Art Thiel Wordsmith

If you are a Husky fan you might have mixed emotions about PI Sports Editor Art Thiel. Art has always called them as he sees them, and during some of the Huskies troubling years you may not have liked what he wrote, but if you were a realist you had to give him credit. Art believe it, or not is a Husky fan, he is also a graduate of the University of Washington. He didn't like what was going on at Montlake anymore than we did during those times. As a lead sports columnist he is one of those people who can actually initiate change with a few strokes of his pen.

This morning he wrote an excellent column on the culture of athletics at Ohio State. I thought it deserved special mention in the blog. I touched on some of this in a different last week when I wrote my "Meanderings from a Different Viewpoint" thread in Dawgman, and on the blog. I used the current athletic administration at Oregon as an example in contrast to what is currently going on at Washington under Willingham.

If you haven't seen the video of the Oregon mascot attacking the Houston mascot a little over a week a go I have a link to it in a previous thread. you really need to take a look at it because it really shows the current direction of the Oregon athletic administration. By the way the Oregon student behind the mascot outfit was suspended for only one game. In my opinion he should have been thrown out of school.

Here are a few choice excerpts from Art's column this morning.

"When you win a game, you riot. When you lose a game, you riot. When spring comes, you riot. AfricanAmerican Heritage Festival weekend, you riot," Holbrook said. "They think it's fun to flip cars, to really have absolute drunken orgies. ... I don't want to be at a place that has this kind of culture as a norm."

Don't misunderstand. I'm not saying "absolute drunken orgies" are right or wrong. In fact, I believe it's a degree program at Washington State. It's just that the UW is about a 12 Jell-O-shot underdog right out of the tailgate.

Or, as they might describe the UW in Columbus, a junior college with a nice shoreline.

Very nice job Art, thanks once again for making us think, and be careful if you ever visit Columbus.