My name is Typhoon the Maroone Dude,

I was born and raised in P-Town

I started sport early with competitve swimming

Running quickly became my second love

Knee injury has prevented me from running more

I now live in Eugene and enjoy the activities that I am apart of and the community that surrounds me.

Welcome to the Terrordome

I post my second blog. I know I sure am slow at this thing. I still haven't really figured out what I want to do with this whole thing. Today I write a opinion about what I feel about sports as a student at the University of Oregon. Yeah I am a Duck. But not a blind Duck. Yeah I do get down, when I go to Autzen and Mac court and yeah I was on the Pit crew one year. But i do also have a very critical perspective that sees sports a a very political environment that is intrinsically linked the national politics.

The Ducks have had a big time national reputation in NCAA sports the football team was ranked #2 at one point last fall and the basketball team surprisingly made a run to the final 8 last march. We have seen unparalleled era of success in the University of Oregon sports program. I have enjoyed it but I have also questioned some interesting and possibly illegal actions that the Sports Department has participated in.

I want to start off this piece with a story that capture the joy me and my friends shared in the success of the Basketball team in the march madness. Last March my friends Roman, Bill, Joe and I ventured to the redwood forests for what I call a typical college camping adventure. The four of us packed into my moms blue camery hatchback. We spent one night in drenched tents at Jedidiah smith camp ground. In the morning we all had one thing on our minds where can we get dry and how quickly, we all pilled into the car after packing all of our drenched gear into the back of the car, and we headed to the nearest city. After taking care of all of wet close at the closest laundry mat, we ended up at a local bar managed by a former boxer. They were still cleaning up, and the part time boxing coach was a little surprised that we were ordering pitchers at 10:30am, but we explained to him that the Ducks had made it to the not so Elite Eight in defining game versus Florida. The four of us were glued to the TV and also to the sticky bar counter as the Ducks played their hearts out against an obviously superior foe. We all believed in the spirit that had propelled the unranked Ducks through a series of spectacular wins. The Ducks lost that day, but the joy that my friends and I shared in the success of the Ducks season felt great, so we all smoked bowls in honor of the players on the windy beach front of Cresent City.

I returned from that road trip with a new found appreciation for the athletes at UO especially the Black Athletes. Why the Black athletes? Well if you have every been to Oregon you would quickly point out that there are very few African Americans in Oregon, so we must take pride in any of our achievements. My high was quickly killed the next week when I realized that school was starting up again, which meant I would have to get back on the grind, not to mention I was running a half ass political campaign for Student Body President the following week. On the subject of Athletes I felt compelled to voice some political opposition to the Athletic Departments academic support of black athletes as a point on my platform. This came about after I wrote a shabby research paper last year on the historical significance of the Black Athlete connected to Academics. That spring an interesting article also came out about the low achievement gad of "minority" students, it was a clear smack in the athletic department face. This issue in the midst of unparalleled success and on the eve of a new era of Department Director Pat Kilk. The school has not addressed this issue to this day, at least to my liking.

I am a fan of sports but my principles conflict with the goals of the UO athletic departments exploitive nature. In my tenure in school I have witnessed many concerning situations. When I was a sophomore I was paid by a certain athlete to write a 14 page paper on drug abuse. Morally I felt conflicted but the money was enticing at the time I needed to pay rent and had other bills pilling up, I have since ask god for forgiveness on that issue. I certainly felt that I was doing a normal thing at the time, and it was not the only paper that I had written for money, it seemed like a normal practice with no risk of plagiarism charges, which I have gotten once before in an English class for which I recieved an F. Secondly a female friend of mine once vented to me about the restrictions that this school has for track athletes, they are forced to only where nike products, why is this concerning. Well it seems that Nike has a monopoly in a public university, can anyone tell me if this is legal. Ok maybe there are contracts that student athletes sign that they agree to only where certain shoes and obey certain laws, that other students ignore daily. Why are these students following a different code? third, I am very concerned about the number of student athletes that tell me that they are prevented by their coach from doing degrees that are too time intensive, that require lab time, such as Architecture, Chemistry, Biology, and almost all science degrees or Education degrees. Is this fair? To prevent a student from his or her number one choice, to settle for an option that will fit work out schedules, business and sociology and favored by coaches.

I am for a hourly wage for student athletes. I am for a reduced practice time for all athletes. I am for an actual ammature sporting industry where athletes have power and control of their destiny. I am for unbluring the line between professional and ammature athletics. I am for an anti racist exploitation of athletes in the NCAA's. I am for ending public funding for corrupt athletic departments including UO.

CHECK OUT THESE AUTHORS: Harry Edwards and Dave Zirin, they drop some real bombs on the issues that I described. Stay tuned for more from UO.