — and this city and
University — must provide more than
token financial support, or they must ac
cept the consequences.
Those consequences can take only two
roads. One is a road of being a perpetual
also-ran, a road that requires living like a
pauper and looking like one. The other
road is to leave the Pac-10 for less com
petitive pastures that would actually prove
more competitive.
Personally, I would much rather see the
University remain in the Pac-10. But not if
people in Oreogn will offer at best a tepid
response to Bay’s pleas for more money.
It always amazes me that many people in
Oregon would never dream of allowing
“their" school to leave the Pac-10, yet they
remain blind to the specter of a University
atheltic program that lurches and limps
like a soddened wino.
I’m sure other programs — and their
fans — notice the spectacle we present to
the world. It seems to me that that image
provides the world a negative rather than
positive view of this University.
And I believe something must be done
to alter our image.
Bay expresses a great distaste in even
thinking about the possibility of leaving
the Pac-10. “I consciously try to stay away
from ultimatums,” he told me.
But if the situation continues unchang
ed, the frustration among University fans
will mount, the condition of athletic
facilities will diminish, more and more
coaches will leave for better-paying pro
grams, and the deficits will grow ever
heavier.
What can a new conference like the
WAC offer?
Competition at the level the University
can fund. Schools that have athletic
budgets equivalent to this University’s.
Populations that are at best lukewarm
about intercollegiate athletics, much as
this state's population.
Isn’t it better to play with a 50-50 chance
of winning than to always be the under
dog? Doesn’t the feeling that your team at
least has a chance sit much better with
you on a cold, windy day, than the pro
spect of another 20-point loss?
And finally, doesn’t the chance of a
possible slot in the Holiday Bowl or Liberty
Bowl keep you a little warmer than the
seemingly impossible chance of going to
the Rose Bowl?
The people of this state need to ask
those questions of themselves. Only they
can provide the answers.
11 ■ ...
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