Jay, here.
I’m a little late to the party with this one. Fashionably late. And I can consume only so much media. But I’m late, nevertheless.
A little over a week ago, University of Oregon Athletics Directory Pat Kilkenny was on The Morning Sports Page with Kenny & Katy on 95.5 FM “The Game” in Portland.
In the course of their conversation, Kenny, Katy, and Mr. Kilkenny covered a cavalcade of curious content. Try saying that three times fast!
Here are the highlights:
- Competitive Cheerleading/Team Stunts & Gymnastics
- Parking situation at Autzen Stadium for football games
- Basketball arena update
- ESPN story on Phil Knight and Pat Kilkenny
- Balancing the job the media attention as Athletics Director
- Phil Knight’s influence at the University of Oregon
- How does the job as AD match up against previous jobs?
And here’s the link to the entire interview.
Even though baseball wasn’t really covered in the interview, I might as well bring it up. Why? Because I think all of you wrestling fans out there are going to tee up Mr. Kilkenny’s responses and swing for the fences.
I’m almost tempted to write up a generic wrestling response myself because I can see the comments already.
So, wrestling fans, do I need to set up a separate comments page just for you guys? Or is there enough space here?
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Tags: Competitive Cheerleading, espn, oregon, Pat Kilkenny, Phil Knight, Team Stunts & Gymnastics, University of Oregon
Richard Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I would like to know who does his research if he’s going off of interest in our area because obviously they need to be fired. Oh wait, that was Baumgartner’s doing and we all know she fibbed on those numbers.
2 teams sponsor cheer in the NCAA. It doesn’t take a math major to figure that one out.
sj Says:
May 26th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Impressive interview! The man has integrity. The conspiracy theorists who think there is something unscrupulous going on in the UO athletic department need to get a life. College sports is a business and Oregon is so lucky to have the genius of Phil Knight on our side. Pat Kilkenny is the best thing that has happened to UO sports in……oh……forever! If you’re going to play the game, you might as well “just do it!”
Richard Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Intergrity and Kilkenny are two words that his family doesn’t even describe him as. I got a good laugh out that one.
Brian Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 8:17 am
If he truly wanted to serve the needs of the Oregon high school athlete, wrestling would be the last sport cut on campus. Wrestling has always recruited locally. He could have brought in women’s wrestling, which is an Olympic sport. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/sports/othersports/27wrestling.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
bear Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Women’s wrestling??? you serious. If wrestling was so important to all you “supporters” you should have supported it. I for one am excited for baseball to come back to Oregon. And who cares about integrity? Is Kilkenny the pope?? A priest?? He is a business man and businessmen need to make hard decisions. As long as he doesn’t break the law or kill puppies (because puppies are cute) then more power to him. “let the haters hate and watch the money pile up”
Jay Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Brian -
I’m with Bear on this one.
I read the NYT article. I’ve got a hard enough time getting into men’s wrestling. But women’s wrestling? I just can’t get behind that.
Sorry. But it’s…just…yeah. That’s a tough one for me.
Jay
DSN
Western Man Says:
May 27th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
The clowns, you will see….. This assumption that baseball will be good for business, what a joke. Look up the road, where they have some tradition and a couple national titles…..losing a million a year on baseball. To have the sport is great, but to paint the picture that it is a cash cow is naive and diingenuous at best. And UO will have a larger budget, eaning they will need more fans to avoid the red…sorry isnt going to happen.A few schools in the country can break even on baseball, UO will not be one of them. They have $ 640,000+ in coaches salaries alone. When schollys and travel are added up, will be over 1.5 million easy. That is alot of attendance, hot dogs and peanuts.
Zachary Vishanoff Says:
May 31st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Please consider covering the verdict of the Fairmount vs UO court case about the UO arena permit . The decision by the hearings official is due to be released on June 3 . It is likely the decision will face further challenges/appeals. It is extremely complicated but is a very important news story that will likely be overlooked(on purpose).
Richard Says:
May 31st, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The wrestling fans are showing they can support it with the $ 3 mil. plus they have raised, along with a new facility. They did that in less than a year. Baseball hasn’t even raised enough to even cover what Kilkenny initially told them they needed to raise, yet.
And regardless of what you think, womens wrestling is gathering a strong following and has a lot of very smart and intelligent people involved with it. This will be an NCAA “emerging sport” before too long and is growing faster at the high school ranks than any other sport, when you look at the percentage that it’s growing.
Oregon had its first “unofficial” girls state HS tournament during the boys tournament this year. WA, HI and TX all sanction it already. OR will be next.
ANd one thing people need to realize is that at the college ranks, when a program is started, the girls fill up the teams very quickly. Unlike the other supposed sports like crew, bowling, badmitton, water polo and others when the college have to beg the women to even come out for the sport and give them a free scholly as incentive to be on the team. So, basically these females want to compete in wrestling and don’t have to be begged to come out for a team.
Now of course, there are poeple who just don’t get the sport, however, you can’t deny the fact that it’s still the 6th most popular sport in the NATION and at the youth ranks, its even bigger. The sport grows more and more every year.
Another thing people don’t realize is that more and more college football coaches are recruiting more from the wrestling ranks, than ever before. Especially, lineman. Some of the best college lineman in the game, tend to be very good wrestlers as well. Look at the pro ranks and a lot of those guys are inviting college national champions to their mini camps to be lineman.
So, regardless of your personal opinion is about the sport, it has its place in our nation.