We Care Jeffrey

I agree with Martins crucial point made below.

I think its great that Oregon has raised a few million by now, and while that is a great precedent for bringing back a dropped program for the rest of the country to follow, I worry that it could also present another problem down the road. What if other AD's look to drop wrestling, and begin to expect wrestling to become a self-sufficient sport? What if it sets a precedence for making future teams also have to be financially independent of the schools. This could result even more programs getting dropped, by AD's telling coaches to follow your model, and raise several million if they want to keep their program- otherwise the athletic department will look to save the cash and not fund the program in these tight financial times in academia. I dont have a solution to this, but it certainly may become a problem for future program in the DII and DIII realms who can not raise the same type of money that a major program like Oregon can.

Good idea to funnel fundraising money to begin a new program at a place like Texas, an oil-rich university that has an upwelling of wrestling at youth levels emerging instead of trying to buy a spot back at a university that ignorantly doesnt want wrestling there.

i dont think Ian exasperated any problem. I think "anonymous" has good points about stuff but Ian didnt advocate bigotry. You are just projecting other peoples missteps and associating it with Ian. The fact is donating money to save oregon wrestling sets a dangerous precedent of rewarding Athletic Departments for dropping wrestling. Maybe we should rally people to donate money to start a new program at another institution.....say University of Texas. If the University of Oregon doesnt want the greatest sport in the world it is a serious loss to their institution....the problem is it might be more of a devestating loss for the wrestling community.

Ian,

This was a well-versed piece in which you obviously took great pains to craft a coherent message. For that, you should be applauded. It's a shame, however, that by writing this you've only exacerbated the problem, rather than provided a solution.

It's not as though the Oregon athletic department needs any more shaming, but they did not, as you state, add baseball out of envy for the program up north. Pat Kilkenny looked at Oregon State's two national championships and saw the financial potential within college baseball. This was about money. This was about a sport that could form a "big three" with college basketball and college football. That is why Kilkenny made the decision to add baseball (and competitive cheerleading, a sport that doesn't really exist, for good measure). Unfortunately, he also decided to drop wrestling from the equation under shaky (at best) grounds.

So then you've stumbled upon Jeff's article and you realize, like we all have, that this is probably the worst published article you'll read in your lifetime. And then you encourage everyone to respond to the article, but not without thinking for a second.

Yeah, Ian...the 700 people who've already posted clearly thought for a second. Thought about sending Jeff death threats and calling him any number of homosexual slurs. Thought about letting him know that he should be expelled, fired, and publicly humiliated for his opinion piece, as though he somehow wasn't already. Thought about how the Oregon wrestling team should take umbrage to his piece and do something about it, i.e. physically beat or kill him.

Such encouragement, Ian. You mentioned, of course, that Jeremy McLaughlin took the high road in an editorial published a few days later. Too bad no one else in the wrestling community (save a few in charge of Save Oregon Wrestling and the few lucid opinions in the comment section) feels the same way you do. (Or do they?) As someone who is ambivalent about wrestling, had I known nothing else about the debate other than the article and the comments, I'd side with Jeff. Kick those wrestlers off campus! They're not who we want representing the University of Oregon! After all, they're supposed to do physical harm to anyone who has the audacity to criticize anything about their sport. If non-wrestling fans don't extol wrestling's virtues of hard work and manhood, then they're gay, or a nerd, or some other societal outcast and should be treated as such. (I've never heard of a gay wrestler; I understand why.) The wrestling community itself looks like a vast, organized cult. At least Jim Jones offered a free trip to Guyana, and all the Kool-Aid you could drink. Why should we go to lengths to appease a fan base that represents itself as homophobic, discriminatory (remember that comment on the Daily Emerald site about basketball making street thugs rich?), and insular. You can't seem to penetrate the wrestling community unless you were there from the beginning, and if you weren't then that's your fault and you obviously can't live up to the values wrestling bestows upon its followers.

Right? Am I right? For humanity's sake, I hope not.

Spewing the same hatred (or attempting to instruct based upon the good wrestling can do) will do absolutely nothing to save the wrestling team at Oregon, and you know it. Yet you wrote this piece anyway. Could you really not help yourself that much? Your point, as it comes across to me, means that by tarring and feathering Jeff somehow it's going to make this all better. It's not, and the very wrestlers who you're trying to do good will be stripped of their sport as a result.

I don't want Oregon wrestling cut. I think college kids should have every conceivable opportunity made available to them, in existing or emerging sports as well as arts, music, and educational pursuits. I'm assuming you share a similar viewpoint (with a little understood bias), but you're going about it the wrong way.

I don't support Jeff's column, but I do support his general opinion because he is right. A very small percentage of people in Oregon care about wrestling, and an even smaller percentage of those on the Oregon campus care. It's painful to say but it's true and it's honest. Jeff has the right to express his opinion, although he obviously overstepped journalism protocol in doing so, to the disdain of everyone whom his words touched. If the wrestling community wants to take Jeff's opinion from him, they have to wrestle it from the majority of people. And in a sport that loves the underdog and winning clean, the methods you describe are not how to go about changing that opinion.

Do you want to know how to save Oregon wrestling? Do you really want to know? Do you really care?

Donate money. Contact the folks over at saveoregonwrestling.com. Fill the inboxes of Oregon athletic department personnel so full they have no choice but to respond. Write to the university's president, Dave Frohnmayer, and tell him how outrageous it is that a liberal-minded institution is closing itself off by cutting this team. E-mail every state legislator--Oregon is a public university--and let them know how you feel.

Just don't go rehashing an opinion that 700 people have beaten you to. That shows, for lack of better word, carelessness. And carelessness will not save Oregon wrestling.

Well stated (and written). Obviously the columnist in question isn't much of an athlete or fan for that matter...

When I started to read that article,one look at little Jeffery's picture and I understood it all.He wouldn't last 30 seconds on the mat with my 10-year old son.

Here's a link from today's Daily Emerald. Great article in support of the program: http://www.dailyemerald.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=6a49c4ac-2d01-4aa1-aef5-dc68dd09303f

Best response I've seen...well said.