Sports Editor:
Adam Jude
adamjude@dailyemerald.com
Assistant Sports Editor:
Jeff Smith
jeffsmith@dailyemerald.com
Tuesday, September 25,2001
Best Bet
MLB: Atlanta at Florida.
4:05p.m., TBS
Welcome
back sports;
America has
missedyou
plastered on its cover last week.
Sports indeed stood still, but who
could have imagined it ever would?
Sports is synonymous with Ameri
ca. America often depends on its
sports. After what happened, it was
not surprising to see our nation’s ath
letes take time off.
We, as Americans, depend on our
athletic teams to bring us joy and a
sense of hope. When they win, we feel
Ihe Week that sports stood
still.”
Sports Illustrated may
have said it best with that
Hager
Behind the Dish
good. When they
lose, we feel their
pain. But when we
have no teams to
root for, we feel
empty, without
any sense of right
or wrong, good or
bad.
That's why the
tragic events of
Sept. 11 will
haunt us forever
— not just be
cause of the lives
they took, but be
cause of the frame
or mind they put us all in.
Not since World War II has baseball
ever seen any kind of stoppage of play
that wasn’t related to a labor strife.
Football has never stopped play, even
when President Kennedy was assassi
nated in 1963. Heck, even hockey,
considered Canada's national pastime,
decided it would do the right thing
and cancel its games for the week.
Can it be called the right thing? Was
it wise for professional and collegiate
athletics to stop play, especially when
we needed them the most?
Plain and simple, yes. In fact, it was
the only option.
Athletes are not gods. We regard
them as though they are, just because
they can hit a baseball 450 feet, or
shoot a hockey puck at 95 mph. Un
fortunately for those of us who watch
games regularly, athletes are regular
people. They have the same feelings
and emotions as the rest of us. For that
reason alone, sports needed to take a
step back and reflect.
The athletes felt just as much grief
and disillusionment as the rest of us
that fateful day.
Some had families affected bv one
of the tragic accidents. The Los Ange
les Kings even had two scouts on one
of the planes that hit the World Trade
Center towers.
Athletes' minds were not in the
right place, nor should they have been
after the attack. Could anyone have
imagined Derek Jeter stepping onto
the hallowed grounds of Yankee Sta
dium, knowing there were still people
trapped in the rubble only miles
away?
I couldn’t and don't even want to.
But those in Afghanistan and other
countries harboring terrorists seem to
think we should be afraid to resume
daily life.
Turn to Hager, page 21
Injury ends Keyes’s football career
■ Sophomore A.K. Keyes said
he’s‘fortunate’to be able to
walk after suffering a neck
injury Saturday against USC
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
A.K. Keyes’s promising career
is over, but it could have been
worse.
And while it was tough for him
Monday to watch Oregon’s foot
ball practice in street clothes, the
fact that he was able to walk, al
beit with the help of a cane, is
something that he’s not taking for
granted.
“It’s a blessing that I can still
walk,” said Keyes, who spoke to
the team at Monday’s practice. “A
lot of people have this happen to
them and they never walk away.
So I’m fortunate.”
Keyes, a 20-year old sopho
more comerback from Los Alami
tos, Calif., was involved in the
scariest moment of the night Sat
urday during Oregon’s win over
USC. At the 3:13 mark of the first
quarter, Keyes was playing back
in the zone defense and went af
ter Trojan tailback Sultan McCul
lough to attempt a tackle.
As all the players got up after
the short two-yard gain, Keyes lay
motionless on the field.
“I just remember getting
pushed from the side and from
behind and that’s when I knew.
...It was weird, like I thought I
got back up and was ready to go
back into the huddle, and then I
realized I was still on the
ground,” Keyes said. “At first it
was just, ‘OK, I’m up.’ I thought I
was up. Then I realized that I
hadn’t gotten up yet.
I tried, but
KEYES
I couldn’t.”
Keyes had
suffered a
neck injury
that caused
him to lose
feeling in his
arms and
legs. The usu
ally ear-pierc
ing Autzen
Stadium
crowd grew scarily silent as some
players from both teams fell to
one knee as they witnessed every
football player’s ultimate fear.
A cart was brought out. Then a
stretcher. And the reality of the
seriousness of the injury began to
hit home.
“It's scary because that’s like
my brother out there laying on
the ground helpless, and I can’t
do nothing but stand there and
watch,” said Oregon cornerback
Steve Smith, who was on the op
posite side of the field at the time
of the injury. “It’s a sad story, but
(ending his career) is for the best
for him and his well being.”
Keyes was gingerly propped up
onto the stretcher and then white
tape was wrapped around his
helmet to keep his body in place.
He could feel the silence all
around him, and said at first, he
"couldn’t move anything except
for my eyes.”
Turn to Keyes, page 20
In his 27th year at the helm, cross country head coach Tom Heinonen, with sophomore Tara Struyk, leads a young team into action this year.
Emerald
Cross country teams excited for healthy season
■Junior Jason Hartmann
leads a host of freshmen as
the men prepare for their first
race this weekend
By Chris Cabot
Oregon Daily Emerald
It sounds like a Week of Wel
come campus tour — a junior
leading four freshmen — but this
pack is actually the No. 13 ranked
Oregon men’s cross country team.
And junior All-American Jason
Hartmann is ready to lead the
men’s charge.
Last Wednesday at Pier Park in
Portland, the “B” unit ran to wins
against Portland’s “B” unit and
Portland State, and now the top
stars want to show their speed.
Along with Hartmann, freshmen
Ryan Andrus, Seth Pilkington,
Brett Holts and Eric Logsdon will
probably be the top five runners
for the Ducks when they travel to
the Roy Griak Invitational in Min
nesota on Saturday.
Pilkington and Holts are fresh
out of the prep ranks and looking
to make an immediate impact at
the collegiate level. Last year
Holts ran for
Bend High
School and Pilk
ington for Roy
High in Utah.
Logsdon, who
redshirted to uti
lize an extra year
of eligibility, captured state and
national titles in the 3,000 meters
and competed in a few track and
field events in the area last spring.
Andrus transferred from Wiscon
sin, where he ran under Martin
Smith, now Oregon’s head coach.
Andrus then took a two-year reli
gious mission in Mexico and
came to Eugene in late December.
Hartmann said he hopes this
season to personally improve on
all his performances from last
year, which included runner-up
finishes at the Pacific-10 Cham
pionships and the Western Re
gional.
This summer, Hartmann
trained in Eugene as well as in his
home town of Rockford, Mich. He
keeps a level head about the sea
son and how it may progress.
“I’m sure there will be guys
that run really well, and there’ll
he guys that don’t run up to par,
but that’s just racing,” he said.
Hartmann said he can’t wait to
get moving in the team’s first race
this weekend.
“We’re all excited to see what
kind of shape we’re in and ready
to run,” he said.
Struyk likely to be
ready this weekend
The women’s cross country
team has one race under its belt
and knows what needs to be done
in order to achieve its goal of go
ing to the National Champi
onships.
“Things are going to have to
come together perfectly,” junior
Carrie Zografos said.
Redshirt sophomore Tara
Struyk, who is recovering from an
injured calf, said that in order for
the team to make it to nationals,
the entire team needs to be
healthy.
Struyk’s leg, which she says is
“on the mend,” should be ready
for Saturday’s run.
In terms of chemistry, both
teams are working well together.
Zografos said that during races
and away from the course, the
team members help each other
out.
“It’s good to have somebody
you know close by in the mess of
runners,” she said. “Lots of us are
at the same level of fitness right
now.”