[NU Sports] Duke

[Sportsbiz]

Strotz was as Jeff has commented generally a rather laid back and rumpled
academic who was supportive of both the Vietnam War and Amazingrace.  He
generally let both student strikes (in 1970 and 1972-73 my memory fails as
to exact timing of second one) proceed with little reprecussions for
students and faculty invovled. He agreed to allow all spring classes in 1970
to be considered pass/fail and then when school was canceled, all pass -
it's why I completed my math requirement.

That said, he was an active opponent of the athletic program in general and
football in particular.  Strotz continually looked for opportunities to
starve it of resources and fought with key trustees over funding issues.
The lack of support of athletics at the time from faculty and students no
doubt helped his cause.  Like Paul, I was an active anti-war protester,
anti-Nixon worker and faithful Dyche attendee.  My friends and I never
thought the two were mutually exclusive.

Strotz was, despite our many differences, always decent to me on a personal
level and I have always respected him for that.  Nevertheless, his
administration was not a particular high point for the university.
Mark

Mark Ament
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On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 3:50 PM, Beamsley, Jeff
<Jeff.Beamsley at covisint.com>wrote:

> Just sharing my own experience with the man.
>
> Strotz kept the police/national guard off campus, allowed students to
> peacefully express their concern over Viet Nam, and negotiated a method
> to allow students who took time off to complete classes.  There were
> plenty of other university presidents who took much harder lines and had
> much worse outcomes.
>
> In the years following that, he usually already had a couple of beers
> and was pretty laid back and generally cordial, very accepting of what
> we were doing with Amazingrace, and generally pretty liberal in his
> views.  I don't remember him every saying anything about the football
> team.  As far as the cultural comment, it was just an observation that
> for a while it wasn't nearly as cool to be a football fan as it is now.
> <g>
>
> Jeff
>
>
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> From: NEONRye at aol.com [mailto:NEONRye at aol.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 3:06 PM
> To: Beamsley, Jeff; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Duke
>
>
> Jeff:
>
> C'mon, I was an anti-war protestor and McGovern supporter, but I still
> went to virtually every football game I could at Dyche.  Strotz was an
> aloof figure who did not seem to be particularly concerned as to what
> students felt about anything going on at NU (although my friend Mark
> Ament, as then President of ASG, could probably comment better from his
> own first-hand experience with Mr. Strotz), and he was, as I recall, a
> strong supporter of our involvement in Vietnam.  I don't think the
> problems with the football program or athletics in general were caused
> by anti-militaristic sentiment in Evanston.  In fact, most of the NU
> student populace was still traditionalist in many ways.  Let's put the
> blame for our fall in FB where it belongs:  Alex Agase left for what he
> thought were "greener pastures" in West Lafayette, but alas (Alex?), he
> never could replicate at Purdue the undeniable success he enjoyed at NU,
> and in his stead, our brilliant administration hired John Pont, late of
> Indiana and Yale.  The rest should better be left unsaid.
>
> Paul Levinson
>
>
>
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