Gill Coliseum front plaza upgrade

Naismith did much to popularize the game.  Even if he did not invent the sport, it became associated with Naismith, because he was a champion for the sport.  The idea that Naismith would care about whether he or a 19-year-old that he was corresponding with invented the sport feels like a fabricated debate that is created by the media trying to get clicks or people trying to sell books.  Naismith worked to popularize basketball and should be celebrated for it.

Doubleday probably didn't invent baseball.  There are some arguments.  Alexander Joy Cartwright's is the best that I have heard.

The Wright Brothers were the first to fly (in the usual meaning of the word).  There are other claims, usually involving the use of lighter-than air elements.  Those people were the first people to float or be propelled while floating.  The rest involve people crashing or outright fabricating claims and were usually made by people that were advancing nationalist policies in other countries or trying to advance anti-American policies or just plain trying to get around patents.

Lest we forget what has happened at Gill:

Gill Coliseum continues to be an integral part of the heritage of Oregon State athletics. Since its opening in 1949, Gill Coliseum has been part of more than 3,000 victories, more than 150 Oregon State All-Americans and more than 25 individual and team titles.

A building's significance and future should not be dictated based on a team's annual performance. 

Should we have won more games/matches, had more All-Americans, more team & individual titles in the past 70 years? Sure. We're fans, of course we want more.

Are we losing because of Gill?

Is Gill denying OSU any talent, are players not coming here because of it? WBB coach doesn't seem to have an issue recruiting some pretty phenomenal players even with an outdated coliseum like Gill. If MBB is struggling in this area, is that Gill or the coaches or the fickleness of the players? Reading volumes on here of comments that players have to "fit" the OSU mindset and be part of the team (esp WBB), maybe that's more important than an ugly old bomb shelter.

(And when Iran is capable of sending an intercontinental ballistic missile to Oregon, I'll be darned glad having Gill as my protector!)

My 5 point plan for Gill:

1. Win a whole bunch of games every year for the next 25-30 years.  Maybe a national title or 6.
2. Have a boatload of guys go on to long, lucrative careers in the NBA.
3. Have said NBA guys donate large amounts of money to renovate Gill.   I call this "Step 3: The Ellsbury"
4. Renovate Gill.   Hear me out -> New but Old.   Bike racks, skateboard racks, hoverboard racks,  trees, but also at the same time, no trees.. better pizza, maybe crepes?    Holographic reader boards showing upcoming events, but in an old-timey font. 
5. Pat myself on the back for coming up with this super obvious plan to renovate Gill. 

(The 1899 flight sounds like an impossible work of fiction and there were no photographs of a plane in 1902, so I will focus on the alleged 1901 flight, because it appears to be the most probable.)

There are a couple of problems with the Whitehead story.  The first is the original account does not make sense.  The original account is that Whitehead sent up 220 lbs. of sand and brought it down and then flew.  How does one exactly get 220 lbs. of sand to fly?  This account appears to largely be a reprint of an earlier article by a rival newspaper about an unmanned flight, the only difference is that the flight was then manned.

Second, even if Whitehead did get his plan up in the air, he lacked the ability to control the ability to control any of the three dimensions: pitch, roll, or yaw.

Third, Whitehead fans rebuilt his 21 plane in 1986 and could not get it to work without it being aided by the wind.  They got the plane to turn but only did so by controlling the speed of multiple propellers, which Whitehead alternately claimed that he did and did not (after known crashes) have the ability to do.

John J. Dvorak's affidavit about Whitehead being unable to produce an airplane engine in 1904 is pretty damning. 

Obviously, if you want credit for inventing something, you have to document it.  If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?  If a man flies a plane and no one takes pictures, did it really happen?

And, in order for you to truly "invent" something, it must be reproducible, and it does not appear that Whitehead's flying machine was reproducible, at least if Mr. Dvorak's affidavit is to be believed.

Most of the pre-Kittyhawk tales that were told about Whitehead reference how Whitehead has a secret unnamed financial backer but almost invariably invite others to invest or to get others to inquire about investing.  (And, in fact, the author of the original article was either a financial backer or was related to a financial backer.  He later recanted much of his original article but did so in an arguably inconsistent way, which has allowed the Whitehead story to continue on.)  Whitehead had a lot of logistical problems that he had yet to overcome.  It is also probable that he may have been the first in flight, if not for one or two setbacks.  Whitehead was a master airplane mechanic by 1908 but was not yet one in 1904, apparently, which makes it unlikely that he flew in 1901.

Finally, a lot of the early writing on Whitehead was, like I said, a result of the Wright Brothers' Patent War with the usual opponents being Glenn Curtiss and Samuel Langley and related parties.  If Whitehead beat the Wrights, Whitehead would own the patent and not the Wrights, but the Court found that Whitehead had not done so.  The story started to gain momentum again in the 1930s, thanks largely to Albert Zahm, who was associated with Curtiss back in the Patent War days.  That helped Charles Whitehead (Gustave's son, who was not even born in 1901) to get on the radio, which the Readers Digest picked up and made a national story, which Wright killed off shortly thereafter only for it to resurface again in the 80s and again a couple of years ago.  Today, most proponents are either from the State of Connecticut, German, or somehow related to someone who once had an interest in Whitehead beating the Wrights.

As an aside, the Wright Brothers' Patent War royally screwed up American aviation and set the United States behind most world powers by several years.

I believe he donated many dimes to the current practice facility... but someone with a better memory can certainly confirm.

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He committed to that amount at one time for the practice facility, but it was never confirmed that is was donated. You would think the facility would be named after him if it was.

Payton committed $3.4 million, and there was some talk that it would be named for him, when the thought was thought that the project was going to be a $8 or $9 million project, but the project ended up being a $16 million project.  So, I do not know, if his donation turned out to be a smaller chunk than they were initially thinking or if Payton's trade to the Bucks changed Payton's ability to honor the commitment.