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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.