Oregon football fans have always known that the Ducks are a quality football team.
Now, 15 million more people know how good Oregon is.
Two days after it was announced that Ducks quarterback Joey Harrington would be featured on the
cover of Spor ts Illustrated and ESPN Magazine, the Oregon athletic department confirmed that
billboards of cornerback Rashad Bauman and running back Maurice Morris will be erected this
weekend in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.
The billboards, unpre cedented simply because they aren’t in the team’s home town, are being
funded by the same group of donors that paid for a 100-foot billboard of Harrington in downtown
New York, according to Oregon director of media services Dave Williford.
Sacred Heart expansion talks continue
City Council on Wednesday scrapped a proposed land use change that would have blocked
Sacred Heart Medical Center from expanding into north Eugene and directed city staff to continue
discussions with the hospital’s parent company, PeaceHealth.
While the vote dropped one hurdle to PeaceHealth’s planned expansion to north Eugene,
hospital spokesman Brian Terrett said the meeting presented a new setback for PeaceHealth.
The council didn’t vote on a motion to seek state dollars for an interchange between the Belt Line
Highway and Coburg Road that Terrett said the hospital would need to openl at its preferred site,
near Crescent Avenue.
Music school to be remodeled
Gov. John Kitzhaber on Wednesday signed into law a bill that will give the University of Oregon
School of Music $7.6 million for a massive remodeling project.
The project, which will cost $15.2 million, is aimed at eliminating overcrowding in the music school’s
building, parts of which were built in 1917 to accommodate 300 students. Today, music school
officials say about 2,000 students use the building, and 500 of them are music majors.
The School of Music has so far raised $700,000 and hopes the state funds will compel private
donors to give more to the project.
While construction plans are tentative, current drafts call for providing more classrooms, rehearsal
rooms, studios, office space and a performance hall designed for m odern art performances.
University announces to keep broadcast policy in place
The University halted all plans for a new media policy that would have restricted how long
television news crews could film Duck football gam es.
Athletic Director Bill Moos announced Wednesday that after almost a month of public feedback
and angry, criticizing letters from media groups nationwide, the school will keep its “open access”
gameday policy for television journalists.
Inste ad of implementing a policy, Moos said the industry will take responsibility and police itself.
But Bill Johnstone, CEO of the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, said his group has no plans
to enact specific rules or guidelines on when highlights can be aired and for how long.
