Ken Kesey's Family Fights for Wrestling
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYCjVcOjZP4bnGDaDEfGMf5Xzf2gD8UVIR7G0
By JEFF BARNARD
2/22/08
PLEASANT HILL, Ore. (AP) Before Ken Kesey wrote "One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest," or stocked a psychedelic school bus with LSD and the
Merry Pranksters to look for America, he was a wrestler.
He might never have written "Cuckoo's Nest," the 1962 novel that
launched him to stardom, if he hadn't dislocated his shoulder
wrestling for the University of Oregon.
The injury kept him out of the draft, allowing him to go to Wallace
Stegner's writing seminar at Stanford University, where his job at
the local veterans hospital gave him the setting for "Cuckoo's Nest"
and the prototype for mean Nurse Ratched.
So when his alma mater decided to eliminate wrestling at the end of
this season, it went down hard on the Kesey family farm. That's where
Kesey is buried alongside his son Jed, the victim of a 1984 van crash
during a University of Oregon wrestling team road trip. It's also
where Furthur, the bus made famous by Kesey's 1964 odyssey and Tom
Wolfe's book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," awaits restoration.
"I know what Dad would do," said 46-year-old Zane Kesey, who also
wrestled for Oregon. "It's just the kind of thing he would step up
and attack when he sees something that's wrong, when it's something
he's already shed so much soul for."
So last weekend, wearing his dad's American flag shirt, Zane Kesey
fired up a newer version of Furthur (named Further), called on Oregon
wrestlers and alums to "Get on the bus," and with original Merry
Prankster George Walker at the wheel roared through the Eugene campus.
Loudspeakers blared "Save Oregon wrestling," drums beat, a brass bell
clanged, and wrestlers handed out fliers as they circled McArthur
Court, the aging arena where Ken Kesey wrestled from 1955 to 1957,
posting a winning percentage of .806 that stands seventh all-time at Oregon.
The '60s-style act of taking it to the streets did not immediately
get the university to change its mind about wrestling. But the Kesey
family is not giving up.
"One thing about wrestlers is if they get on their back, it's not
over it just got interesting," said Zane Kesey, whose father died
in 2001. "You get fierce."
Head wrestling coach Chuck Kearney suggested that if Oregon had not
had a wrestling team back in the 1950s, Ken Kesey might not have
attended the university. And the course of literary history might
have been different.
"Had he gone to Oregon State and wrestled, would he have written `One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and `Sometimes a Great Notion' and all
the great things he did?" Kearney asked. "It was a combination of
this campus, this university, the education he received here and the
sport of wrestling that came together and made him what he was and in
my mind made the impact that he made."
Athletic director Pat Kilkenny made the decision to eliminate
wrestling and bring back baseball, which he said could become a
moneymaker for the university.
"Is this a final decision?" Kilkenny said. "It's America, so there
are always opportunities to make changes. But our strong belief is
our analysis was significant and powerful and conclusive, and we
don't think this has changed since last July to today."
For wrestling enthusiasts, the solution might be to run out the clock.
Ron Finley, an Olympic wrestler and head wrestling coach at Oregon
from 1970 to 1998, has gathered pledges of $2.3 million so far for
the team, scholarships and a new practice center.
"Kilkenny says it's not coming back," Finley said. "He'll only be
here a couple more years anyway. If it has to go away a few years,
we'll keep fighting, get it back some way."
--
On the Net:
Official Kesey Web site: http://www.key-z.com
Save Oregon Wrestling: http://www.saveoregonwrestling.com
University of Oregon athletics: http://www.GoDucks.com
--------
Far out, man
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8357315
Compiled by John Ryan
Mercury News
Article Launched: 02/25/2008
Even the University of Oregon's athletic department has a budget, and
the latest victim is the school's wrestling program.
The sport doesn't have Phil Knight's attention. But it does have a
well-known support group that, while probably unable to save the
program, will surely ease the pain of its demise. The family of Ken
Kesey, who wrote "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," has fired up the
new incarnation of the Merry Pranksters bus Furthur. (The original,
the setting of Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," is
being restored.)
Kesey wrestled at Oregon in the mid-'50s. He is buried at the family
farm in Pleasant Hill, Ore., alongside son Jed, who died in a van
crash while on a Ducks wrestling trip in 1984.
"I know what Dad would do," Zane Kesey, 46, who also wrestled for
Oregon, told the Associated Press. "It's just the kind of thing he
would step up and attack when he sees something that's wrong, when
it's something he's already shed so much soul for."
Last weekend, Zane led a '60s-style revival around McArthur Court.
Activists handed out fliers and used drums, bells and loudspeakers to
make their point to passersby.
Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny said plans to scrap wrestling and
start a baseball team continue apace. But he might not have heard the
last from this band.
"One thing about wrestlers is if they get on their back, it's not
over - it just got interesting," said Zane Kesey, whose father died
in 2001. "You get fierce."
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