University of Virginia Library

To The Editor

Decade Of Oblivion

I was very much shocked and
dismayed this evening to hear of
the firing of Head Coach George
Blackburn today. Yet in many ways
the news fit in rather well with the
sickeningly placid attitude in
high-level politics of this University
and this state for that matter, that
when our image becomes ruffled by
a poor football season or a student
strike, we eliminate the people
under whose jurisdiction these events
seemingly take place. And,
subsequently, Virginia becomes
doomed to another decade of
oblivion both as an institution of
academia and sport.

Mr. Shannon is still with us,
through whose efforts we don't
really know, surely not wholly the
efforts of the student body, Yet to
save Mr. Blackburn from a similar
fate would not fit in with the
romance espoused with saving a
college president who dared to
speak out against status-quoism. It's
too bad that we don't think of
football coaches as persons, also.

For the two several football
seasons during which I have been a
registered student here, I have been
impressed with Mr. Blackburn's
attitude that he is a part of this
university, win or lose. He takes the
ultimate blame for defeat and
attributes the wins to "his boys",
and few ACC coaches can say this
especially with the strong-hearted
enthusiasm of Coach Blackburn.

We had a young team this year
with a very promising outlook for
next year in the likes of Bill Tramp,
Bischoff and Sullivan, who in time
may turn out to be another Quayle
Davis combination of a couple of
years ago.

But instead of giving someone a
fair chance to see his efforts come
to fruition, we tell him three weeks
prior to Christmas that he has been
fired, mainly because we're in a
hurry, like always to build a
prestigious image that we never
quite attain.

What do you call it when you
fire a coach Mr. Williams, an
honorable discharge?