SPORTS: Priorities

Katrinka Blunt comments on the posting about sports priorities and the departure of Stanford's football coach for Notre Dame:

"About 6 months ago I conducted a compensation survey of collegiate coaches in basketball, football and track for Stanford's athletic department. It is truly eye-popping, the figures of certain coaches and in places where the cost of living is much lower than the San Francisco Bay Area. I believe this is one reason that such a move was not a huge surprise. Incidentally, he is following in the footsteps of Stanford's former men's soccer coach who went to Notre Dame about 2 years ago.

I wanted to comment on the sporting spirit. At first, it seems that the commercialization and pure ego of sports figures spits in the face of such sayings as "be a good sport" and "the sporting spirit". However, I recently heard that in a European country, the scores of youth league soccer matches would not be published in the news so that the losing players would not feel badly about losing the game. The idea of a "being a good sport" usually means winning and losing graciously. Playing sports has often been seen as a way to learn to deal with wins and losses. In an effort to be "nice" I think the youth league's decision is nonsense--a sport is defined as having a winner and therefore, a loser. Recently, I attended the Stanford v. Michigan State basketball game where two opposing fans got into a tussle simply because Stanford won and the fans were taunting each other. Poor sportsmanship. Yet, sportsmanship can be regained if each of us are diligent and we must neither encourage nor tolerate such other conduct on the field or in the stands.

My comment: I completely agree, and there was so suggestion that things are better in European soccer. I hope the sporting spirit is surviving in English universities. Some time ago we ran a whole series of postings on the pros and cons of sports socially. The world Olympics will be played in China and the world soccer championship in Japan and Korea. It will be interesting to see how the Asians will behave, like Buddhists or like war lords.

Really, the "people" are to blame. "We the people" often cannot afford to pay for things like schools or housing, but "we the people" spend small fortunes attending distant sports events. Travel to and from Japan and China is very expensive, and to that must be added the usual expenses. "We the people" historically meant "we men". It is the men who indulge in such extravaganzas. The women stay home wondering how to pay the bills. Men are the curse of mankind. They would sooner squabble than cooperate, and fight rather than work. They rest between rounds of fighting. That explains all of history. It is known as the Hilton theory of history.

A yew years ago the US women's soccer team beat the Chinese team here in the US. The US president (which one was it?) was in attendance. At the end of the game he went over and congratulated the US team effusively. Not a nice word for the Chinese. What a loutish lack of sportsmanship! And kindness. Our only consolation is that Chinese men are worse than us.

Ronald Hilton - 1/2/02