The University of Oregon and the Pit Crew sustained a black eye from last week’s UCLA game. It’s been well-documented that the fans were unruly and University officials didn’t do much to quell the obscenities.
The behavior improved during Saturday’s game against USC after Oregon coach Ernie Kent addressed the fans before the game and University officials spoke to members of the Pit Crew, encouraging the students to tone down the vulgarity.
Now the reparation work to Oregon’s image begins – on several fronts.
Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny left messages apologizing to UCLA coach Ben Howland, UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and Stan Love, father of UCLA center Kevin Love, who was targeted for most of the game.
Howland said the matter is behind them now, according to the Associated Press.
And the Pit Crew hopes to keep the matter behind them too, while hoping that it doesn’t become its legacy.
“We’ve already moved on,” Pit Crew President Daniel Cogan said. “What happened happened and I don’t anticipate having those problems again.”
He and the rest of the group’s leadership are making efforts to avoid a repeat performance and will test out ideas to limit individual fans creating chants that reflect poorly on the entire group.
“Just because it’s a basketball game doesn’t mean you’re excluded from the rules of society,” Cogan said.
That’s what happened against UCLA, according to senior Ryan Hodges, who has been a part of the Pit Crew for four years. He said a few intoxicated fans started some of the chants and were so vocal that they got a good majority of other students to join in.
“The main thing is that we have to set the example,” Hodges said. “It’s really hard to control 1,000 students all at once.
“One person will start it and another drunk idiot will join in.”
Both Hodges and Cogan said there needs to be better communication between student sections so that everyone is on the same page of what to chant and when to stand up and get even louder.
Among many planned measures, the Pit Crew will send an individual in each student section with a white dry-erase board to signal a specific chant. Cogan thinks it’ll work but it will be difficult given the students’ inability to move from group to group because security limits access through the doors. Still, they’re going to try some different ways of staying coordinated.
“It’s tough because they are so far apart,” Cogan said. “There’s lots of ways we can improve on it and will continue to try stuff out until we can do a better job.”
The Pit Crew is encouraging students to make creative signs, as the group has developed a partnership with Nike to give away a free pair of customizable NikeID shoes to whoever brings the best sign at every home game.
“We pick a sign winner and they get to go online and pick their own shoe and Nike sends it to them,” Cogan said. “A sign that’s inappropriate isn’t going to win. If it’s inappropriate we’ll take it away.”
The partnership with Nike is new this year and part of Cogan’s plan on running the Pit Crew with business in mind. He said the group hasn’t been fiscally responsible in the past and he hopes to “return capital to shareholders.”
“One of the things we’ve really been focusing on is making sure kids are getting the most out of the group,” Cogan said. “Ultimately, that’s our goal.”
Oregon basketball spokesman Greg Walker said that Kilkenny and the coaches of the basketball team will interact with the group on a weekly basis to formulate ideas for home games.
“We can learns from the situation and involve them in more things,” Walker said. “We’ll try to keep the conversation going through the season.”