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* Dixon USC hires cheerleader to lead troubled athletic department Albert King Dixon was hired as USC's new athletic director, but that's no surprise. Ever since he was appointed interim A D university officials have said Kinff was the leading eon tender, The State newspaper liked him and it seemed almost everyone thought a home-grown A.D. would be the best thing to put the department back in line. We're not sure. Dixon is first and foremost one of USC's biggest cheerleaders, especially considering his background as a former football player and student. We don't need a cheerleader right now. We need leadership. It is time for hard choices to be made. Dixon said in an interview in The State earlier this week that he is "sick and tired" of the constant stream of allegations that come out of USC, especially the athletic department. He's not the only one. He said he thinks there is a lack of proper discipline at the department. He's right. Yes, it is indeed a time for tough choices, and having the heart of a cheerleader will be too detrimental to the decisions that have to be made. If there is a lack of discipline, it is time for discipline to be enforced, especially around coaches who have had as much say in the run of the denartment as the nrevious athletic directors The coaches need to be put in their places ? if the department won't tolerate a lack of discipline, the coaches need to start enforcing the proper discipline or get out and let someone else come in who will. The steroid issue is a perfect example of what needs to be done. Assistant coach Jim Washburn said he did not know the signs of steroid abuse, so he couldn't do anything to stop it or even notice it. USC President James Holderman said it wasn't the coaches' job to look for steroid abuse. That's a cop-out and a dodge. If it is team policy that steroids not be used, it is the job of the coaches to learn all the signs and look for them, and also to teach about the dangers of the banned substance. To say it is the team doctor's primary responsibility is acceptable, but to say the coaches have no part in watching for substance abuse is to deny the doctor a reasonable backup. It's like a surgeon with nothing to do, when asked to take care of another patient saying, "That's not my table." "PI i 1 1 11 rri _ _ _1 1 _ s A 1 i nars duii. i ne coacnes were ana are in a position to see ana almost rule every single aspect of the player's lives. They can't just say "it's not my job, not my responsibility." They are their players' keepers. So into USC's troubled athletics comes a new King. It is time for him to take charge and forget being a cheerleader until he can straighten things out. Then, with the department and the coaches under his leadership, he can hoot and holler for the Gamecocks all he wants. But if he doesn't make strict policy, make enforcement equally strict, all the yelling about how wonderful his selection is will be useless. If he doesn't get his staff and his coaches in line, his selection will be useless. It'll take a world of luck to pull it off. Good luck. VifCVy. isr* The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor STEPHEN GUILFOYLE JENNY SHARPE Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor WAYNE YANG MICHAEL SHARP Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON News Editor Adviser HAL MILLARD PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editor Graduate Assistant MARY PEARSON PHILLIP MCKENZIE KELLY C. THOMAS Director of Student Media Features Editor ED BONZA SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager Assistant Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS TOM JOYNER Production Manager Sports Editor LAURA DAY KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Production Manager Assistant Sports Editor RAY BURGOS CHRIS SILVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager Photography Editors BARBARA BROWN BRIAN SAULS TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy:- The Gamecock will try to prinl letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible | libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. Atmrf* CorWnUTiON } \ " IT'S SUPPOSE! A word to thi At 12:15 today, the USC football team will be leaving to go to Raleigh to play N.C. State Saturday night. The only word to define this particular game for the Gamecocks is pressure. The Gamecocks have a whole bunch of pressure to overcome. First and foremost, the allegations made by i /^un lumici puiyci lummy v^iiaiA.111 uiai ut anu a number of other players used steroids during the '87 season will be on their minds. As much as the coaches and high-profile players can say, this will have an effect on the team ? a nagging doubt at the back of some of their minds in the very least. Also, before the story on steroids came out, there was the problem of USC's loss to Georgia Tech. It was a totally incomprehensible loss. Georgia Tech hadn't beaten a Division I-A team in a year, and the team went on to lose to North Carolina, a team that was winless all season, and who were manhandled by the Gamecocks at the beginning of the season. They've got a lot to make up for. But they are also facing a team that USC drubbed soundly last year at Williams-Brice 48-0. The Wolfpack had only 36 yards of offense in last year's game, and I don't recall if they got a first down or not. And State is coming off a big win over USC's perennial nemesis, Clemson. We're coming off a big loss. They almost broke into the Top 20 this week. Letters the Football loss m . observatio: not surprising the Georgi To the editor: as no sur] So is anyone really surprised by the was an acc outcome of the ballgame with game to hi Georgia Tech? I certainly was not. Maybe that's because the last time I ventured to Atlanta to see a Carolina team was in 1978, when another favored Gamecock squad was shot llll m! down 6-3. Forget the psychology that when ?111*1 C you are a nationally ranked team, the 11"?5 opposition comes "gunning" for you. Let's face it, South Carolina is To the edii not a great team, but rather one I would which relies heavily on emotion just weakness as they have done repeatedly in the republican: past. Great teams do not need that Rhonda A intangible to succeed, but do so with The Game sheer talent and power ? two ingre- Dukakis 1 dients the Gamecocks have always perience b< had limited supplies of. Washingto Todd Ellis is a good (but not great) Reagan be quarterback who had the misfortune (If Dukak of landing a grant-in-aid to a school perience, \ which would place its entire program the 50 sta on his shoulders, even to the point of most effec changing offensive schemes not once, joke that tl but twice in his three year career in pare Qua order to bring out his talent. He has those of D not had (no matter what the passing eight years yardage numbers) much success here, eight yea even to the point of obtaining the substance, label of a "big game" choke, and his ing himseli mobility has been compared to that anti-enviro of Joe Namath. rassment t< But Mr. Ellis should not take all The Oct the credit for the recent loss to the "experienc Yellow Jackets, as Carolina football Dole has si should not live or die with the for- V.P., Bush ward pass. If Ellis played for a It seems th< UCLA, a Miami or even a Clemson, Bush has d he might truly have a shot at the his running Heisman. But in Columbia where There a rushing yards come as frequently as good numl winter snows, he hasn't got a chance. Dukakis. 1 Saturday reminded me of last year in accomplish Jacksonville when LSU used up to such are eight defenders against the pass. homeless, 1 Without a ground attack to keep the all citizens defense honest, there is just no place welfare an< to throw, and as we are beginning to to halt the1 see, the odds for interceptions in- and poor w I > TO PROTECT US FROM THE Rl i boys on the b Stephen fnT^ Guilfoyle They were short by about 20 votes. N.C. State is gunning for us, for revenge, for esteem, for ranking. They've got nothing to lose; we've got everything to lose. And on top of all this pressure is the sudden announcement that this game will be ESPN's evening game, so they'll be sitting around all day thinking about the pressure. I went to the Georgia Tech game. It was a tough game to watch, but I was encouraged by one thing. Tech only scored a field goal in the second half. The defense got into the game, and they didn't move the ball all that well. The defense has to be there from the first snap to the last. State's defense is tough, and our offense might want to be wary of their middle linebacker. ______________________________________________ editor itly. past eight years. He has the above facts with the # Latin America and unders n that the entire team has region better than does Bu; h no emotion and little in- poses the failed and weeks, and the result of Reagan/Bush policy of w a Tech eame should come the npnnlp of NiVaraoim C' prise. Gamecock football the large deficit and large { ident looking for an away of the budget which del tppen. stitutes (some 35 percent), more realistic than Bush, Tim Bradshaw ports the unreliable, expe chemistry grad (Strategic Defense Initia ^ claims he'll never raise taxe ;akis more read my lips ? you can't Dukakis' one great w< 'tdtltivP that he has not been ef UlitllII V responding to the shall twisting, negative campaig tor: which the Republicans are ? like to address some of the If Americans would stop es of the letter by ing "personality" anc s D. Troy Mullinax and presence" and start looki irant which appeared in issues, many more woulc cock Oct. 21. They claim Dukakis is the more substi lacks the necessary ex- honest candidate. :cause he has never held a n position. Neither did Mich fore becoming president. geography gradua is is so lacking in exvhy did the governors of c\% 4 tes elect Dukakis as the J? 4vlij &11I tive among them?) It is a _ - _ lis letter also tried to com- Q r|1*T1 All k yle's qualifications with itUUI IIUII ? ukakis. Quayle may have senatorial experience, but To the editor: irs totally lacking in Might we move beyoi He spent eight years prov- screens and emotionalism f to be anti-education and tion and touch on some nment. He is an embar- and realities? i his party. Issue 1: Conceptions du . 21 letter describes all the incest or where the life of t e" of Bush. Even Bob is immediately threatene< :ated that in eight years as for less than one percent c i has never done anything. abortions. Ninety-nine p< s only thing of significance done for social, economic lone is to select Quayle as of convenience. I mate. Issue 2: 'Doesn't a wom re many reasons why a right over her own bo< her of Americans support popular comment. Realit Dukakis has made major however, that not one but 1 iments in Massachusetts in are involved. There are t as as education, the types, two heart beats am health care availability for time the sex of the baby is i and getting people off Hasn't AIDS powerfully i into jobs. Dukakis wants us that responsible sexual widening gulf between rich begins before the sex act, 'hich has occurred over the unwanted problems occur' rive^lant w I _ ASIANS/" us to Raleigh His name is Ray Frost and he's only a sophomore, but he had 12 tackles last year against our offense. And I talked to him after last year's game, which he played with a stomach virus. He's tough, and he was pretty depressed and mad after that game. Like the rest of State's defense, I'm sure. They pushed Clemson around last week probably better than anyone else, including Florida State. But I also talked to some of USC's defensive players after last year's game. I asked one of them ? I think it was senior linebacker Matt McKernan, but I can't remember for sure ? if beating N.C. State 48-0 and limiting them to 36 yards and no touchdowns meant USC had paid State back for its victory two years ago in Raleigh. State won the game on a bad call by the referees, I'd say. And the player said, "It doesn't make up for nothing. We have to pay them back on their home turf." So the only "advice" this armchair coach, fledgling sportswriter, but definite Gamecock fan, can offer the boys on the bus as they ride to the game, if they get to pick up The Gamecock before they go, is to remember that no matter what you do. the real fans are behind you 100 percent, even if we're not there. And we think you can beat State the same way you beat them last year. They're a team in need of a serious case of "Black Death," don't you think? worked in Issue 3: Some 30 percent of all contands that ceptions now end in baby murder, sh. He op- Thus, 30 percent of the time, proimmoral choice means 'pro-death.' Hurting ar against women factually testify that it is onsidering much easier to scrape the baby from jroportion the mother's womb than to scrape ense con- the scars from the mind. Dukakis is Issue 4: Question: Have you heard who sup- any pro-choice advocates say they nsive SDI wish their own mother had aborted tive), yet them? s. George, Issue 5: Deeper than the question do both. of when life begins is the reality that jakness is destroying the unborn says: "I know fective at God is wanting to create something ow, fact- here but I will not let Him do it." ning game Thank you for your courteous so good at. consideration, emphasizi "stage Fred Kerr ng at the international student worker 1 see that intivp nnH TTHn J 1*1 _ uorm uxe aei v.d?r roach motel te student To the editor: J y\ This letter relates to the emanating 11 problem of roaches in our dormitory llS rooms (primarily on the 2nd floor of Douglas). Due to this ongoing situation, our progress as students has been greatly impeded ? impeded to id smoke the extent that we are uncomfortable ? on abor- residing here, hard facts Last year, we were given the common courtesy of having an extere to rape, minator. This year is an entirely difhe mother ferent situation, as we have been i account forced to live in conditions un >f all U.S. suitable to the standards set forth by jrcent are both our families and ourselves, or reasons We would be greatly appreciative of an infrequent but consistent exterian have a mination. We pay a substantial Jy?' is a amount of money each year to attend y reveals, this institution and in return expect a :wo bodies sufficient amount of upkeep within wo blood the dormitories so that we all may d half the further our educations without undifferent. necessary distractions. Thank you reminded for your time and attention. I behavior not after Monty Seth Warner ' ' journalism sophomore