To the Editor:
I am writing this letter in response to Greg Munno's letter to the editor entitled "It's time for Oberlin to eliminate the football program," from Sept. 27. I am a fifth year double-degree student-athlete and swim team co-captain. While the previous string of hyphenated words means little to most people, I regard every activity I do here at Oberlin as the most important one at the time I am doing it, regardless of my success or failure rate. As a fifth-year student, I have been here long enough to have heard many attempts to argue away Oberlin's football program, so I wasn't in the last bit surprised to read such an unimaginative, closed-minded, stereotypical view held by a (former) Oberlin student who can't seem to see past his own interests. If I learned anything from taking P.E. classes in grade school, it must have been the fact that winning isn't everything. Cliché as it may sound, it holds true, not only for football, but for any activity.
While I feel strongly that a program such as a varsity sports team need not justify itself by success in the win/loss column, I am nevertheless compelled to dispute Greg Munno's claim that OC football is "far from recovery." Over the past three years, I have watched a team that couldn't even score a field goal evolve into a team that can score multiple touchdowns in a game, including some excellent plays and long touchdown passes. The fact that Mr. Munno judges the football program here based only on the win/loss column, without regard to other statistics, reflects the same lack of research that the Review routinely displayed under his editorship back in 1994. A simple glance at numbers should have clued Greg Munno in to the fact that 33 payers, while small for a football team, is still significantly up from the numbers in the low 20's seen several years ago. The increase in participation is largely due to the efforts of Coach Peterson, who has dedicated himself to the goal of establishing a strong football program at Oberlin. I know this about Coach Peterson because I've talked to him. Have you talked with him, Greg?
Regardless of how close Oberlin comes to achieving Coach Peterson's goal, the effort displayed by both coach and players exemplifies the spirit Oberlin should be striving for in all areas. It is ironic, therefore, that such a program should be singled out for the chopping block, especially when it dips much less deeply into college funds than a comparable program at any other college would. The notion that allocation of "saved" funds to other sports would translate into more successes in those areas is ridiculous. Since Oberlin by no means attracts its students by fielding top-notch sports programs, how could a budget-shift suddenly bring about conference championships? As far as intramurals are concerned, most are played with excellent equipment that is easily worthy of the level of play exhibited by intramural athletes. I know this because I also work in the intramural/club sports office. Have you ever worked there, Greg?
I could easily sum this letter up in eight words: Get your head out of your ass, Greg. It's too dark in there, and the lack of light has obviously hindered your ability to see why Oberlin needs football as much as it needs the Review. Football is just one more activity available to students that contributes to the overall diversity of this institution and its offerings. Since you are still around today, and wrote that asinine letter, one can only assume that no one canceled you every time you experienced failure (by all means, respond if you have never been unsuccessful at anything!) Oberlin varsity athletes get little or no respect from the student body. Canceling a growing football program would constitute the final insult from an institution, which, by its very nature, is less than friendly to athletics. When the Review can write an article about any sport here with a smaller number of reporting errors than the football team's number of total points for that game, then we'll talk. In the meantime, I am happy to hear no one is calling for the elimination of the student-run newspaper program.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 5; October 4, 1996
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