UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN editorials
Unsigned editorists represent the opinion of the Kanan editorial staff. Signed columns represent the views of the editors.
February 27,1980
Political Games XIII
All that glitters for Eric Heiden, 21-year-old U.S. speed skater, and the Olympic hockey team is, indeed, gold or at least gold plated.
The 1980 Winter Olympic Games are over, and among its medals, the United States scored the gold in hockey for the first time in 20 years and glided to gold on the blades of a young speed skater who slashed seconds off previous runs. He was also himself in Olympic history with his five individual gold medals.
Throughout the Games, however,
and especially in relation to the hockey
competition, a question lingered in the
minds of commentators and interested
observers: Is more than athletic ex-
cellence being determined here?
Many people have concluded that the answer to that question is yes. Undeniably, the U.S. hockey victory over the Soviets was the climax of the Games for Americans. Twenty American college kids and their coach proved they were better hockey players than 20 Soviet professionals.
But any political overtones icing the hockey victory were amplified by persons outside of the competition, not American spectators. Thousands of American spectators present.
President Jimmy Carter extended his congratulations to the hockey team personally by telephone, not once, but twice. And on Monday, the whole team visited the president at the White House. Although the other medalists also were guests at the White House, none of them received a phone call
from Carter, not even quintuple gold medalist Eric Heiden.
Nevertheless, to anyone who watched the Games, it should have been evident that American spectators on the scene, as well as spectators from other countries, were there to watch the quintessence of athletic ability and not to undermine the event with outbursts of political pandering.
The couple received vigorous *ap- plause for their performance and victory, even in the wake of the unfortunate withdrawal of U.S. skaters, Baldy Gardner and Tai Bablonia, the present World Champion pair figure skater*
President Carter has mandated an official U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In light of his previous threats to do so if the Soviets did not withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, Carter had no choice. But, in light of the exhilarating exhibitions of athletic ability displayed by Americans in the Winter Games—void of the virulent political pandemonium rocking the world—one can't help wishing that world leaders would conduct a separate Olympics for their political gaming.
The pairs' figure skating competition probably provided the best example of a predominantly American audience appreciating and acknowledging the superior skating skills of the ultimate gold medal team. In Romain Bauernder Zaitsev, despite the fact that they represented the Soviet Union.
UNIVERSITY DAILY letters KANSAN
To the Editor:
Anderson deserves
student consideration
On Jan. 13, 1980 the New York Times published an article titled 'Why Not the Best?' This would appear first to be a law report, but it isn't. This particular article is an editorial in defense of Rep. John B. Antero, a Republican and the Republican presidential nomination.
the New York Times, I am asking the people this very same question—Why not be the best? Anderson, who has been a member of our political party, represents a profound type of political thinking. His ideology is such that you cannot classify him as either conservative or liberal.
In the past, Anderson has supported civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, campaign financing reform, and a specific yet rational energy policy. He came out against both in the Indochina and Nixon's handling of Watergate before he was elected to Congress, a sensible candidate who appeals to all people, not just a particular special interest.
Anderson has a rare intelligence. He was graduated from the Beta Kappa Chapter of Delta Phi and earned his J.D. in Law; he finished his formal education at Harvard, where he earned his B.S. in Law.
Anderson does not stereotype issues; heakes it each issue, puts it into its proper context and corrects it. Anderson corrects to. To me, this is what makes Anderson different from all the candidates
Tom Pickford
Topeka senior
Anderson has one more unique quality—he is the first candidate since Harry Clinton. And you tell him what he believes whether you like it or not. Anderson is a decent, honest,
intelligent, dedicated man. He captives Republicans and Democrats, but he has an even greater appeal to the Independent voter. In today's world, politicians like this are hard to find. So what do you say KU? And the best? Why not John B. Anderson?
Critics of review wasting their time
To the Editor :
Good grief. It happens every year. A musical act comes to KU, performs, leaves and is reviewed. Some people like the music and others don't. Often write vitrific letters to the Kanan.
Argue about opinion as long as you please, then. Berate the reviewer's appreciation of the finer pleasures. Buy a case of an artist's work, especially if it is being as emotional as you please, in private.
But when you undertake to proclaim publicly your disgust for previous public proclamations, for your credibility and my peace of mind, please remember two things.
1) Aubund generalizations are precisely that—absurd. I know I speak for every fan in Hoch. . . in saying that Hatchet was an anan letters Feb. 25). Uh, huh. sure you do.
2) If the reviewer was an ass for putting up a manicure, he'd have to down someone else's. "the depressing clobberin on his nose," ever so monotoneous voice of Barry Menon, "excuse me more."
Writing letters is a nice way to blow off steam. But if you want to publish them and educate everyone else, don't make stupid mistakes just because they sound cute.
Lawrence senior
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Hockey puck new diplomatic weapon
Oh, what a difference a decade can make.
Just ten years ago, a ping pong ball riccoed through a crack in the Bamboo floor of the gymnasium when later be called "Ping Pong Diplomacy" a wedding of sports and international sports.
The two participating teams, the United States and the People's Republic of China, were invited to take part in a test not to prove which side could whip the other's what, but to prove that, as nations, they had at least one thing in common. But it was clear that they acknowledged the existence of the other despite the fact that, between the two of them, there was a proprosperous nation on the face of the earth.
Whoever thought that a pipqueen sport like ping pong could change the face of world order? The rough-house world arena
brenton r.
COLUMNIST schlender
is more like a bull ring or a hockey rink than like my uncle's rec room (which was where I first learned the fine points of ping pong).
**NOW, THANKS to the XIIIII Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, N.Y., we entered the era of "Hockey Puck Diplomacy." The American Olympic hockey team, skating on a rink kept frozen with the frigid rhizome of the new Cold War, the puck of the american supremacy down the throats of their Russian counterparts.
Their gold medal means more to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign than would the endorsements of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt combined. It means more than all the matching campaign funds in the Senate, all the all the freezed political idolatry that the man will "bill his ass" buttons could unleash.
AND THE peach-fuzzed boys with sticks and packs responded to the call to arms like so many Audie Murphys.
The come-from-behind victory stirred even the most apathetic and unpatriotic of Americans, who revelled in the thought that "our boys" had sent the Russian Bear on its way with its tail between its legs. It was one of those confrontations that President Obama called (of calling "the moral equivalent of war," and damned if we didn't win this one.
Hamstringing by sheer surrender of the Afghan crisis, the United States, and more countries, has prompted surprise confrontation with the Soviets to demonstrate who really is the toughest kid
In fact it WAS very much like waging a war. Consider the scenario: Only two months earlier, the Soviet Union had brazenly invaded Afghanistan when American prestige and influence reached their lowest ebb. The Russians were then in a position to take over that most Americans felt that their nation had become a yellow-bellied, lily-licured patsy.
"his" victory just as the Russians ate the puck at Lake Placid.
No doubt, President Carter will point with no doubt that his policies on Russia as being one more example of the skills of his leadership. And no doubt the gullible American voters (especially the young ones) would be fooled.
But how long will this eunhoria last?
He DAILYKANSAN
"PING PONG Diplomacy" soon gave way to the real thing between the United States and China. That may be because the Chinese ping pong players trounced the Americans; but I'm more inclined to believe that it was a bad news conference table at the ping pong table.
And while attendance will probably set the tone for the States at the next month or so, we deeper more substantial problems with the Soviet Union are likely to crop up sooner than we expect.
After all, hockey, like ping pong, is merely a game. No matter how much it means to national pride or an to exploit politician.
a symbolic contest does nothing to silence guns in Afghanistan or to pump new vitality into a sluggish economy.
THERE'S NO substitute for excellence in any endeavor, and the outstanding performances of American athletes and artists in any arena deserve nothing but tribute.
Still, their accomplishments should not be blown out of proportion or ascribed exorbitant strategic meanings or exploited for political reasons.
What we should learn from the astounding victory over the Russians is that physical strength and the bookmaker's odds are no match for courage and the home court advantage.
But then I thought we learned that lesson the hard way in Vietnam.
February does not leap; it lingers
Rv EMORY M. THOMAS
BY LEMORY M. THOMAS
NEW YORK TIMES Special Feature
NEW YORK--February is forever. Sure, the calendar indicates that the month has only 29 days. The calendar lies! Feb. 18 is Washington's birthday, and everyone knows Feb. 22 is Washington's birthday. If the calendar can lie about the date of the birthday, it told a lie, then it certainly cannot be trusted about the number of days in this endless
Even when the chance of rain is only 10 percent, in February it rains. In February, rain is seldom simple rain: It is freezing, driving rain. February is damp cold and high temperatures in the low 80s, low temperature in the high teens, on on forever.
But sometimes February teases. For aew days the sun shines warmly and the spring bulbs sprout. But warm weather in
February is sadistic. Of course it comes on those weekend when people have rented skis and bought lift tickets and confirmed flights to Europe, the cold and rain return, and February has again made fools of those who dared hope. The air, assergetly aggressive, is a frozen crocus.
RUNNERS IN FEBRIARY must stumble in the doorway, wearing enough clothes to equal their body. Bundled-up people slowness past the windows of clothing stores and gaze in at the “spring wardrobe.”
Managers of movie theaters are anticupiting repeat showings of Academy Awards in recent weeks, and sequently, in February they show such wonders as "Son of Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and "Jaws VII" and "The Hulk." And in early fall, And in every mailbox is a postcard from
"friends" who are spending February in the Bahamas.
UNFORTUNATELY, newspapers are no help. They begin in-depth coverage of baseball's Grapefruit League and display pictures of superstars and their glamorous wives basking in the sun of spring training. So-called family magazines feature cruise ships and when moof狄 gets no closer to a midday cruise than toy submarines in the batthtub.
Among historic events for which February is noted are the opening of the siege of the Alamo (1836), the kidding of Patry Hearst (1974), the Recklagt Fire Tax (1913), the incest-tax Income Tax (1913), the sinking of the Mint in 1834, the founding of the Republican Party (1854).
REGULARLY, children and pets get sick on weekends in February. Supermarkets have special sales on live and turkeys. The school year begins in February to determine the previous year's
rate of inflation; hence, citizens may know precisely how much less real money they now have. State inspection stickers on vehicles may expire in February, and tselds pass废。
Yet, in this month in which television networks usually begin summer reruns of shows they have already decided to cancel summer shows, the networks touch with reality. More often than not, Lent begins in February. Actually the entire month is 29 Ash Wednesdays. February is pentualen enough, even without Lent. It is also one of the months remembered” attached. it is palid faces staring back from膜炎. it is fabby muscles and clothes suddenly tight about the waist. Networks always having to say that unfortunately, it only lasts seven more weeks.
Emory M. Thomas is a professor of history at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.
Fambrough deserves pat on back
The University of Kansas owes a lot to its head football coach, Don Dumfam. Brought last week, Farnham and his staff announced a new security that rivals any at KU in recent memory.
But one cannot appreciate Fambridge's contributions to KU unless one examines the circumstances surrounding Fambridge's head coach before the start of last season.
Fambrough has been building a solid foundation for a football program that two seasons ago would have had problems succeeding successfully on the small college level.
Fambrough a student at KU has been a long, illustrious one. He was a student at KU and co-captain of the Jayhawks' 1948 Orange Bowl team. Except for a four-year stint at East Texas State. Fambrough has been with the Gaucho gunned on the Oranbowl in 1948.
Fambrough, in fact, was KU's head
football coach from 1971 to 1974 before he was hired again on Dec. 6, 1978.
Although his resignation in 1974 was a bitter one, he be returned to training after KU. Farnham took over a KU program that was in shameless. Farnham took over the job that year, but he had to deal with And despite being treated shabby by the University in the past, Farnham en-rolled himself.
OBVIOUSLY, Fambrouch's loyalty to KU has never changed to him. Outside last winter, Fambrouch was deposed football coach working in the condones of an Allie Field office and. And now he is the manager of the team.
Consider how KU officials punted Barnhough, his name could well have been the key. The 4-7 season in 1974, KU officials waved the wheat to Barnhough. The University would have told them not to.
Officially, Fambrough was not fired, he resigned. In fact, he had one year remaining
on his contract. But Fambrough wanted a vote of confidence from KU officials in the form of an extension of his contract.
AT THIS POINT, KU officials told Fambrough to go jump in the lake, but their football program soon would be struggling to keep its ahead above water.
Fambrough then became the assistant director of the Williams Educational Fund, and he also continued to bring remained loyal to KU even though the circumstances leading to his resignation from the university.
Fambridge was not a strict disciplinarian with his players when it came to off-the-field conduct, but he was also responsible for themselves. However, this easy-going philosophy did not exactly please them.
head football coach's job, recruiting efforts are resulting in better football players for KU. Moreover, Fambridge's players traditionally have a burning desire to win
KU officials, attempting to better the deal, said it was a mistake in the Legislature, did not intend to extend Fambridge's contract. KU's 4-7 record of that year certainly did not help Fambridge.
NEVERTHLESS, the decision not to renew Fambrough's contract was hastily made in December and then three years, under the Bad Moore regime, KU would depart from medicine recruiting staff.
FAMBROUGH AIWAYS had been able to sell KU to college prospects before. And now that he once again holds the reins of the
"Fam!" was back. And as sure as there was Crimson and Red in his blood, Famigham had a late start in the recruiting war, Famigham managed to corral a respectable team.
In those two seasons, KU would wind up on just about everybody's list of the bottom 10 in the league, but again assumed duties as head football coach, morale peaked as quickly as it had before.
And Fambrough still has a flair for an tracing topnotch prospect to KU. Ellarret Mullis, of the University, several desperately needed linemen, and a Ku HU has secured the services of a top quartet.
The future of the football program is looking better—just scan the roster.
david COLUMNIST lewis
Although it might be foolish to anticipate on Orange Bowl bid next fall, it might not be so foolish to expect such a bid in the next few years.
NO MATTER how loud Oklahoma and Nebraska may be laughing, KU could soon become a treat to the Big Eight title. The program definitely is improving.
an undersweep des a decent grade on his first-year progress report. Last season, the Jayhawks went 3-4, but the record could be a little better with a little more luck and less leisure turnover.
Although a 3-8 mark is not, even by KU standards, a dazzling record, the team was not as good as the other teams. The team was inexperienced and had a backbreaking schedule. Next year, the team will have a better record.
With that in mind, football and winning may no longer be mutually exclusive terms. With a soccer team, would be more fun rooking for a winner instead of watching cuff fights or girls being kicked out?
The students of KU are counting on you, Don. Keep up your good work.