The unceremonious axing of Oregon wrestling has turned into a black eye for the athletic department and its administration.
Maybe they thought since not many attend the wrestling meets, not many would even notice. Maybe they saw the $600,000 yearly budget and figured they could use that money better someplace else.
After all, this group is running up enormous debts and acting at times more like high-rolling real estate developers than college athletics administrators, and they might need that money if something goes awry with one of their pet projects.
But at what real cost to the school? In my estimation, it will be an enormous and possibly irreversible one.
Because what we’re really talking about isn’t attendance figures, budget numbers or anything truly quantifiable. We’re talking about the very definition of what a university should be.
A university is a place where young people go to learn life’s lessons, find their path in the world, and become adults, and a university should do its best to provide a breadth of opportunities commensurate with the diversity of possible interests its students may have.
Allow me to toot Oregon’s horn for a moment to illustrate. I have a broad range of interests, and I’ve been able to explore several of these in my courses here. In addition to my career-related studies in media, I have taken courses in Russian literature, digital art, film, and even the poetry of Bob Dylan’s lyrics.
Are any of these areas of study quantifiably, (and I mean hard numbers here), necessary to the school? Are any of them going to help me get a job once I leave?
No, but balance is important in life, and in a university. Just as high-profile, big-ticket academic programs like business or law drive enrollment and donations, the breadth of other “outside the box” courses provide an atmosphere of culture and true learning, and an opportunity for students to explore.
The same can be said of the athletics at a university. The big-ticket programs like football, basketball and (soon) baseball may drive enrollment and donations, but the diversity of athletic pursuits must be maintained and programs like wrestling help keep an atmosphere of diverse avenues of competitive athleticism alive within the department.
Last year, as a freelance writer for the Emerald sports section, I covered a wide range of sports. I covered volleyball, basketball, men’s and women’s rugby, hockey and men’s lacrosse to name a few. Was any of this experience necessary to my career or degree? Hell no, but am I a better journalist because of it? I believe so.
A big part of the experience I gained last year in my chosen profession came from covering the wrestling team. As one of the most dedicated freelance writers involved with the paper fall term, I was offered the wrestling beat for winter term and eagerly accepted. I wrestled a little bit as a kid and had enjoyed it, and I would get a guaranteed spot in the paper each week.
I attended every home meet, watched a few more via Web cast, and wrote eight or nine feature profiles on the athletes I grew to admire: Chris Dearmon, Justin Perch, Ronnie Lee and several others.
At the end of the year I told Chuck Kearney that I had enjoyed covering his team and hoped I did a satisfactory job. I also told him that I felt it was a disservice to the wrestling program and a black eye for the Emerald that a freelance writer was assigned to a Division I sport on the campus we are supposed to cover and not a full-time staff member.
When I was hired last spring to cover football and basketball this year, one thing I was sure to make clear was my disgust with the paper’s attitude toward wrestling the previous season. I swore that if they didn’t have a writer assigned to cover it this year, they’d be paying me to cover both, even if the basketball coverage had to suffer.
Lucky for my GPA, staff sports reporter Doug Bonham snatched up the beat and has done a nice job. Ask the coach or the wrestlers and they can tell you that for the last couple of years at least, (I can’t speak to years previous, but I do remember coach Kearney mentioning that Register-Guard football writer Rob Moseley covered wrestling here, too) the Emerald has been there to cover them.
Because I have been to several meets, I know the level of fan support that Oregon wrestling typically draws: not much. Does this mean it isn’t a worthwhile sport for an athletic department to fund or young men to pursue? No.
So on the cusp of the Pac-10 wrestling championships this weekend at Mac Court, the last Division I wrestling this campus will see if this madness isn’t stopped, I implore the athletic department and Pat Kilkenny: Put down the blueprints and fabric samples for a minute and think this decision over. There is so much at stake, and not just for the wrestling team, but the whole University.
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