Sports editor:
Brad Schmidt
bradschmidt@dailyemerald.com.
Tuesday, July 23,2002
Oregon Daily Emerald
Best Bet
MLB, Texas at Seattle
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OSU hunts for athletic director, financial answers
The school’s athletic department is
aiming to eliminate its massive debt, and
is looking for a new sports leader to do so
By Brad Schmidt
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Oregon State University Athletic De
partment has had its share of problems over
the years — maybe even more than the
school’s sports teams. Of these woes, none
stands out more than OSU’s intercollegiate
debt that, in the 1990s, reached close to a jaw
dropping $12 million.
But to the relief of Beaver faithful, Athletic
Director Mitch Barnhart was always there to
pick up the pieces.
Until last week, that is.
OSU, now without its sports leader, is
searching for a new athletic director that will
see to, among other things, the elimination of
a debt that currently registers about $5.6 mil
lion. Barnhart, who resigned July 15 to take a
similar position at the University of Ken
tucky, had been instrumental in the reduc
tion of the school’s athletic debt.
“(Barnhart) did an extraordinary job in re
ducing debt,” Oregon University System
spokesman Bob Bruce said. “These kinds of
deficits aren’t common, at that magnitude, in
intercollegiate athletics.”
OSU Vice President of Finance and Ad
ministration Mark McCambridge said that
before Barnhart arrived, the school was
spending more money annually than it was
receiving. But beginning in 1998 with Barn
hart at the helm, expenses were reduced
while revenues and private donations in
creased, McCambridge said.
And with the resurgence of OSU’s foot
ball team and some Barnhart cost-cutting,
the school was able to alleviate some of the
fiscal hemorrhaging that had plagued it
since the 1980s.
Ducking the problem
Some intercollegiate debt, however, is
common, said Tom Larson, University of
Oregon assistant athletic director.
In fact, Oregon found itself in about $1.8
million in the red in 1990. It was only
through “belt tightening,” Larson said, that
the Athletic Department was able to make up
for what he called “optimistic spending.”
“Through most of the ’80s, the depart
ment was in a deficit position,” said Lar
son, who is also the department’s chief fi
nancial officer.
Oregon’s football successes in 1989 and
1994, however, placed the Ducks in the Inde
pendence Bowl and Rose Bowl and allowed
the Athletic Department to dig itself out of fi
nancial troubles by 1996, Larson said.
But even now, after the monumental suc
cess of the football and men’s basketball
teams, Oregon still maintains a goal of “break
even,” he said. Numbers from fiscal years
2001 and 2002 saw such trends. In 2003, he
said, repayment on a bond for the expansion
of Autzen Stadium will cut into profits and
render a near-even financial finish.
Much of the time, Larson said, athletic
departments reinvest profits of previous
years immediately while hoping to keep up
with expenses. In 2004, he said, Oregon
plans to use profits to expand its programs
by adding another women’s varsity team.
From 1996 to 2002, Larson said, the depart
ment had only a “couple hundred thou
sand” dollars in reserve.
“We don’t really have a large reserve, per
se,” he said. “We don’t have a large pot of
money sitting around.”
Turn to Debt, page 6
No Joey ?
Historians
worry not
ofQB loss
Where’s Joey Harrington when
you need him?
With little more than a
month before the Ducks’ season opener
against Mississippi State, Internet re
search reveals that sports “analysts”
have asked themselves that same ques
tion. Many rendered an answer of
"somewhere other than Eugene” and
wrote off Oregon.
Rest assured, however. The Ducks
will have the last quack, er, laugh.
According to collegesports.com, 15
independent organizations have sub
Brad
Schmidt
Sports editor
mitted 2002 pre
season football
rankings, and Ore
gon — last season’s
No. 2 finisher
— has taken a dra
matic hit. On aver
age, the Ducks are
ranked somewhere
between 14th and
15th in the nation.
The good news:
Oregon is ranked
in the top 10 in
one-third of the
polls. The bad
news: The Ducks’
highest ranking is only a meager No. 7
and, in one poll, the team dropped to
the distastefiil position of No. 25.
All this comes a year after an unex
pected run at the National Champi
onship, a Pacific-10 Conference title
and a 38-16 Fiesta Bowl blowout.
With no star quarterback. Oregon
was dropped 13 spots down a group
of charts that, come autumn, matter
more than the New York Stock Ex
change. The Ducks will prove that
drop has no wings.
Oregon will be good — damn good.
History has a tendency of repeating
itself.
Three years ago, Oregon was in the
same uncertain predicament. The
Ducks lost Akili Smith — their starting
quarterback. The loss came at the
hands of Cincinnati — a Midwest NFL
team. The Bengals had a high pick in
Turn to Schmidt, page 6
A site to remember
Staff Writers
Oregon Daily Emerald
Last week, the Emerald pub
lished an in-depth look at the
“new” Autzen Stadium.
For nearly 35 years, however,
the stadium stood virtually un
touched. Here is a look back at the
original construction of the “old”
Autzen Stadium — a structure
that, to so many, housed more
than a quarter-century worth of
priceless memories.
Breaking ground
Construction has begun on
Autzen Stadium, scheduled to be
completed in the fall of 1967. The
$2.3 million stadium will seat
40,000 people.
— Oct. 21, 1966
Looking back at Autzen Stadi
um as it was this past October, not
much difference can be seen be
tween then and now, but con
struction is reported ahead of the
revised schedule.
— Feb. 24, 1967
Students squawk
over seating
Students protesting the pro
posed student seating arrange
ments at the new Autzen Stadi
um will carry signs and hand out
fliers at the Saturday basketball
game between the University
and Stanford.
“Seeing how this is the worst
seating of the other PAC schools,
we will be presenting a plan that
is at least comparable to what we
have in the old stadium,” ASUO
Autzen Stadium, seen here in a photo from Sept. 19,1967, made its debut on Sept. 23,1967 at the Ducks’ season opener.
Emerald
senator Dan Allison said.
Two plans were presented (by
the University) to the students
Feb. 9.
Plan I provides for University
student seating to begin at the
20-yard line and extend to the
10-yard line on the other side of
the field.
Plan II starts the student seating
section at the 30-yard line and ex
tends it around to the end zone.
— Feb. 24, 1967
The buy of the century
It’s beginning to look like a sta
dium! What looked like a huge
pile of mud and dirt not so long
ago is taking form as the bowl
shaped Autzen Stadium, which
will be the scene of Oregon foot
ball games for years to come.
The stadium is located on a
picturesque 89-acre site across
the Willamette River from cam
pus, and is a short ten-minute
drive from the University.
The Athletic Department calls
the facility the “stadium buy of
the century.” Two and a quarter
million is considered a small
price to pay for 41,000 seats.
Turn to Autzen, page 8
Kent coaches men’s junior USA Basketball team
The University coach will lead the 2002
USA Men’s Junior World Championship
Qualifying Team in Venezuela this week
By Brad Schmidt
Oregon Daily Emerald
Last season, Oregon head coach Ernie Kent
had both the opportunity and the challenge
of guiding what many call the most talented
and gifted men’s basketball team in the his
tory of the program.
This week, he probably won’t top that
achievement — but he might come close.
Kent will coach the 2002 USA Men’s Junior
to
KENT
World Championship
Qualifying Team, a group
of the nation’s best players
18 years old or younger,
Wednesday though Sun
day in Venezuela. With a
successful run in the tour
nament, the team would
qualify for a spot in the
2003 FIBA Junior World
Championships, which
will be held next year in
Malaysia.
This marks Kent’s second appearance with
a USA Basketball team. Last year, Kent served
as an assistant coach to a team that consisted
of players 21 years old or younger. Kent led
Oregon to a 26-9 record this past year, a Pacif
ic-10 Conference championship, an appear
ance in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight
and a tie for No. 6 in national polls.
Kent was selected to head the team May 2
by the USA Basketball Men’s Senior National
Team Committee and was approved by USA
Basketball’s Executive Committee.
The 12-member USA team arrived July 14
in Miami for training at the practice facilities
of the NBA’s Miami Heat before traveling
Monday to Isla de Margarita, Venezuela.
Turn to Kent, page 6