University of Virginia Library

Average
Professionals

In your Thursday editorial titled
"The Athletic Future", you
proclaim that a conscious effort by
the University to capture the ACC
football championship could only
promote athletic professionalism
here at the U. Your people seem to
believe that as long as we have a bad
team here at Virginia, people will
think that our minds are on
learning, not sports. This is a rather
weak argument considering such
schools as V.M.I. which are able to
always field a bad team while not in
any way promoting an image of
academic greatness (your people
must have had in mind schools such
as Johns Hopkins & MIT).

Be that as it may, Virginia
probably already possesses as
professional a collegiate football
program as the average major
college. All that is lacking is results.
We have the cattle, but their
bloodline isn't perfect. At this
point, it seems we have two
possible directions (1) Sell the farm
and get into a most "respectable"

In either case we should stop
promoting the mediocrity which
presently prevails. If we have a
good team, the money will flow
into the fill of the U. If we drop the
program, then we will save all the
bread that is wasted now. With the
money obtained from these
ventures, maybe somebody will
find a way for every student at
Virginia to take part in that "rich
educational experience", that you
speak of so often.

Although I seriously doubt that
money can buy the academic
reputation that Virginia wants so
desperately, an attempt to do so
seems better than continuing to
insist on poor teams so that people
will think that we here at Virginia
have our noses in a book and not in
a jockstrap.