University of Virginia Library

SPOTLIGHT
ON
SPORTS

By Jack Glenn

SHOULD YOU LIVE IN THE DORMS next year,
you may well find ten football players living in the neighboring
suite. Yes, the football team plans to invade the
somewhat monastic dorms this fall in an assault upon
the tradition of losing most gridiron contests.

Nevertheless conservatives need not fear the decay of the
University's image. Football coaches, housing officials,
players, and athletic administrators cherish that image as
much as any student traditionalist. They all agree that the
exceptional athlete should not enjoy a favored position in
student life. Thus living in the dorms will not separate
the athlete from other students; if anything, it will only
further integrate him into the normal school society.

NOR WILL SUCH RESIDENCY POLICIES promote
the professionalism of athletes at the University. No one
will think the less of Virginia if she shows organization
in her quest for winning football games. Living in blocks
of ten to further team unity will only help Virginia win. We
would only like to ask this question: Is it necessary to
keep losing to maintain strict amateurism? Why is winning
associated only with professionalism? Can't we pursue excellence
of professional competence without choking when
we hear this word "professional" applied to us? Perhaps
it is that we value too greatly the unique qualities which
separate us from other schools—especially when these qualities
merely hinder us from attaining the excellence we seek!
Is organized team living in the dorms to destroy an old
image or merely keep us from building a new and better
one?

Yet there is one stumbling block that remains to be
hurdled in progressing toward having athletes living together
in the dorms. In our opinion the question pivots
on whether the athletes themselves truly wish to live together
in the Alderman Road structures. If they do wish
to so commune, then we see no reason to prevent them
from leasing a suite of their own. Although dealt with in
terms of teamwork the matter seems personal in nature.
The vote taken last week by the football team seemingly
legitimized Coach Blackburn's assault on the dorms. If
they really wish to sacrifice the comforts of apartment
living or the right to share a room with a friend not found
on the football team, then who is to deny them.

IF WE DO HAVE A CRITICISM to make, however,
it is that we cannot approve of going halfway with this
idea of organized living. As drawn up now, the players
will live in separate blocks of ten in several different
dorms. We ask that it we are to have athletes living
together, why can't we have them joined together in a
single unit? We realize, of course, that this policy of
separation is a concession to soothe the traditionalists,
but we simply wish to point out that we do not agree
with it.