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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2001)
Thursday Best Bet NHL: Colorado at New Jersey 5 p.m., ABC SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com ' ... m i HI———M^___J Courtesy photo Donors contributed $250,000 to have a 10-story poster of Joey Harrington hung next to Madison Square Garden. 100-foot Harrington dominates New York ■ Oregon launches a Heisman Trophy campaign for Joey Harrington in spectacular fashion By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon’s most visible athlete just got even more visible. About 100 feet more visible. The Ducks’ starting quarterback, Joey Harrington, had his Heisman Trophy campaign officially launched in the middle of New York instead of on the football field Sun day. Oregon unveiled a 100-by-80-foot billboard featuring Harrington’s picture. The billboard is across from Madi son Square Garden in America’s biggest city. The massive billboard has the word “Harrington” slashed out and the word “Heisman” in its place. The billboard has New Yorkers, reporters and college football fans alike scratching their heads in wonder. That’s exactly what Oregon wants. “The whole concept was to create attention for Joey and the Oregon football program,” Oregon director of media services Dave Williford said. “We certainly did that.” Harrington visited the East Coast last weekend to see the billboard unveiled and tour the many media outlets there. Harrington’s visit to Baltimore and New York included interviews with ESPN radio, ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated, along with a visit to the set of NBC’s “The Today Show.” “It was a really fun trip,” Harrington said. “It was a good opportunity for the University to gain some recognition, and if that means putting up a picture of me in downtown Manhattan, then so be it. I'm willing to do whatever the University asks of me. ” Harrington was co-grand marshal of the Portland Starlight Parade Friday night with Oregon State signal caller Jonathan Smith. By Sunday, Harrington was in Bal timore for an interview with ESPN radio’s Mel Kiper Jr. Monday, Harrington posed for photos and video in front of his giant likeness, and Williford said he already has had requests from CNNSI.com, among others, for the footage. “We’ll get a lot of exposure from this,” Williford said. “It just accents the success of this program.” But many of the East Coast media didn’t buy it. Gene Wojciechowski wrote on ESPNmag.com that “Oregon did n’t need to do this” and “it cost a lot of money, but it still looks cheap.” Williford said that Oregon’s donors shelled out the $250,000 for the billboard for that exact kind of publicity — any publicity. “They don’t need to agree with it,” Williford said. “But they’re still writing about it.” Bruce Feldman, who writes for the same Web site as Turn to Harrington, page 12 HARRINGTON It was a good opportunity for the University to gain some recognition, and if that means putting up a picture of me in down town Manhattan, then so be it Joey Harrington Oregon quarterback UO track wins with secret weapon: in-state recruits r, THE HOME . STRETCH t last, it seems, Oregon track is back, I, like many faithful Duck •JL. JL-fans, was getting a little wor ried for a few years there. The Ducks, situated in Tracktown, U.S.A., had put up dismal numbers at the Pacific-10 Conference and NCAA Championships for eight straight sea sons, finishing no higher than 30th na tionally and with no more than 10.5 points. All of that is erased now, following Oregon’s 27-point, ninth-place finish at home for the NCAA Championships. The road back to the track and field elite hasn’t been easy. When Bill Dellinger handed the pro gram over to the current head coach, Martin Smith, following 25 years at the helm, the program was in bad shape. Dellinger had great success with local talent, mostly from Oregon and the West, but with programs such as Arkansas, Stanford and Southern Cali fornia recruiting international talent, Oregon was getting left by the wayside. In 1992, the year Oregon finished fifth at the NCAAs, 28 of the Ducks’ 33 points came from Pacific Northwest athletes Art Skipper, Tye Van Shoiack, Pat Haller, Bob Gray and Rick Mestler. Arkansas, however, won that year and the next seven NCAA meets with overseas talent — African distance run ners, Eastern European throwers and sprinters from the Caribbean. Many oth er teams followed suit and built up in ternational-caliber teams while Oregon began to dwindle. In 1993 and ’94, Oregon sent no run ners to the NCAA meet. In 1995 it Turn to McCallum, page 13 R. Ashley Smith Emerald Jason Hartmann (719), a three-time All-American who finished third in the 10,000-meter run at the NCAA Championships last weekend, was one of coach Martin Smith’s first recruits.
