A little class is in order.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

THOUGH HE'D HEARD it all before, in other arenas as well as at McArthur Court, maybe Southern Cal basketball coach Henry Bibby was indeed outraged by the personal chants of Oregon students Saturday.

Perhaps a post-game hallway incident, a fan breaching security, set him off. Or maybe, after seeing his team lose 73-69 to the Ducks, Bibby figured he'd give the Los Angeles news media something to write about beyond the outcome, and shape the context of the rematch.

Far be it from me to explain what he thought when the UO student section - the "Pit Crew" - focused on his estranged relationship with his son, Mike Bibby of the Sacramento Kings, by chanting "Your son hates you" and "Deadbeat Dad," or why he chose Saturday to make an issue of it.

But I thought those chants were awful. I was embarrassed for this community and for the university. And I'd be shocked if Dave Frohnmayer, the UO president, and Bill Moos, the director of athletics, weren't embarrassed, too. Because by putting on yellow "Pit Crew" shirts, by shouting organized chants, the Oregon students are taking themselves out of the isolated-idiot category and making themselves visible, quasi-official representatives of their school.

The Pit Crew president, UO junior Nate Jolly, said Monday that he doesn't think the Bibby chants were "over the line," noting that fans elsewhere have used the same stuff.

But those chants were over the line. They dealt with something deeply personal; a human tragedy. They went beyond good-natured jabs - ribbing USC point guard Brandon Granville for being short - and beyond the atmosphere of sportsmanship that ought to exist in all sports, but certainly in collegiate sports.

They were mean-spirited, nasty and rude. (They were also unoriginal and unfunny.) And they were not at all up the to the standard that Oregon men's basketball coach Ernie Kent sets for himself and for his team.

Sure, Bibby's not the most likeable coach in the league, nor have past Oregon-USC games been noted for sportsmanship. A few years ago, Adam Spanich of the Trojans beat the Ducks with a last-second bomb, then jumped on the courtside table, in front of Nike boss Phil Knight, and made a throat-slashing gesture. Alas, any chance for Oregon to claim the moral high ground ended when students responded by throwing promotional hard hats, the last time those have been distributed at Mac Court.

Though Saturday's hallway incident was more serious - it could have escalated into a fight - that's fixable through a review of security procedures. I'm not sure that the increasing boorishness of fan behavior at sporting events is at all fixable. There are jerks in every crowd, including Oregon's.

THE SENSELESS ugliness of it all still amazes me. Before the UO football game with Wisconsin last fall, I watched a middle-aged Oregon fan walk in front of the Badger fans saying, loudly, "Wus-consin, a bunch of wussies. Wus-consin, a bunch of wussies," again and again. Welcome to Oregon.

During football seasons, I'll get messages from fans of visiting teams, talking about the bad experience they had at Autzen. For all the solid, good-hearted Oregon fans who go to see the game and to cheer for their team, part of the identity of Oregon athletics is being determined by a vocal minority that sees sports as an excuse get drunk and obnoxious, or simply obnoxious.

At the Civil War football game last December, the wife and son of former Oregon basketball player Rob Closs were harassed, verbally and physically, by Oregon fans behind them. Deb Somers Closs is as ardent an OSU fan as Rob is a devoted Duck, and 9-year-old Kasey Closs wore the colors of both.

What should have been a fun game became an unpleasant ordeal and a bitter memory. Rob Closs, who watched the game from across the field, was deeply upset when told what had happened. "Everyone deserves to be treated like a human being," he said.

I have this nightmare that next September at Autzen Stadium some inebriated moron will say something typically crass to fans in the Idaho section. Which will include John and Valerie Harrington, parents of UO hero Joey Harrington, there to watch another son, Michael, an Idaho quarterback.

That this stuff happens elsewhere doesn't excuse it. And if the members of the "Pit Crew" aspire to be the best fans in college basketball, they can also aspire to have the most class.

A CORRECTION: I perpetuated an ongoing mistake during last week's column about McArthur Court. In fact, Mac Court is not the nation's oldest on-campus college basketball arena in Division I. That distinction belongs to Rose Hill Gym at Fordham University in The Bronx, which opened Jan. 16, 1925.

Rose Hill Gym seats only 3,270, so the Rams play a few games each season at Madison Square Garden. But the gym is the primary home for Fordham basketball and is senior to Mac Court by two years.