The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 1989 Page: 3 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1989
Owl basketball promises excitement—and fans can help
Guest Column
by Scott Thompson
Can Rice University have a re-
spectable basketball program? Can
the greatest students in the nation be
rewarded for their endless enthusi-
asm and loyalty? Can the legendary
Autry Court, known around the
country as "Jungle Gym," be the
most exciting place to watch sport-
ing events?The answer to all of these
questions can be "Yes!"
Two years ago the Rice program
was considered among the worst in
all of Division 1 basketall. Most
people continue to think that a small
school with integrity, high academ-
ics and athletes who consistently
graduate can never be a top program.
has student-athletes, a small gymna-
sium and a mass of enthusiastic,
clever students who make every
game a memorable experience. I'm
crazy enough to think that we can
compete with Duke in every respect.
We want to make Autry Court
the hottest, most exciting place
to be when the Owls take the court.
However, over the last decade I've
seen Duke University compete with
the best, making it to the final four
numerous times. Like Rice, Duke
Last year we had a group of
young, hungry players who worked
hard and improved as the season
progressed. Our record was 12 wins
Goodbye to the '80s, a few weeks early
on2ni
ought
BY MICHAEL RAPHAEL
In a few weeks the decade comes
to a close, and we're just starting to
read and hear all sorts of recaps,
highlights, evaluations, and summa-
ries of ten years that are, unset-
tlingly, only an arbitrary frame of ref-
erence we impose upon our time.
A lot happens in a decade. In this
one, we had an artifical heart in-
stalled in Barney Clark, the first
woman installed on the Supreme
Court, and some bullets installed in
John Lennon. Ivan Boesky got
caught, Charles and Diana got
hitched, and John Hinckley got away
with pleading insanity.
In 1982, the space shuttle Colum-
bia was launched; in 1986, the Chal-
lenger exploded. Somewhere in be-
tween, AIDS ended the sexual revo-
lution but deified the condom We
saw Olympic boycotts in Moscow
and Los Angeles, the British beat up
Argentina in the Falklands, and the
Equal Rights Amendment failed by a
narrow margin.
Through all the disparate events,
it's tough to come up with any simple
description of the decade. But every-
one knows the "80s oozed personal
greed, and there was lots of peace
and prosperity, if you're an upper-
middle class American.
The best I can do in coming up
with a "catchword" for the '80s is
three words: form over function.
Make of that what you will, and I'll go
ahead and offer some more opin-
ions—admittedly biased, but no
more so than anyone else's.
Most "80s" movie—"Risky Busi-
ness." Besides being a pretty fan
flick, this film embodies themes cen-
tral to the decade. It portrayed the
human struggle via a teenager trying
to earn money to fix a Porsche, and
showed how to conquer an oppres-
sive social structure through private
enterprise. It falls short of capturing
the decade Zeitgeist, unfortunately,
in its unbridled pre-AIDS sexuality.
The decade of form
over function.
Most "80s" book—Cultural Liter-
acy by Edward Hirsch. Solved a seri-
ous, complex social issue, America's
pathetic schools, by a panacea as
easy as popping a couple Tylenol.
Kids just need to be taught the basic
terms of our culture, neatly pre-
sented in a list at the back of the
book.
Most "80s" political figure—Goes
without saying. The Presidential em-
bodiment of form over function. His
wife reads Jeanne Dixon.
Most "80s* philosophy—No pres-
ent sacrifice, however small, ought
to be made for any future gain, how-
Greg Kahn, Sarah J. Leedy
Editors-in-Chief
Felix Dawson
Business Manager
NEWS
Jennifer Rios, Kurt Moeller Editors
Tr6 Fischer, Grace Chen, Lorie List, Elise
Perachio, Bobby Kapur, Shelley Fuki,
Steve Dortch, Joshua Denk, Amy Keener,
Mark Permann, Rodney Gibbs, Tania van
den Houten, Stephen Boucher, Charlie
Watts
OPINION
Michael Raphael Editor
Steve Lait Cartoonist
FINE ARTS
Tim Carroll Editor
Shaila Dewan Assistant Editor
Eric Salituro, Lisa McCaffety, Sarah
l^edy, Jerry Hall
FEATURES
Jim Kelly Editor
SPORTS
Myra K. Rucker Editor
Peter Limperis Assistant Editor
Todd Ballengee, Alan Rosen, Sunny Ok,
P. S. Vinod, Charles Kuffner, John
Shcpard, Tim Schmelter, Sly and the
Family Stone
BACK PAGE
Jay Yates Editor
Pete Limperis Assistant Editor
David Egelman Columnist
PRODUCTION
Harlan Howe Manager
Stephen Boucher Assistant Manager
Alicia Butler, Ed Warren, Nick Dobson,
Josh Denk, Shaila Dewan, Tho Dinh,
Leezie Km, Pete Limperis, Mike Phillips,
Leslie Raneri, Ann Zitterkopf
PHOTOGRAPHY
Nguyet Vo Editor
Michelle Gadd, Chris Sonneborn, Mike
Gladu, Shaila Dewan, James Yao, Nika
Kabiri, Frank Kang, Jennifer Stacy,
Carson Taylor, Tom Cruise
BUSINESS
Michael Flanigan Ads Manager
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Circulation
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© COPYRIGHT 1989
The Rice Thresher, the official student newspaper at Rice University since
1916, is published each Friday during the school year, except during exami-
nation periods and holidays, by the students of Rice University. Editorial and
business offices are located on the second floor of the Ley Student Center,
P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas, 77251. Advertising information available
upon request. Mail subscription rate per semester: $15.00 domestic, $30
international via first class mail. Unsigned editorials represent the majority
opinion of the Thresher Editorial Board. All other pieces represent the opinion
of the author. Obviously.
ever large.
Worst '80s laws—the raised drink-
ing age. All the states now call it
illegal when 19- and 20-year-olds
drink, and everyone tries to pretend
they're enforcing it. Count them as
non-functional laws in nice, conser-
vative forms.
Biggest national embarrass-
ment—Iran-Contra, the HUD scan-
dal, the Savings and Loan fiasco, and
the 1988 campaign are all edged out
by the flag-burning "issue," which
has countries like Britain and France
rolling in laughter and wondering
whether our government leaders
have anything better to do with their
time.
Biggest national success—signs of
the triumph of democracy over au-
thoritarianism, of the Revolution of
1776 over the one of 1917.
Biggest turnarounds—the evil
empire is now the friendly one; the
Solidarity movement outlawed in
1982 now occupies the top post in
Poland.
Biggest disappointment—Halley's
comet It just looked fuzzy to me.
Best sports moment—Even if
you're not a baseball fan, or even a
sports fan, you have to admire the
swarthy but injured Kirk Gibson
hobbling off the bench for a two-out
ninth inning home run to propel the
underdog Dodgers to 1988 World
Series victory.
Reductio ad absurdum of the '80s
—Dan Qiiayle. In high office. All
form, no function.
and 16 losses. This was a major step
from our 6 and 21 record the year
before. Our students helped us win
our home games against Houston,
Texas A&M, TCU, SMU, and Texas
Tech. These victories added up to
the most Southwest Conference
wins a Rice basketball team has had
since 1971, and resulted in our quali-
fying for the SWC tournament for the
first time in years. In the meantime,
Autry Court earned the Jungle Gym
nickname and developed the reputa-
tion as being one of the most difficult
places in America for opposing
teams to play. Needless to say, the
costumes, clever ideas, noise, and
endless support has helped us to mo-
tivate our team and our staff.
This season we are set to take
another step forward. Our team is
still young, with ten of our fourteen
players being freshmen or sopho-
mores. However, we are hungry and
continue to improve in practice. We
have two seniors on our team, Kevin
Ruffcorn and D Wayne Tanner. If
there's a more exciting player to
watch than DWayne, I'd like to see
him! We have many other exciting
players who will play hard, play
smart and play together, and are
proud to be part of Rice University.
Our goals are simple: we want to
continue our progress in the SWC.
Wewantateam which Rice students,
faculty and alumni are proud of.
And...we want to make Autry Court
the hottest, most exciting place to be
when the Owls take the court Our
first game is Monday, November 13,
against a Brazilian team composed of
several national players and a few
good American players. I hope that
all students and faculty members will
put down our game dates on their
calendars. There will be a person at
each college who will make an-
nouncements of our upcoming
games and dates of my Talking
Hoops" sessions at the RMC. These
sessions, held every other Monday
evening, are for any students who
want to talk about basketball or to
give me any new plays.
See you in the jungle!
Scott Thompson is beginning his
third season as head basketball coach
at Rice.
Drum majors attack
mythical MOB past
To the editors:
As experienced members of the
MOB, we would like to address the
recent criticism of our perform
ances. We believe that these criti-
cisms can in part be attributed to a
lack of knowledge regarding the de-
velopment and intent of our shows.
Because of our participation in the
MOB as musicians, leaders, and
show committee members, we feel
able to adequately respond to these
opinions.
A group open to all MOBsters
produces each halftime show. This
group is wholly responsible for the
content of the shows, including
script composition, music selection,
and field formations. Thus, each
show represents a collection of the
ideas put forth by the members,
bounded by what all feel is entertain-
ing. Our final product is entirely
dependent on the attendance at
these meetings, which historically
Abortion overemphasized
To the editors:
A recent editorial in the Thresher
("Current abortion debate puts
democracy to work," Nov. 3) labeled
the extremely active abortion move-
ment that has swept across the Rice
campus, as well as our entire coun-
try, "democracy at work." Democ-
racy may appear to be at work in re-
spect to the editor's opinion that
people are actually participating in a
national issue and forcing politicians
to go public, but I question the sig-
nificance of the motivation behind
these actions, and whether this situ-
ation can be called democracy at
work.
While I agree that abortion is an
important issue, and that "frightened
politicians and energized elections"
are good things, I disagree that to-
gether they are a good combination.
Instead, I think that this plainly
demonstrates a fault that lies at the
base of this type of "democracy at
work," when an issue such as abor-
tion can so strongly influence elec-
tions.
The editorial stated that Virginia
was leaning towards electing
Douglas Wilder as this country's
first black governor, mainly because
of his liberal stance on abortion,
which "appealed to many conserva-
tives." It is absurd that the American
public and politicians are letting a
controversial, emotional, and moral
issue such as abortion dictate their
actions.
Abortion is a 'single-issue party'
type of topic that does not deserve
the attention it is receiving by both
major parties. Once a politician is
elected, abortion will probably be a
factor in less than one percent of the
decisions he or she will have to make
in office. Politicians may now have to
risk going public on this sensitive is-
sue, but so what?The significance of
the debate over abortion has been
blown out of proportion. It is impos-
sible to tell whether someone will
make a good congressman, gover-
nor or president on the basis of
whether they are pro-choice or pro-
life. It's a no-win situation, and in-
stead of trying to decide which
stance will rake in votes, it would be
more impressive to see time devoted
to finding workable solutions.
If abortion is truly becoming "the
most important domestic political
issue oftheyear,"it is disturbing. I'm
glad to see Rice and the rest of the
country fulfilling their part in this
democratic environment by re-
sponding actively to an issue, but this
particular issue overshadows much
more important questions that a poli-
tician will have to confront, such as
education, public housing, unem-
ployment, urban development, ris-
ing crime rates, etc.
Democracy calls for an active
exchange between the government
and its people, but I won't believe
that democracy is fully at work until
I see people demonstrate more of an
interest in issues that actually shape
this country.
Lorie C. list
SRC '92
has been very poor. Thus, we oper-
ate not under the constraint of an
overabundance of censorship, but
rather that of limited creative input.
We direct these shows at our
entire audience— students, alumni,
and fans of Rice, as well as support
A group open to all
MOBsters... is
wholly responsible
for the content of the
shows.
ers of the opposing teams. Our intent
is neither to offend humorlessly, nor
to ingratiate ourselves at the ex-
pense of our own student body. We
merely strive to entertain all in atten-
dance. Admittedly, our success at
this has been varied, but resorting to
offensiveness in the place of humor
is not the answer.
Many argue that the MOB of 15
years ago spoke more to the Rice
culture than our current group. We
contend, however, that this is not the
case. As most of us were not contem-
poraries of earlier MOB's, it is prob-
able that the passage of time has
idealized their approach. Note that
15 years ago the majority of the band
consisted of non-Rice students, the
Rice community itself did not sup-
port the MOB, and the band was
musically inferior to today's group.
The Stanford band's recent demise
testifies to the transience blanket
offensiveness as entertainment.
Thus, we have evolved into the
current MOB, which strives to enter-
tain through good music and good
humor. Realistically, it is not pos-
sible to please all of the people all of
the time, but we feel that the MOB
has been largely successful in its
attempt at this perhaps unattainable
goal. We hope that these and future
critiques will provoke positive stu-
dent involvement in our efforts,
rather than continued controversy
as to our leadership, direction, and
loyalty to Rice students.
Mary Beth Gracy
Brown '90
Patrick Shopbell
Hanszen '89
ARE YOU A CONCERNED
CITIZEN?
DO YOU BELIEVE IN
DEMOCRACY?
Then write your congressper-
son. Register to vote. Be
informed Get up and participate
in government by and for the
people.
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Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 10, 1989, newspaper, November 10, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245734/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.