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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1972)
page 5 amily V wmm ootball by Bart Becker Jerry List is hitting the books this year, heading toward graduation next spring. He's in the College of Business Administration, "leaning toward Marketing and Finance." He's spent two summers working at First Mid-America and he plans to go "hopefully into banking." He puts some stress on the "hopefully." On Wednesday he's only got half an hour for lunch. His class schedule fills the rest of the morning. He's a serious guy and a good student. After all, he's got a wife and two kids to think about. But a guy's got to get out with the boys once in a while to get a little exercise. So Saturday afternoons Jerry List knocks heads with and against some of the finest college football players in these good ol' United States. Jerry List wears No. 85. He plays tight end on the University of Nebraska Cornhusker football team. Maybe you've heard of 'em. He is a tight end on a team that is nearly bursting at the seams of their scarlet and cream with superstars. It makes him kind of an anonymous entity on the sports pages. You might see his name a couple of times in the story, and if you check out the "Pass Receiving" category, his name will be there, too. But he's far from anonymous on the field. Down there, both his team mates and his opponents are very aware of who Jerry List is. In this season's three games he's locked onto six passes, good for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Sports Illustrated, in its college football preview said flat-out, "Jerry List is the best tight end Coach Bob Devaney has ever had." Maybe you've heard of this Bob Devaney, too. He's coached a few pretty good ballplayers in his time, I guess you could say. The fact that List is even able to step on the field is something of a story in itself. This summer he was involved in a backyard volleyball game when he slipped and ruptured a disc in his back. That was the end of June and he wasn't expected to play until the Missouri game this fall. But he recuperated sooner than expected. He began to woik out at the Ww m $ml m , jSl l( rV -iL' fjii' ' r(J III -J" mmS:y. , k . Fh k r?p'&&Wf& v. - jjf. ' At left, List relaxes at home with two-year-old daughter Tracy. His Saturdays, however, are spent with Bob Devaney and the Nebraska football team, above. end of the summer and, obviously, was ready for the start of the season. The best treatment, as is often true, was competition. "I knew I'd have a heckuva fight to get my job back," List said. "Brent (Longwell) is a pretty fair end. He's pretty good, in fact." Said Suzi, his wife: "The first scrimmage this fall I was nervous as could be. Jerry got hit pretty hard and when he got up I was glad he did. "When somebody gets hurt on the field you just horror that it isn't him. It isn't like a knee that can be fixed up ptelty well. If he would injure another disc it could mean fusion." So List plays Saturday afternoon's with players the likes of David Humm. He talked about playing with a new quarterback. "I personally have a lot of confidence in Dave," he said. "I wasn't able to work with him during the summer, but we're working well together now. "It really doesn't matter who you catch the passes from, you just have to get used to catching passes. The ends even stay after practice throwing passes to each other sometimes." Since Jerry List has been playing for Devaney the Huskers have lost only one game, the memory still ringing like the inside of a lineman's helmet from a linebacker's slap. But Jerry List didn't always know what it was like to feel the sting of defeat. That sting is a relative thing; you forget what it's like if it hasn't given you a jolt in a while. It can send you reeling when you're used to winning. But defeat was the name of the game back at T.L. Handy High School in Bay City, Michigan. His High School teams were about 2-7 most of the time. "I'd never picked up a football until s Go to left