COLUMN: Bilsky's plans give Penn hope

From Nick Hut's You noticed a different tone emanating from Weightman Hall immediately after Bilsky became athletic director in the summer of 1994. Suddenly there was nothing wrong with Penn being recognized for its accomplishments in athletics in addition to -- not instead of -- its academics. Bilsky knows from experience those things do not have to be mutually exclusive. The Penn alum played on the men's basketball team in 1971, when the Quakers finished the regular season 26-0 and ranked No. 3 in the nation. And Penn was still the same Ivy League school back then, with the same absence of scholarships and strenuous admissions standards. As soon as Bilsky replaced former Athletic Director Paul Rubincam, we started hearing serious talk that Penn, as the Ivy League champion in football, should get to compete in some sort of postseason bowl game as a reward. This year, the men's basketball team, despite no longer being a top-25 caliber team, had three national television dates. Surely Bilsky's background as a TV power broker from his days as athletic director at George Washington had something to do with that generous bit of scheduling. Most recently, Bilsky spearheaded a pair of laudable ventures. One was the creation of a Penn Athletic Hall of Fame, the inaugural class of which was announced just before spring break. The other was developing plans for possibly revamping the Palestra down the road to include not just a basketball playing facility, but also some kind of Penn/Big 5 basketball museum. Both of these ideas are designed to give sports a little boost in the consciousness of the Penn student body, as well as in that of the outside world. Athletics can and should be a cornerstone of any university, even one as committed to academic excellence as Penn is. A top-notch athletic program reflects well on the entire university and instills a very evident sense of pride in the student body and in alumni. The fact is that in the minds of the outside world, Penn can never match Harvard, Yale and Princeton in terms of overall prestige and academic excellence. A first-rate athletic program can help Penn's image in a way that academics alone never will. Bilsky realizes that. Hopefully the Rodin administration does too. This is not to say Penn should fudge admissions standards for athletes or anything of that nature. We should not break rules, as we have been accused of doing, or even bend any rules, as Mark DeRosa indicated we do. But taking steps to make athletics a bigger deal than it is now is an entirely just policy for this university. Say you are a high-profile potential recruit in any sport and are committed to gaining an Ivy League education. The concept of a Hall of Fame could not help but appeal to you. Here is a school where you can go and compete and really be rewarded for your efforts when all is said and done. Here is a school that appreciates and respects its athletes. A hoops museum would obviously be a boon to basketball recruiting. It might also attract sports nuts among the crop of regular students considering Penn, like Cameron Indoor Stadium is said to do at Duke. More than any of that, however, would be the message it would send. It would be home to an integral part of the history of this university. We are proud of our athletic heritage, it would say. We plan to build on that heritage in the future. Steve Bilsky recognizes the positives a big-time athletic program can bring. He was part of such a program when he played here, and look where he is now. Hopefully, he also recognizes the dangers of big-time athletics, the corruption and chicanery that occur at universities throughout the country. His aforementioned plans have indicated his desire to try to build an athletic program worthy of, say, Stanford within the rigid framework of an Ivy League institution. If he succeeds, Penn will be much better off for having had him.