Thoughts and reflections on the Trials
Never one to avoid the quest of my life goal, “Have
more fun,’’ I recently attended the 1984 Olympic Track
and Field Trials in Los Angeles. As a typical Eugene
jogger, I have followed the Trials since my college
days, way back in 1976 at Hayward Field. Following is
my look at Life at the Trials and in L.A.
With high expectations, I arrived in Los Angeles on
the first day of the Olympic Trials and was quickly
chauffered via the city’s most popular form of transpor
tation, the automobile, to the heart of Southern Califor
nia — the beach.
The beach is every Eugenean’s dream: sand, surf,
sun... prolonged visual and physical contact. Ah,
heaven. “But why are there goosebumps on my
kneecaps?’’ I mused.
It was a brisk 65 degrees with low, ominous clouds
covering the sand people — those bodies with skin the
color of the Coppertone Girl.
With my plans to sunbathe shot down, my hosts
and I made our way to the Los Angeles Memorial Col
Commentary by
Jerril Nilson
iseum. The science of cloning seemed to be in use as I
viewed the field.
With drill team precision the blue-sport-coated,
dapper white-hatted judges moved across the field,
folding stools in hand, to their appointed places. The
contestants, too, entered in precise formation, seeking
their lanes of destiny.
The clumsy herd of clicking and buzzing media
and the huge Astrovision screen made it all seem sur
real. Only the absence of the perennial Chris Schenkle
and the occasional mispronunciation of Team Adidas
by the announcer rattled us back to reality.
The Trials commanded more attention this year
than they had in Eugene. America’s athletes were being
promenaded in such slick publications as Vanity Fair,
and their names like Lewis, Decker and Salazar are
known to many more than the Eternal Sports Fan.
My companions also were long-time Oregon track
fans and former Eugene residents. As we watched the
Trials, we felt as if we had arranged a meeting with an
old college flame, one who had moved to the big city.
We wondered if it would feel the same when we met
again.
Hayward Field is home. It’s our backyard, the track
on which any one of us can run, walk or jump. The Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum is stately.
Welcome to L.A., where life is the incredulous fact
that freeways were built to accommodate speeds of at
least 55 mph, and that in the metropolitan area that
speed may never be achieved. Life is the beach and the
possible ratio of skin cancer victims to stockholders of
suntan lotion companies.
My non-Trial waking hours were seldom relaxing
Graphic by Karen Mobley
yet often exciting. I was introduced to Hollywood Par
ties, Part One.
At the opening of a new Nike outlet in L.A., con
versations revolved around the Trials and tribulations
of the athletes and stars.
We ogled the great, and the soon to be greater:
Chandra Cheeseborough, fresh from her 400-meter vic
tory; Eurythmic’s Dave Stewart, just in from another
continent; Alberto Salazar, speculating on the last lap
of an Olympic marathon.
And the excitement was more than the food, the
beverage and the famous. It was the great ruby-red
swoosh that violated the roof and the Michael Jackson
(“Billie Jean”) lighted runway near the shoe-fitting
area that made me smile, drink and think, “1 luvvvv
L.A.”
Back at the stadium, my hosts and 1 began to feel
more at home as the week moved on. The famed peanut
The clumsy herd of clicking and buzzing
media and the huge Astrovision screen
made it all seem surreal.
tosser, the malt man, the extra large beers, and the likes
of Henry Marsh, Craig Virgin and Mac Wilkins brought
us closer to that “old feeling.”
Yet it was the upsets and the names not well
known that produced our most spontaneous cheers: the
fab four — Earl Jones, Johnny Gray, John Marshall and
James Robinson — all under 1:44 in the 800 meters:
Mike Tully’s American pole vault record of 19-0%; the
look of relief and yet of assurance as Carl Lewis kissed
the track after winning the 200 meters; our inability to
slight Dwight Stones’ cocky attitude as he lept to a new
American high jump record of 7-8, 11 years after setting
a world record in that event: and the familiar thrill-of
victory-and-agony-of-defeat of Ruth Wysocki and Mary
Decker in the 1,500 meters.
During all those hours at the track, as smog-tinted
sunsets settled behind the Festive Federalism, one ac
tivity was constant: cheers for the local heroes, the
names from home. Claudette Groenendaal, Don Clary,
Kathy Hayes, Cory Randall, Dub Myers, Julie Brown,
Marty Cooksey, Erin Forbes.
No matter the outcome, victory was achieved by all
as America’s best took the home court advantage at Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Hayward Field never
would begrudge this chance.
No, the footstomping and the name-chanting of
Hayward heydays were not there. But I could swear it
was August: the sun reflected gold.
/erril Nilson is a former Emerald entertainment
editor and now works as an art director in Eugene.
Craft Center offers
all a ‘creative outlet’
By David Carlson
Of the Emerald
Whether a working artist, a
neophyte craftsperson or a prac
tical repair person, those with a
creative mind may find a haven
at the EMU Craft Center.'
Located in Room 69 on the
ground floor of the EMU, the
Craft Center is an open studio
area where students, staff,
faculty, alumni and their
spouses have access to facilities
and tools in a variety of crafts.
These include ceramics, film
developing, wood working,
jewelry and metals, stained
glass and even bicycle repair.
“Our purpose is to provide a
creative outlet for people who
aren’t fine arts majors and can’t
get into fine arts classes.” says
Mia Arends, Craft Center assis
tant coordinator.
This “creative outlet” costs
$6 a term or $1 a day for current
or spring term University
students, faculty, staff and their
spouses. University alumni
must pay $12 for a term
membership or $2 for day use.
Arends says these membership
dues, along with workshop in
come and an incidental-fees
allotment support the Craft
Center.
With a membership, people
are free to use most of the Craft
Center facilities Monday
through Friday and on most
weekends. Some proficiency
must be shown before working
in such areas as the darkroom,
Arends says, but informal train
ing is often available, and there
is constant supervision «in
potentially hazardous areas
such as the wood shop.
The interested craftsperson
may also turn to the Craft
Center’s library, which
members may use while in the
center. It contains subjects from
kite building to gem cutting and
cabinetry. The center also sells
supplies in all major craft areas.
But if the words kiln and
lathe are foreign, help is
available in the form of summer
craft workshops.
‘‘These are a natural
outgrowth of our program
because some people don't
know how to use our tools,”
Arends says.
Upcoming one- and two-day
workshops include hand
spinning wool, hand-coloring
black and white photographs,
woodworking with a router and
wood lathe, and natural-dyeing
wool. These workshops cost
from $11 to $15 for Craft Center
members. Members of the
general public attending
workshops will be eligible for a
$12 Craft Center membership.
These workshops can lead to
a sort of addiction according to
Tammerah Martin, who spends
time every day in the Craft
Center ceramics studio. Martin
took two workshops beginning
in the fall of 1983.
”1 love coming here early in
the morning when it is quiet
and nice to work,” she says.
Other members like Dave
Bickford, who is building a
vanity for his home, use the
Craft Center only periodically.
"I come here when my tools
at home won’t do,” he says,
"It's great for their shop
equipment,”
For more information on the
Craft Center and its workshops,
visit their studios or call
688-4361.
Taft seminar probes problems
of reporting political process
By Paul Ertelt
Of the Emerald
Political Science Prof. Jim Klonoski
defended state political conventions Tuesday
as the “fullest expression of the state of
Oregon” and chastised Oregon journalists for
discounting those conventions.
During a panel discussion at the Taft
Seminar for Teachers, Register-Guard
editorial writer Henny Willis joked that the
thing he liked best about not being a reporter
was: “I don’t have to go to Democratic or
Republican state conventions anymore."
But Klonoski was not amused.
“That (attitude) bothers the hell right out
of me," Klonoski retorted, in the only emo
tional outburst in an otherwise sedate discus
sion of political journalism in Oregon. Four
Oregon journalists answered questions and
explained the process of covering politics to
about 30 high school teachers at the seminar.
Bickering and political infighting often
characterize these conventions, Klonoski ad
mitted, but they allow the people to voice their
opinions on public issues.
“Watching people try to rule themselves
is not a pretty picture," Klonoski said.
Democracy is a "constant struggle," but it
does work despite its disorderly appearance,
he said.
The panelists agreed that political jour
nalists need to be more in touch with the
average voter.
“We have to retrain ourselves to find out
what’s going on out there," said Terry McDer
mott, political reporter for The Register
Guard. “Political insiders are often the last to
know what’s going on.”
Failure to accurately gauge the political
pulse was the main reason that Bud Clark’s
victory in the Portland mayoral race took The
Oregonian by suprise, said Foster Church,
The Oregonian’s political writer.
Clark, a Portland tavern owner, received
53 percent of the votes to beat incumbent
Mayor Frank Ivancie in the May 15 race.
Church did not cover the race, but he
apologized for his colleagues' failure to take
Clark’s campaign seriously.
“Most of us considered (Clark’s cam
paign) a bit of a joke,” Church said. "We did
not pay much attention to it.”
But deciding what campaigns are covered
and how much attention is given to them is
not a decision of the newspapers’ editorial
boards, McDermott said, but is decided by
lower-level editors and reporters.
A major problem with political coverage
in Oregon is the lack of manpower devoted to
it, McDermott said.
“Esentiaily, there are two full-time
political reporters in the state of Oregon
Foster and me.”
But newspaper readers are not always in
terested in political coverage, Willis said.
“The folks out there get pretty tired of
politics by the time the general election rolls
around,” he said.
McDermott questioned the value of
research to find out what people want to read
in their newspapers or see on television
newscasts.
“What people say they want to see on the
nightly newscast may not be what they need to
see,” he said.
“I hope we never get to the point where
we do Neilsen ratings on newspapers,” Willis
said. Rating TV newscasts like other televi
sion programs is “absolutely asinine,” he
said.
Willis said he did not know the impact of
editorial endorsements on the outcome of
political races, but said it was the
newspaper's “sacred duty” to do them.
Klonoski. a former state Democratic
chairperson, charged that most of the major
newspapers in Oregon are owned by
Republicans, but the panelist's maintained
that the political views of the owners do not
color political coverage.
The seminar, sponsored by the Robert A.
Taft Institute of Government, will continue at
the University until Saturday. The event is
one of about 20 being held throughout the
country this summer.