Is keeping PSU down part of Oregon's Misfit "Social Order"?

[BroadwayVik]

Do the Oregon misfit powers-that-be wish to suppress and oppress PSU to maintain a certain social order? In other words, does PSU for them have a role and they would prefer that role not be upset or altered?



If so, let's shake up it up and negate them, magnifying PSU's role in the state. Portland is too important to entertain their outdated precepts any longer.

 

[Pounder]

OK, let's do it.

Get 20 people together. Call a bar, see if they can wire Big Sky TV to a set, watch a road game. Next, do it again. And again. Keep doing it. Bars like the loyal customers.

Also, keep recruiting, keep growing the gang. At some point, you hope to find a second bar, and lather and rinse and repeat.

NONE OF THIS INVOLVES THE INSTITUTION. This involves the fans organizing and getting stuff done.

That... that is the short version of the birth of Timbers Army, except it actually happened with US Soccer matches under the name Cascade Rangers and converted into USL Timbers support. In other words, the Army predates the "modern Timbers."

That's happened with people in Eugene following the Timbers to the point that a PDL club will start playing in Eugene this year, BTW.

I won't say it's easy to do. It takes self starters. Most everyone in the Army knows "Nevets," a guy who really brought together the Rangers, someone who sounded a bit like Jeff Spiccoli (but much smarter) and NEVER, EVER squandered an opportunity to chat up someone he found watching any soccer game anywhere in town.

So maybe that's the bigger lesson. The growth happened one person at a time, face to face, and not at all dependent on a Pokey Allen or David Hersh to galvanize mass support. Besides, that activity kind of follows a institutional/corporate line, and that's just not Portland circa 2014. Make it personal, involve beer, be real, and good things flow from there.

 

[BroadwayVik]

PSU fans, I believe, are reluctant to come out of hiding until there is an iconic social, emotional leader in place to spearhead the social movement. Like the Timbers' Army, we need a politician(s) who is able to serve confidently as our fan community organizer.

Many PSU alums are introverts, I believe, and still identify with PSU being a relatively obscure institution. We need the same person to be a cultural change agent who is able to instill PSU grads with a level of pride such that it serves as an effective shield against (and smothers out) all iconoclastic efforts to deride PSU and its graduates. That is what PSU grads need most: Clear boundary protection from derision. Even something with which to push back.

I believe PSU grads' greatest fear is being exposed as a PSU alum who actually supports their alma mater's underdeveloped athletics programs. This is a struggle and not yet the kind of joy experienced presently by Oregon and Oregon State fans. PSU fans, for the most part, digress from waving their flags of support until the situation becomes more palatable and something to be proud of.

I believe the majority of PSU fans believe we are selling ourselves way, way short by residing in the big sky conference. This is a lazy, fund-raising anemic solution. The purpose behind conference affiliation here needs to be a temporary place to the process up the developing of quality athletics teams.

PSU is linked to the Willamette, Columbia and the Pacific. We have mountains, but our identity and heritage is primarily nautical and coastal. We need to affiliate not with institutions of the mining zones of the West, but with other teams of the Pacific Coast. This is what UO, OSU & UP do. We need to join the Big West Conference for Olympic sports. These include UC and Cal State schools and Hawaii. The balm of correct identity affilation will reap untold benefits for us, including peace and stability. Sac State needs to do the same. We don't identify with the big sky conference.

Football is then the only wild card, and there are many options to find our way. I believe our goal should be to join the Mountain West (like Hawaii) for football-only. To develop up, we could remain in the big sky as a football-only, become a FCS independent that has the freedom to schedule teams from across the nation, and, when ready, make the move up to the MW or become an FBS Independent with full complement of 12 OOC games a year, and not just three or four. Hire a professional scheduler, one who thrives on it.

Is such an effective political leader in existence? Isn't this a role of the Viking Athletic Partnership? It is like we need a meeting of PSU's best and brightest (past and present) to come together for a Nike-styled summit conference at Sun River.



PSU grad talent that may be enlisted in the needed various ways include the following (wikipedia):

Writer Jean M. Auel, U.S. Olympic Bobsledder Bree Schaaf Boyer, hijacker of TWA Flight 355
Julienne Bušić, artist and experimental musician Ken Butler, Dallas Cowboy Tony Curtis, singer, songwriter and producer Issa, wrestler and mixed martial artist Dave Jansen, actor and martial artist Mark Dacascos, creator of the Nike swoosh, Carolyn Davidson, Chairman and CEO, United Parcel Service of America, Scott Davis, Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul De Muniz - Super Bowl XVII Champion Clint Didier, novelist, essayist David James Duncan - entrepreneur and candidate for elected office, Mike Erickson, Miss America 2002, Katie Harman, Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker, Adam Hayward, retired NFL running back Darick Holmes, SMU head football coach, June Jones, LAIKA President & CEO, Travis Knight, Actor Terence Knox. Businessman Darren Kimura - National Literary Prize (Spanish) winner, Francisco Laguna Correa, 1982 World Series Champion, Jeff Lahti, Ambassador (Qatar), Joseph LeBaron, St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals (1981–89) quarterback, Neil Lomax , actress Courtney Love, Playboy model, Holly Madison, MEMS pioneer and founder of IntelliSense, Philanthropist Fariborz Maseeh, former police chief, Charles Moose, Journalist, author, musician Michael Moynihan, editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman, the late great Major League Baseball pitcher, Steve Olin, social activist Musse Olal, science fiction author Pierre Ouellette, UFC fighter Mike Pierce, animator Bill Plympton, Dark Horse Comics founder, Mike Richardson, Pac-12 Referee, Gordon Riese, former Oregon Supreme Court justice, R. William Riggs, 34th Governor of Oregon, Barbara Roberts, peace-building author, Harry Anastasiou, past Oregon Supreme Court judge, Betty Roberts, science fiction and fantasy author, Deborah J. Ross, Olympic wrestler, Richard Sanders, Carolina Panthers linebacker. Jordan Senn, conductor and pianist, Lawrence Leighton Smith, jazz musician, Esperanza Spalding , Denver Broncos tight end, Julius Thomas, past Major League Baseball manager, Tom Trebelhorn, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach, Ime Udoka, NBA guard & NCAA scoring champion, Freeman Williams, late engineer & entrepreneur, Norm Winningstad

These all have greatness in common. Late persons could be represented by proxies.