University of Virginia Library

SPOTLIGHT ON SPORTS

By Jack Glenn

PROWLING FOR UPSET blared the Friday sports
page headline of the Spectrum on the University of
Buffalo in reference to the then approaching grid contest
with our own Cavaliers.

MacGregor and company proved the headline to be just,
for Buffalo indeed fell as planned 35-12 in Scott Stadium.
But who was upsetting whom—at least in the minds of
Virginia partisans?

Perhaps we are wrong, but we think we detected a lack
of optimism in the general student body just before game
time. If not true in this case, it almost certainly is true
of the overall student attitude going into games in the past.

To be a winner you've got to think like one. Perhaps
that last statement should have quotes around it, but
truisms have a way of becoming trite.

IT IS THUS OUR CONTENTION that the student
body has not supported its athletic teams as well as it
should. Perhaps there is some justification for this lack
of faith. After all, the football team has not put together
a winner since the early fifties, and certainly University
Hall is not without its faults—but are not these good
reasons to root all the harder for the Cavaliers?

The football team showed Saturday that it is a spirited
bunch if it is nothing else—and it is, we think. Captain
Mal MacGregor is a case in point as the enthused leader
of the team. It is too bad that more of his vigor cannot
diffuse throughout the student body—it would help.

MORE THAN ONCE we have heard players complain
about lack of student support, and more than once have
we have witnessed it ourselves—how many people snickered
at our chances of beating Army?

This attitude has got to change, not because we say it
must, but because this University should not condone
a defeatist attitude.

Certainly a great number of students entered the gates
of Scott Stadium Saturday already doubting their Cavaliers.
Thus the 35-12 whipping probably came as a surprise.

NOW WE ARE NOT AGAINST SURPRISES, nor
do we advocate irrational expectations of Virginia routings,
but the thought that beating Buffalo by any margin would
stun most people seems to reveal a certain bit of pessimism.

It is impossible to change an attitude overnight, but
maybe a victory such as the one over Buffalo will help.
From the pressbox Saturday "The Good Old Song"
sounded louder and louder each time Virginia scored a
touchdown. We hope the noise was not the expressed
glee of gloating winners, but rather the growing enthusiasm
of a spirited group of Wahoos eager for victory. May
they be as eager next week against Wake Forest, whether
they see it first-hand or not.