Letters To The Editor
GU grad ‘divorces’ school
The one thing I remember most about Fitz (Dan Fitzgerald) was meeting him at a Gonzaga University baseball game a few years ago.
I’d brought my son to see the Bulldogs play Washington State. I ran into Fitz, who didn’t know me from Adam, and told him my 13-year-old son would like to meet him. He not only stopped to take the time to talk with my son, but autographed a program for him. You should have seen the look in my son’s eyes.
I’m a 1988 grad of GU, but if they’re going to dismiss a person of the ethical and moral character of Dan Fitzgerald, they can take me off their lists, too. So much for the Jesuit tradition. I’ve already sent them the letter telling them so.
Ted Noon Spokane
Punishment doesn’t fit
I think Gonzaga University made a grave error in letting Fitz go! I am an alumnus and Bulldog Club member. It seems to me there must be a hidden agenda here on the university’s part.
For Dan to make a mistake, admit it and stand ready to accept the punishment doesn’t fit with him leaving the school. Especially given his accomplishments, tenure and contributions to the school for 25 years.
Everything I have read and heard points to a mistake being made, but no claims of misuse or major NCAA violations. For the school to take this approach without NCAA intervention or sanctions makes no sense to me. In fact, it seems punishment has been meted out before a crime has been determined.
Dan deserves better for his contributions to the university, its athletes and the community. Mike Hayes Newcastle, Wash.
Eastern deserved more
I want you to know how much I appreciated your coverage of the Eastern Washington-Washington State (men’s) basketball game (Dec. 23).
One would have thought Eastern’s first victory over WSU in 45 years, 83-82 in overtime, would be headlines for the sports section. I guess the game was too exciting; instead we got to read action-filled articles such as “Doba gives defense a lift” and “Morais rejoins Cougs in L.A.; girlfriend OK.”
When I did find the game description at the bottom of the page, I got to read about WSU coach Kevin Eastman running up and down the bench counting off, one by one, each Cougar who had fouled out. I also found out earlier that Eastman broke his watch as he slammed his clipboard to the ground.
The article never mentioned that EWU had players foul out. In fact, the only time an Eastern player was mentioned on the front page was a reference to a basket made by Chris White in overtime. How the game got to overtime was never mentioned.
I understand none of your reporters would ever write such a biased article. You evidently had to hire the article written because all your people are in Pasadena. Why, then, did you have to hire a Cougars fan?
The Eastern kids played their hearts out and deserved a lot of credit for a big-time win. They sure did not get it from your coverage. John E. Hanke Cheney
Count your blessings
There is a saying that is used frequently around the holidays: “Count your blessings.” Keeping that in mind, allow me to ask you Cougars the following questions:
What do you think the outcome would be if:
You gave UCLA first-and-goal on your 1-yard line again?
You played the Huskies with Shehee and Huard at full strength?
As is said, count your blessings. William J. Hiatt Spokane
Coach apologizes
On December 13th, 1997, a regrettable incident occurred when one of our athletes kicked a chair out of frustration and the chair hit a nearby toddler. On behalf of the Northwest College men’s basketball team, the coaching staff, and the players, I would like to apologize. This type of behavior is unacceptable at this college and is without an excuse. There was no provocation on the part of the Whitworth team and it was solely an act of anger and frustration by one of my players in the heat of battle. I sincerely wish to apologize for this behavior, and the behavior of our entire team, including myself. The way we vented and expressed our frustrations out on the court was not acceptable.
We are a Christian institution that takes very seriously our mannerisms and court behavior in representing Christ and Northwest College. We obviously failed that night and ask again for your forgiveness and restate our commitment of never letting an incident like that take place again. Wayne Mendezona Northwest College A.D. and men’s basketball coach
Fix Lake Roosevelt
We’re writing this letter because of our concerns about what has happened to our Lake Roosevelt.
We all started fishing and boating this beautiful lake in the late 60s and early 70s. We fished mostly for walleye, but as we continued to fish the lake, we started catching other species of fish, like trout, silvers, bass, perch and ling cod. Some were being introduced into the lake from hatcheries and net pens.
When the trout and silver population in the lake increased, we noticed the eagle population also increased until it was not uncommon to observe 50-60 eagles in various locations on the lake.
The fantastic fishing and eagle watching continued until approximately 1994, when the trout and silver fishing started to decline and continued downward with the walleye declining a year or two later.
Since that time the fishing has gone from one of the best fishing lakes in the Pacific Northwest to one of the worst. This has also greatly affected the eagles, and their numbers have drastically declined.
We have read and heard of the many reasons why and how this has happened and who is responsible, but what we want to know is what are we going to do about fixing the problem.
Why aren’t all the Indian tribes, fishing clubs, sportsman, wildlife agencies, fishing resorts and etc., demanding that they just stop destroying our wonderful lake and restore it back to what it was just a few years ago?
We think a lot of this could be accomplished if we just put a fraction of the resources being used to save the salmon into saving this great resource we have in our own backyard. Joe A. Machala Spokane
What a great event
Our new Veterans Arena proved to be a very worthy investment again. The recent NCAA women’s volleyball championships was a great success story and for many reasons.
Arena managers Kevin Twohig and Amy Brown made everyone feel welcome. Including all the players from Stanford, Penn State, Florida, Long Beach State, and all of us who volunteered for the event. Jonathan and Susan Lee have a lot of volleyball savvy and experience. They did a great job in organizing all of us to assist in the Arena when needed. Washington State’s volleyball success under the leadership of Cindy Fredrick probably gave Spokane a strong consideration in the first place and, of course, the fact that Spokane high schools have won a half-dozen state titles in recent years. The high school success is due to the tremendous participation of club volleyball in our community. The Master, Buzzie Welch, has probably been helping girls in this community longer than anyone. There are many, many people who can be credited with developing these young girls’ volleyball skills. I have coached club ball and I would like to say that these Saturday tournaments are the best example of sportsmanship that I have ever seen. We all look forward to these Saturdays of competitive play because everyone is so friendly and it’s fun!
I’ve been a big Stanford volleyball fan for a long time. It was very, very exciting to see this team (and all the teams) in action. They brought a level of excellence to Spokane that we can admire for a long time. We loved having them here - and The Spokesman-Review shared this appreciation. The paper did a beautiful colored pictorial of these young women on a daily basis. Perhaps three-time national champion Kristen Folkl summed it up best: “This was by far the best championship I’ve been a part of. The crowd was so into it … it made it feel like a real special event.” Yes it was. And several thousand people feel the same way toward the talented young collegiate ladies who graced our Veterans Arena. Mike Ross Spokane
Pac-10 gets cheated
After reading Josh Dubow’s story about how performances in front of large TV audiences were a key factor in Charles Woodson’s win in Heisman Trophy balloting, one has to wonder if anyone from the Pac-10 ever has a chance due to the short shrift the conference is given by the ABC/ESPN network. The Pac-10 typically gets one game per week out of this combine during the conference season, and that game is blacked out by a Big Ten (11?) game east of the Rockies. In contrast, the ABC/ESPN combine often shows two Big Ten games nationally around 9:30 a.m. and a third Big Ten game to the eastern two-thirds of the country at 1 p.m. Southeastern Conference games are shown on CBS and they are all national games, and, of course, all of Notre Dame’s home games are shown to a national audience by NBC. The WAC fares better than the Pac-10, since many of their games are carried to a national audience on ESPN in the evening. ESPN also carries a lot of Southeastern Conference games nationally in the 4:30 p.m. time slot. If it weren’t for a challenging non-conference schedule, Pac-10 teams would never be seen nationally. Ryan Leaf’s only national exposure was against a very weak Illinois team (on ESPN) and, unfortunately, Leaf treated the audience to three quarters of atrocious quarterback play. This lack of TV coverage also has an adverse effect on Pac-10 recruiting and rankings in polls.
And don’t get me started on a bowl alliance that excludes teams because their traveling contingent is deemed too small (e.g., UCLA and North Carolina). Thanks to the arbitrariness of the alliance, we are given a New Year’s lineup that includes several avoidable mismatches and no game rated closer than 6 points by the oddsmakers. This is supposed to be amateur athletics. However, the NCAA chooses to look the other way when bowls are awarded to the highest bidder (and geographic proximity to the bowl location). If a No. 5 rating wasn’t good enough to get UCLA in, how high will WSU have to be rated? The fans are being cheated out of seeing UCLA’s potent offense go against Florida State’s tremendous defense because of the greed of some Chamber of Commerce types that sit on these bowl committees. Mike Helland Elk, Wash.
xxxx S-R sports staff Sports editor: Jeff Jordan Assistant sports editor: Joe Palmquist Outdoors editor: Rich Landers Columnist: John Blanchette Reporters: Steve Bergum, Chris Derrick, Hilary Kraus, Greg Lee, Jim Meehan, Mike Sando, Dave Trimmer, Mike Vlahovich, Dan Weaver Copy desk: Gil Hulse, David Oriard, Geoff Pinnock, Rick House Stats desk: Kory Boatman, Brandon Loucks Contributors: Paul Delaney, Jim Price, Fenton Roskelley, Chuck Stewart