Fred Oien article

[jackdaniel]

Re: Fred Oien article

At least we'll know what everyones driving by the time all's said & done.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Fred Oien article

Guilty as charged....1995 pick-up,with a huge uncared for dent in the back, (was already there when i bought it) ( hope you take this as a little good natured fun at your expense tea jr)

I understand and I am getting what I deserve. Remember, when I made that orignal post I stated in there how silly it seemed judging someone on their vehicle.

For the record, I just cleaned out my Suburban and it wasn't pretty. In my defense I have 4 kids under the age of 8 that ride in it daily.

Also, there is another local government official who recently retired who drove a car that was such a clunker it could be in movies. How surprised was I one day to see him driving this thing in the winter and scraping the ice off the INSIDE of the window at the same time. The he gets out and it takes him about 10 slams to shut the door. I wasn't surprised to see a quote from him about being extremly cheap. Explains that one!

[Nidaros]

Re: Fred Oien article

I got an Olds Aelaro with 224,000, new brake job in Jan, tires in July 2008, and paid for and seems to run well. The back seat is a mess as I have to haul pets from time to time. Big dent on the outside, but its transportation and gets about 26 mpg even around town.

[jackdaniel]

Re: Fred Oien article

I can see now why Chrysler & GM are going broke & need bailouts!

[zooropa]

Re: Fred Oien article

it sickens me to let this kind of story go unchallenged...and I'm not sure I will.

IMO it comes down to this:

1) Oien was publicly sentenced to anger management classes and alcohol treatment.

2) This article alleges that this was a pattern of behavior that continued after the incident, and that it was a problem in the HPER department before the incident.

3) TV's blog entry says that over 24 current and former HPER employees were interviewed.

Now, you are faced with two obvious conclusions:

1) A writer has, in a sudden breach of character, gone dumpster diving for a story. That he ignored countless positive remarks to focus on the negative.

2) The incident with Oien in 2004 was not an isolated one.

----

I'm going with conclusion #2.

In short, it's easier to believe that Oien has had ongoing issues with this than to believe that TV tossed his ethics out the window and burned his bridges with the athletic department.

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: Fred Oien article

Pretty bland stuff and nothing new.

Exactly my point JackJD...so why was the article written and why was it published? Because somebody at the Argus had a "bone" up their you know where and after five months of digging and not be able to come up with anything new or exciting...they went with what they had to justify the time spent on it. That's such yellow journalism that it turns my stomach and is why I am so upset. Not with Terry, for doing the digging and doing the writing (although I have some specific concerns I will share with Terry personally and not go through here), because I know he just got the assignment and did his job.

The job...well, you obviously all know they set out to "uncloak" Dr. Oien's retirement...the "real" reason...the "lowdown"...the "secrecy" behind it. If they couldn't find anything else out...except that there were people who didn't like their boss for one reason or another (which one of you wants to submit yourself to the same digging?).

It's easy for many of you to say...it's over...it's old stuff...but it certainly opens the door for all the speculators...like "did he hold some sports back", or whatever. And that certainly doesn't make for a very nice retirement for a person who went through 18 years as athletic director at our institution, worked for three presidents, had a broad sports program (more than you can say for USD for instance), a lot of successful teams, and pioneered the move to Division I, which a large number of supporters and alumni now believe in the vision he had.

I'll say it for the last time, which will please many of you, that I'm madder than hell at the Argus, or at least who pressed the issue and led to the publication of a non-story that never should have been published unless it had something more important to say. So Dr. Oien had "issues"...which one of you works in an atmosphere as explosive as the head of the athletic department at a state's largest univesity...and has no "issues" in your life or your relationship with the employees under you.

Finally, any speculation (I'm not going back to find the post) that Fred Oien might have upset some major donors, don't have a clue on how hard he and his staff have worked. I believe fervently that Justin Sell will be a good AD...he was my choice...and he will get my support. But I am personally aware of some major donors to the program who are poised to do some exciting things (especially if the nation's economy improves... which is a whole different can of worms). So remember when some of those things happen in the near future that the ground work for major donors doesn't happen in a year or two. The seeds have been planted and cultivated long before they are announced.

[launcher46]

Re: Fred Oien article

This is some of the stuff that comes along with being a division one institution. When you are the prominent school in the state and rumors circle about one of your leaders, articles are going to be written. These sort of articles are written all over the country. Terry was just doing the job he was hired to do.

[Evolution Prime]

Re: Fred Oien article

Maybe this is the big article that everyone thought Stu was writing. Anyway, I don't blame TV for the article. Really, who else was going to write it? TV is the beat writer for SDSU and as such we should take the good with the bad, and he has been exeptionally good for us. Now is just some time for that bad to come out.

I'm with zooropa, on this one. I think it was not an isolated incident and it finally caught up with him. If it was as a big of problem as some are making out to be, then maybe he was finally asked to step down.

The timing of the article could have been better, but it probably has to do with the amount of research that possibly went into it. It will eventually pass. Nothing I will be losing sleep over.

[zooropa]

Re: Fred Oien article

The job...well, you obviously all know they set out to "uncloak" Dr. Oien's retirement...the "real" reason...the "lowdown"...the "secrecy" behind it.

The new light is that, per Micah Grenz, Oien was under investigation as recently as fall of last year.

[launcher46]

Re: Fred Oien article

Maybe this is the big article that everyone thought Stu was writing. Anyway, I don't blame TV for the article. Really, who else was going to write it? TV is the beat writer for SDSU and as such we should take the good with the bad, and he has been exeptionally good for us. Now is just some time for that bad to come out.

I'm with zooropa, on this one. I think it was not an isolated incident and it finally caught up with him. If it was as a big of problem as some are making out to be, then maybe he was finally asked to step down.

The timing of the article could have been better, but it probably has to do with the amount of research that possibly went into it. It will eventually pass. Nothing I will be losing sleep over.

That is a very good point... I think that is closer to the truth than what 99.9% of people on here believe.

[Jacked_Up]

Re: Fred Oien article

I credit TV for not ignoring the elephant that's been in the room for for the past five months, causing rumors. Now, as other fans have pointed out, we can move on, and the new AD can start with a clear slate.

[EQguy]

Re: Fred Oien article

If the Argus wants to be fair and balanced and I doubt they do, then they could also try and find the full story on the departures of Jack Doyle and Kelly Higgins the two AD'S prior to Joel Nielsen. Just to refresh my memory, the Argus could dig up their legacies for exposure while they are at it.

While the article is maybe slightly unfair to Dr. Oien I don't think Terry has done anything to give someone reason to believe he is not been totally fair to SDSU. As a matter of fact this may be the very first thing he has written about anyone involved with SDSU athletics that does not shine a positive light.

I think its important not to let our personal histories with Dr. Oien cloud our judgement about what this article really means. I don't care if it took 6 months or 6 years to write the article, in the end there is reason to believe that Dr. Oien wasn't the hero several here want to make everyone believe he was. Does that change what he did to get SDSU to where it is now? No, not at all. It just dims the light that people want to shine on him as this white knight out in front of the Athletic Department for the past 20 years.

[JackJD]

Re: Fred Oien article

There is only one thing I learned from reading the story and then this thread:

The age/condition of one's vehicle is the new alternative to pie on this message board (which I understand is the shorthand expression used by posters to note a thread is, well, threadbare and worn out).

I heard the sun is coming up in the morning.

Go Jacks...lots of great things happening at SDSU!

Added later: The pie comments just baffle the heck out of irregular visitors to this board. Now, talking about one's 1976 Datsun B210 Sundowner with more rust than paint will really confuse them!

[zooropa]

Re: Fred Oien article

talking about one's 1976 Datsun Sundowner with more rust than paint will really confuse them!

I knew a guy. Had a 70s Toyota Corolla. Painted it with a bunch of 98 cent cans of Walmart spray paint one weekend. Used to drive it to work from the east side to downtown.

Said he'd turn the engine off and let it coast from Bahnson & 18th all the way down to River Blvd.

Crazy thing is you can actually do that as long as you don't get a red light at Cleveland.

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BTW: Red 2000 Sable. Wrong side of 100k, but no transmission problems!!

[Kemo]

Re: Fred Oien article

The story didn't bring a lot of new information to the table besides the rumor that Fred might have been under investigation in the fall. I think that if there was harder evidence to support this, the story would have been notable to bring up, but without hard evidence it is nothing more than just that, a rumor... but then again, this story was going to be ran regardless of evidence, as it has been foreshadowed multiple times by the Argus's sports editor.

I hope people don't garner ill feelings towards Terry, as I speculate he was instructed to investigate the situation, to which he did his job. I don't pretend to be an expert on journalism, so I'll ask this question: Don't editors decide what stories are ran in the paper, not team beat writers? Just some food for thought.