The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 9, 1984 Page: 4 of 24
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Abusive, obscene cheers upset administrators, alumni, friends
by Erin Blair
President Norman Hackerman , Athletic
Director Augie Erfurth, and Vice President
of Undergraduate Affairs Ronald Stebbings
report that they have received many
complaints from Rice alumni, students, and
guests concerning Rice students' shouting
obscenities at football games. The
Administration considers the situation so
grave that they have made it an important
issue in recent discussions.
Erfurth spoke to college masters about the
problem and then brought it before college
presidents Ty Buthod (Wiess), Geoff Orsak .
(Will Rice), Greg Roberts (Jones), James
Medford (Hanszen), Shannon Halwes
(Brown), Joanie Hastings (Baker), Chris
Kriedler (Lovett), and Student Advisory
Committee members Todd Rankheim
(Wiess), Jeff Plummer (Will Rice), and
Mark Mitchell (Baker) at a lunch meeting
Tuesday. Also present were basketball
coach Tommy Suitts; Martha E.
Hawthorne, Assistant Athletic Director of
Women's Sports; and Associative Athletic
Director Bobby May.
Erfurth began the discussion by
sumarizing the current state of affairs and
mentioning letters from offended alumni
and visitors. Maintaining that "we don't
want to get into a policing action," he then
asked the students for their coomments.
Roberts stated that the noises are
spontaneous yells caused by a lack of
cheerleading. Hastings mentioned that the
other team's supporters get passes to sit in
the student section, where they infuriate
Owls fans. Halwes added that those without
passes can simply crawl under the ropes if
they want to. The location of student
seating, separated as it is from the rest of the
Rice section, may also contribute to the
Doonesbury
yelling. Kriedler noted that having the
opposing team's backs to the students makes
it very tempting to start personalized taunts.
Lack of close identification with Rice
players was brought up as another possible
reason. Rice's standing in the Southwest
conference and the subsequent
demoralization and frustration of the fans
were suggested by several students as an
explanation for the obscenities.
Possible solutions explored by the group
included moving either the Owls or the
student section to avoid confrontations with
the visiting team. The idea of providing
students with some sort of free program
indicating the Rice football players' names,
numbers, positions, and colleges in order to
boost school spirit was examined. Suitts
proposed that colleges hold pep rallies where
students could learn cheers and meet players
in their college. In response to the problem
of visitors without Rice friends invading the
student area, Augie Erfurth said that the
intruders should be removed by alerting the
ushers.
Erfurth said, "Enthusiasm is great but...
we seem to have gone beyond the certain
four letter words to the ones we hear now."
Suitts agreed, insisting that uwe need more
cheering directed toward our team and away
from the other team."
Steve Moniaci, when questioned about
the fans' behavior, said, "We certainly don't
condone some of the activities going on. We
would like to rid Rice of this foul language
and of its reputation for taking stuff
belonging to the other teams." He feels that
the rowdiness is largely caused by mass
influence. "Nobody has as close-knit a group
of students as we do. We stand out. If thirty
people start a cheer, one thousand finish it."
In talking to the Thresher, Stebbings took
a pragmatic approach to the problem. He
produced a letter from an alumnus
threatening to withdraw his support because
of the obscenities he had heard at a recent
game. "Students must realize that their
actions have wide repercussions," he said.
Stebbings pointed out that the student body
wants to be taken seriously when debating
issues affecting the university, but that it
loses credibility with its immature acts at
football games.
"The students' actions damage the
university and upset the people whose good
will is toward the university and on whom
our future depends," Stebbings insisted.
"Students here are getting an education that
I hope they're enjoying from donations to
the University Endowment. People, those
represented in the stands, give money to the
endowment because they are proud of the
school. We can't afford to turn these people
off." He believes that by persisting in
offensive language and bad manners, "You
[students] are hurting only yourselves, and if
not yourselves, certainly the next generation
of Rice students."
THRESHING IT OUT
Losing not good
enough for Ochoa
To the editor:
In the little over a year 1 have been at Rice,
IVe noticed something that disturbs me a
great deal, the attitude of most Rice
students. To believe that one is better merely
by the fact that he attends a somewhat
tougher school is very wrong. This attitude
even seems to extend to our sports program,
especially football. Since we are better and
smarter than the other school, it doesn't
matter that we aren't as good as them in such
a mundane activity as football. Why should
we expect to be good at both? This is
bullshit! I, as a Rice fan, have every reason
to expect my school to field a quality
football team. 1 also have a right to criticize
my team for a lackluster performance. Look
at what's happended at Vanderbilt and
TCU. These schools are comparable to Rice
academically (TCU's freshman athletes have
a higher average SAT than Rice's freshman)
yet they have built their programs into
BY GARRY TRUDEAU
You've GOT THE SENSITIVITY of A
lu6WRENCH, KNOWTHAT, j. j.?i'VE
JUST MISS5P MY F/RST-EVERCHAHCE
j TO VOTE ANP ALL YOU CAN PO IS RE-
M/NPMEI
£j CWVSTILL PONT
1
weil, ipont have to
takb this abusb! i'm goop
going im town to plan.z.
see a movie' hav5a
thank you, mike. by
tub my, can i have
my allowance before
/ i go?
SHE SURE IS BEING
n A RHYMES-WITH
yOUR WITCH 70PAY..
a few
jt0c bucks,J.J.
michael, you've got
to talk to him 1
wont put up turn m&neeps
this anv longer1 aun&me
\ _ time to sort
his ufe out.
sort his life out?
all he poes is ue
arounpanpeat! its
uke living with a
^ teenage
J.J., I
REALLY THINK
YOU'RE OVER-
REACTING.
I AM NOT0VERR5-
ACTING! IT^ BEGIN-
NING TO AFFECT
EVERYTHING, MIKE-
OUR WORK, OUR.
MARR/AGE, EVEN
OUR. SEX. UFE!
PONT YOU I
CARS?
of course,
T CARS!
HEY, CDUUP YOU
KEEP IT POWN IN
HERE?I'M TRYING
TO WATCH TV
I'LL TALK TO
HIM IN THE
MORNING.
ZONK WE'VE
GOT TO TALK.
CAN IT
KEEP, MIKE7
GILUGAN'S
IN HOT WATER
AGAIN. ,
TTT
no, it can't keep, zonk.
i've put this off too
long as it is. ithasnt
been fairto anyof us.
%
I'M NOT SURE HOW TO SAY
THIS, OL'&UPPY. I PONTUMT
YOU TO TAKE IT THE WRONG
WAY. THE THING OF IT IS..
WELL..
ffffl we were
youou'- hj0nper1ng
about your
'plans
regional powerhouses. Stanford and
Georgia Tech are two more prominent
examples. If anything, the Rice fans should
yell louder so the administration, coaches,
and players know that we wont stand for
this losing year after year. Certainly it will
take time, but with so much invested in
Watson Brown, how much more can we
take? Heck, Ray Alborn was doing this
good. Criticizing one's team only shows that
a fan cares about his team. To accept losing
is to accept that we are inherently inferior. I
haven't given up on the players and coaches,
that is why 111 continue to yell and scream at
all the football games. Let's go and beat the
hell out of SMU!
Michael Ochoa
SRC '87
Rice students not
apathetic in world
To the editor:
I am very i;red of being labelled as
"politically apathetic" and/or "conservative
of mind" [merely] because I am a) a student
of the ^O's, not the '60's; b) a student in
Texas; and c) a student at Rice. The assaults
prompting me to write this letter stem
mainly from Anna Little's "Informal
Survey..." in the November 2, 1984 edition
of the Thresher. Within the abovementioned
article, those same overused labels were
hinted at again.
All in all, I can't fault the authoress for
using those rotten terms with respect to the
prevalence of on campus "political activity";
on that level, those terms are well used.
However, seeing as the subject elections
were both nationally and locally oriented
("OUTSIDE THE HEDGES" FOLKS), I
would ask my peers and any other readers of
the Thresher to look "out there" to see if the
political-headquarters had been as devoid of
student participants as most of the media
has suggested.
From my own personal experience, I feel
that we students are being misrepresented; I
can't seem to think of one campaign
headquarters that I've been to over the last
year where I haven't seen another face or
senior ring or tee-shirt from campus.
Perhaps the reason that there's so little on-
campus political acitivity is because a lot of
us are meeting our commitments by working
off-campus and/or "behind the scenes."
Nancy Piotrowski
O/C Brown *5
P.S. Another point 1 meant to address — the
quotes referring to our "vested interests" as
future YUPpies and our predispositions to
"only get concerned in what actively affects"
our lives.... Both of these opinions seem
fairly viable and, as stated in the article,
might lead some people to vote
"conservatively" in light of economic
considerations. Similarly though, these
same types of opinions might lead a person
to vote "liberally" in terms of long term,
i n t e rge n e r a t i o n a 1 environmental
considerations. In both cases, immediate
effects and vested interests are touched - in
the first, via one's pockets; in the second via
one's genes. In either case, a choice is beinj:
made.
The Rice Thresher, November 9, 1984, page 4
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Havlak, Paul. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 72, No. 12, Ed. 1 Friday, November 9, 1984, newspaper, November 9, 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245574/m1/4/: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.