ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610220002
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE PAINTER
I GROW weary of the attacks on Virginia Tech athletics. Your Oct. 9 editorial, ``Resolving the brawl at Tech,'' is but another prod for those elitists among the public and university faculty.
Thank goodness the Blacksburg Police Department and the Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney are not rushing to judgment. The media have presented a ``through the looking glass'' scenario where first guilt is pronounced, then there's a trial, and finally a fact-finding investigation.
It's interesting how language has been twisted in this matter. The most recent editorial uses the word ``brawl'' - a fact yet to be established. An earlier editorial (Sept. 11, ``Virginia Tech's embarrassment'') also spins out the word as a fact.
The analogies in the editorials are specious and strained. Engineering students and baseball umpires are not good points of comparisons. Yet, if you listen closely, you can almost hear the thundering feet of the lemmings rushing forth to decry Tech's football program and college athletics in general.
I've been involved in college athletics for more than 30 years - as an athlete, an official, a recruiter, etc. It has been my experience that much of the criticism toward college athletics is racially and culturally based.
The pundits like to point to minorities and the poor who have ``risen from their backgrounds'' and ``overcome their adversities,'' but they just don't want too many of ``those people'' representing their school. Academic integrity is a code word not too far removed from ethnic cleansing. In other words, it's acceptable to have some minorities, but only if they fit some ill-defined elusive mold.
On Oct. 1, you published an excellent letter by Mike Ellerbrock (``Tech's excellent representatives''), who had served as a substitute chaplain for a recent Tech game. He commented on Frank Beamer's program in positive terms. I am a bit cautious about mentioning Ellerbrock's name in public since the last time I did, the religious bigots came out of the woodwork to attack me professionally and personally.
But Ellerbrock's observations are very telling and true. It's evident that he isn't one of those media and faculty lemmings who are knee-deep in the sea of malice and discontent. I invite those so disposed to venture onto the dry land of reason and to view the scene as Ellerbrock did.
Joe Painter, a Blacksburg lawyer, was a college athlete and served as an official in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
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