If Huskie Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell were a comedian, his sense of timing wouldn’t get him a ticket out of First City, let alone a gig at Second City.

There are no good times to announce the impending elimination of a sport, but on the scale of better to worse, telling the the men’s gymnastic team last Wednesday, the eve of its meet against Ohio State, that its members’ lifetime pursuits mean nothing to NIU, was decidedly worse.

Huskie gymnasts are made of strong stuff: five days after Chuck Ehrlich, one of the most successful Huskie coaches—in any sport—resigned after 17 years amid rumors that proved true last Wednesday, the dispirited acrobats set their jaws and beat Iowa State.

The mental intensity required to maneuver a body gracefully, one slip away from damaged limbs, is more than most people need for a week of routine motion. It’s no revelation, then, to figure the news of the sport’s inevitable demise cost the Huskies a few points Wednesday night against the nation’s No.2 team, Ohio State.

Yes, the Buckeyes had a wee bit of help from a five-first-place performance by All-America Mike Ranacelli, and before the meet, Huskie senior Carlos Fulcher hurt a finger to go with his feelings. But a one-man team can always be bested by a multiple-man team on top of its game. In its right mind.

Let the gymnasts themselves sum it up: Gustavo Boschi, a sophomore from Brazil, “I was very upset. I could compete much better if this news happen after the meet.” Senior Erik Solky: “This was bad timing. It could’ve waited ‘til tomorrow.”

Huskie athletics has offered to help the underclass gymnasts find transfer schools where they could compete right away if their program folds. Great, if you spend all your time in the gym, but there’s some schoolwork involved here, and as Solky put it after the meeting, “(we all) came here for two reasons, not just one.”

“They have the power to choose when I have to quit,” said Boschi, who has competed for 15 years. “I’m still excited about it (gymnastics). I don’t want to quit, but I don’t have a choice.” Boschi will not transfer because he wants to study at NIU.

Solky and Fulcher sat quietly at the Athletic Board meeting, as did Ehrlich, who, as he listened to O’Dell’s elimination reasoning (few dollars, fewer participants), tapped his toes, wiggled his fingers and muttered under his breath—a man holding back a scream.

When he got a chance to speak, Ehrlich could only say that his sport was doing well. “Gymnastics is not a forgotten sport, it is not on the way out,” he said. But his words were not bolstered by any stats, so they will be dismissed as emotion, something O’Dell insisted there was no room for in this decision. Baseball is nigh, and NIU can’t afford to add another women’s sport to satisfy the government’s equality regulation. Title IX—it’s that simple.

Seventeen years, 16 All-Americas, three Midwest Coach of the Year honors. Ehrlich just this year cleared the $30,000 mark.

When Ehrlich said “if funds are the issue, let’s look at other areas.” Maybe he meant the recent girth of athletic staff pay hikes, maybe he referred to the small vacation the women’s basketball team took in Tennessee (three days and nights for one game).

Granted, you need to spend to keep good coaches (but more secretaries?)_ football’s Jerry Pettibone, men’s and women’s hoops’ coaches Jim Molinari and Jane Albright, soccer’s Willy Roy and softball’s Dee Abrahamson among others.

But the only nationally-ranked team the Huskies can boast is Albright’s squad. We are after national attention, are we not? Ehrlich sent 36 of his charges to the NCAA Tournament and five of them were the best in the country. You need to spend to keep good coaches, but NIU has lost maybe its most successful one by having short arms and deep pockets. Money didn’t have to be heaped on Ehrlich—he would have quit long ago if that was his motivation—maybe just on his sport’s promotion or fund-raising efforts.

The cutting of the program, to be voted on March 7, was not solely O’Dell’s decision. The athletic board’s long-range planning commission backed him up as did associate AD Cary Groth, but O’Dell did say he “felt the same a year and a half ago and baseball only heated up the issue.” He also said that no one—supposedly including Ehrlich—cared for the “kids” more than he did.

How did Ehrlich stifle that scream?