Winning Like That Is Not Worth It

So once again we see a football power sanctioned by the NCAA. Once again, we hear the cries of "too strict" or "not strict enough" as the NCAA tries fitfully to police itself.

USC, Ohio State, SMU, etc., etc., the list goes on.

College football is big business. Millions of dollars are at stake, alumni bragging rights, and athletic departments rise and fall on ratings.

When I was playing for Stanford, in the 1960s, we struggled against UCLA and USC. We did not beat them in the three years I played on the Varsity.

We also heard that they cheated. O.J. Simpson apparently picked up thousands of dollars every week from his doorstep. UCLA players did not go to classes, or had jobs on campus they never did, and got paid for them. Some USC players never went to class, but miraculously passed 12 credits every semester. And, during the summer, players were able to accumulate units from junior colleges, separated by miles, in a five minute passing period (that later got USC on probation).

We did not cheat. We went to class, and graduated. The exceptional few who made the NFL, finished and got their BAs. And we got beat. We did not go to the Rose Bowl; although a couple years after I graduated we did.

Cal improved dramatically in the years after I graduated, and got put on probation for having students go to class in the place of football stars, who did not graduate, did not attend class, and learned nothing. African American student-athletes did not graduate in great numbers, were basically used by Cal, and then returned to the ghetto, no diploma, no future. But Cal won.

Stanford did not do that. Stanford still does not do that. Oh sure, we have a DUI every once in awhile, but cheat, no.

I sincerely do not think it happens, other than having a list of low homework classes that included Environmental Engineering; Art History, and other classes that are not easy by a long shot.

There are no "Mickies" at Stanford.

So, once again, a "football factory" is placed on probation. This time because the head coach, and other officials, keeping the football program in a "special status", went so far that they failed to turn in a predatory pedophile, who raped dozens of children, under the nose of the football leadership.

In fact, the pedophile was a former "emeritus" coach, who used his access to athletic facilities, to rape young boys.

But, like many football "powerhouses", a separate standard was the norm, football staff and players got special treatment, aloof even from criminal sanctions. A separate culture was allowed to fester, protecting the most heinous of crimes.

When I was a sophomore, in 1966, the United States was not sure of how it would feed the Armed Forces for the Vietnam War. If you fell behind in credits, or let your grades fall, you would be drafted.

Coach John Ralston called a team meeting, to discuss our deferments and the what the athletic department could do if we lost a deferment.

Now, we are talking not only the loss of your scholarship, the loss to the "program", but and an all expense paid one year visit to what we called "the green" (Vietnam).

And Coach Ralston stood there, and told us all, Jim Plunkett, Gene Washington, on down, that he would not lift a finger to help us if we lost our deferments. No special treatment, no deals, no interference with a draft board, no admission to a reserve unit: nothing.

Nobody lost their deferment, not one. We did have a couple who quit college and enlisted, but NOBODY fell short.

The coach made it very clear there was NO special treatment, no separate culture; even in possible life and death situations. No special treatment period. If we all were called to serve, like WWII, he would not lift a finger for any special treatment.

You went to class, you hashed (worked in the kitchens), you worked at the corp yard as part of your scholarship, and you went to practice, and played hard for the Cardinal. You put in longer hours than most other students, you were stretched thin during the season, but you learned to budget your time, marshall your energy, and succeed at one of the world's leading Universities and compete in one of the toughest conferences in the nation (USC was the National Champion in 1967).

And Stanford is not a football factory. And Stanford is not in the top 10 most of the time.

And Stanford proves that you don't have to be a Penn State to succeed. You don't have to cheat to compete. You are in college to get an education and play football, in that order. The only way you are special, is you are privileged to have such an opportunity, period. Otherwise, you are like all the other students, no more, no less.

What happened to Penn State is an illustration of the dangers to an institution's very soul that "winning at any cost" brings.

Winning like that is NOT WORTH IT!