2008 Woodie Awards
Let's get on Track
Flame Forum
Chris Brown
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: Sports
Can someone please tell me how we have overlooked and forgotten about the original sport, the most ancient of all games? Running, jumping, sprinting, throwing, agility, stamina are a few hints. Somehow here at the Flame and around campus, we've forgotten the most basic competition of all time - track and field.
I know that here at UIC, track and field has fallen through the cracks and is arguably the least known sport here at the University.
Out of all the fairly lesser known sports at UIC, gymnastics has garnered much recognition recently, sending 11 student athletes to the NCAA championships with one, Andrew Stover, placing nationally. Another gymnast, Anthony May, received National Gymnast of the Week honors recently, too.
Swimming and diving is always a staple with individuals always fairing well, finishing at the top of the conference. And of course there's tennis. All they seem to do is win. The women took their 100th consecutive conference match last week and the men consistently finish in the Horizon League top two.
So, where does this leave track? In search of answers I took to campus. As I walked through the quad I stopped a student what she knew about the UIC track and field team.
Her reply was, "We have a track team?"
I cringed. Maybe she did not know much about UIC's sports teams due to the commuter factor, so I probed her further about soccer, basketball and baseball. She seemed to have a general idea of those as well as some of the less popular sports mentioned above, but nothing about track.
Similar results followed as I asked a few more people around campus and in the dorms. The best responses I received were that indeed we had a track team, but those students didn't know much about it. My follow up to those students was, "Well you watch Olympics track and field?"
The common response was that they enjoyed the track and field portion of the Olympics. So why the disinterest around campus, or pure lack of knowledge altogether about o-u-r track team?
I know that here at UIC, track and field has fallen through the cracks and is arguably the least known sport here at the University.
Out of all the fairly lesser known sports at UIC, gymnastics has garnered much recognition recently, sending 11 student athletes to the NCAA championships with one, Andrew Stover, placing nationally. Another gymnast, Anthony May, received National Gymnast of the Week honors recently, too.
Swimming and diving is always a staple with individuals always fairing well, finishing at the top of the conference. And of course there's tennis. All they seem to do is win. The women took their 100th consecutive conference match last week and the men consistently finish in the Horizon League top two.
So, where does this leave track? In search of answers I took to campus. As I walked through the quad I stopped a student what she knew about the UIC track and field team.
Her reply was, "We have a track team?"
I cringed. Maybe she did not know much about UIC's sports teams due to the commuter factor, so I probed her further about soccer, basketball and baseball. She seemed to have a general idea of those as well as some of the less popular sports mentioned above, but nothing about track.
Similar results followed as I asked a few more people around campus and in the dorms. The best responses I received were that indeed we had a track team, but those students didn't know much about it. My follow up to those students was, "Well you watch Olympics track and field?"
The common response was that they enjoyed the track and field portion of the Olympics. So why the disinterest around campus, or pure lack of knowledge altogether about o-u-r track team?
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