University of Virginia Library

Welcome, Mr. Corrigan

Although it won't be until January that
Eugene F. Corrigan takes over as Director of
University Athletic Programs, we would like
to extend our congratulations to him upon his
appointment. At the same time we would be
remiss if we did not take note of the
tremendous contribution made by Steve Sebo
to the University's athletic programs over the
past eight years. Mr. Sebo has been directly
responsible for the upgrading of the
University's athletic facilities, helping raise
money for everything from a new field house
to the nine-lane tartan track which will be one
of the best in the East when completed.
Fortunately for the University Mr. Sebo will
remain in charge of intercollegiate sports.

Mr. Corrigan has reached the top in a
peculiar profession, one which is naturally
liable to criticism from the public. Students,
who are a major part of this public, feel that
because they help pay the mortgages on
University Hall and the coaches' salaries their
opinions on athletics should be heeded more
than, say, those of the alumni, who after all
are merely outside agitators of a sort. There is
a sizeable group of students at the University
who don't get angry over such things as
politics or academics but if the Wahoos are
humiliated on a particular Saturday, or if
Coach Gibson fails to press during the final
quarter of a basketball game when, in their
opinion, he should, these students erupt in
uncontrollable anger.

Now every coach likes to win and every
athletic director likes to have a string of
winning teams at his school. But over the
years it has become an accepted axiom that at
this University there are many endeavors
more worthy of encouragement than
intercollegiate athletics. The day the
University of Virginia is known more for its
football team (hard to conceive of at this
point) than its academic excellence will be a
sad day indeed. Students don't seem to mind
a losing team, as long as that team puts up a
good fight.

What bothers us is the disturbing trend of
the athletic program at the University. As a
result of creeping professionalism the athlete
is becoming increasingly more alienated from
the rest of the student body. In an effort to
have winning teams the athletic department is
sacrificing many intangibles which have in the
past made the student-athlete a valuable
contributing element at the University.

The philosophy which puts the athlete in a
different world at the Universities of Alabama
and Texas is well on its way to becoming
acceptable here. This concept of
professionalism has not just been taken to
heart by the football coaching staff, but
permeates all of the sports down to even the
individual types like swimming and tennis. We
are willing to concede that professionalism
may be needed to have "Number I" teams, at
least in a major sport like football, yet we
would rather have teams that did not compete
against such unreasonable competition than
to have teams composed of professionals who
have become completely alienated from the
rest of the students. Part of the enjoyment of
attending athletic functions is seeing your
friends play, people students know in the
classroom, in fraternities and apartments or in
their daily activities.

What it all boils down to is that this
University must make the choice whether it
wants powerhouse teams or whether it wants
to maintain a rather homogeneous student
body with a sense of community and no
special class of jocks who do not have to
operate under the same academic,
disciplinary, or social norms as do the rest of
the students.

As we have said, we think students prefer
to see a team put up a good fight against a
school with a more professional attitude
towards sports than to try and mimic that
school. Last year's basketball team had an
overall record that was hardly glorious and
yet students flocked to University Hall with
great regularity because Coach Gibson's
basketball team always played well over its
head. They came very close to beating some
much better teams and, on occasion, did
squeak by with a victory which by all rights
they shouldn't have had.

And so, Mr. Corrigan, we ask you to
oppose the rather persistent pressures to
"professionalize" our athletic program. Some
of the more popular sports on the Grounds,
particularly the club sports, make great
efforts to remain amateurish, and always seem
to have great spirit. Too many colleges and
universities think that this spirit can be
bought, that a new stadium or an expensive
recruiting campaign will produce a winner.

We are glad that you come from a school
such as Washington and Lee. In Lexington, as
in Charlottesville, there seems to be a
consensus that sports, after all, are only a
game. To keep a sports program from
becoming a business is a hefty responsibility
and one which we are pleased to see entrusted
to a man such as Gene Corrigan.