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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1975)
daily nebraskan friday, September 5, 1975 Intramural teams hit 1 4 6 page 10 About 3,200 UNL students will be competing on 146 intramural flag football tearm as competition begins Monday, according to Intramurals Coordinator Gale Wiedow. Ten more teams will compete this year. There were 2,905 participants last year. The teams will be classified according to level of skill and preferences listed by team managers, Wiedow said, "The class A Division is a skill level division with more competitive and more highly skilled players," Wiedow said. "The other classes represent a descending level of skill." Although class C team members may not have the skill to compete against class A teams, Wiedow said there have been some good class C teams in the past. . Lower class-level competitors usually play flag football more for recreation than competition, he said. The teams will be further divided into fraternity, residence hill and independent divisions. Fraternity teams will compete in all three classes, while residence hall and independent teams will compete in classes AandB. Wiedow said 21 leagues will be formed. Fraternity teams in class A will compete against each other, as will residence halls and independent teams. A team will play other teams in its league once during the season, Wiedow said. The season will culminate with the beginning of the single elimination All-University Championships on Oct. 20th. The top two fraternity and residence hall teams in class A and B will compete with the top two independent teams in the All-University playoffs. Soccer club takes 5-2 win over UNO in season debut By Jim Hunt UNL's soccer club opened its season Wednesday night with a 5-2 victory over UNO. The match was a preliminary event for a professional soccer league match between Pool pro shakes off 'Fats' image By Larry Stunkel Consider the stereotype of a professional pool player. Someone who looks like Minnesota Fats, has a vocabulary of "dem, dese and doses," who never graduated from high school and plays the game in smoke-filled, small town bars where he arrogantly hustles farmers away from their money. This was the picture I had of billiard pros until Wednesday, when I met Paul Gerni. While still prejudiced by this stereotype, I viewed his afternoon exhibition in the Nebraska Union. To my delight, he missed a few shots, and I wasn't too upset when I asked him some general facts and was told, "Go find my personal fact sheet." Not putting off But I was surprised a half-hour later when he walked into the office. "I hope you didn't feel that I was putting you off," were his first words. "Naw," I replied. "Everything I wanted was on the fact sheet. But as long as you're here I might as well ask you a few more questions. The ensuing two hours killed forever my stereotype of the professional pool player. Gerni didn't look anything like Minnesota Fats. His grammar was better than mine and he holds degrees from Purdue University in marketing and economics. He toured 123 universities last year and won the 1975 European Billiard Championship in Munich, Germany last February. Why here? So what's a guy like Gerni doing on the UNL campus? Would you believe he's trying to change stereotypes and promoting the game of billiards? "I love the game and I love to travel," Gerni said. "I'm trying to show people that billiards is a gentleman's game. Our prize money is larger and our tournaments are getting bigger and are no longer played in bar rooms, but in hotel ballrooms. Although he's been a pro for more than six years, the South Bend, In'd., native said he has been at the level he is now for three years. One tournament "There were times I just about starved," he said. "Only the top players make enough earnings. Last year I only played in one tournament (in Houston), but I perform a lot of exhibitions. "This year IH have over 200 exhibitions," he said. "I only have to practice about a half-hour for an exhibition, but when I'm preparing for a tournament, it's six hours. "Most of it is mental," he added. "Overall exhibitions detract from my tournament play. I haven't played as well in tourneys since I started exhibitions." Gerni, one of 10 children of a "strict Lutheran minister," said his father didn't like the idea of having a professional pool player in the family because of the old stereotype. "But he likes it now," he said. Ironically, Genu's first exposure to billiards was in the basement of his father's Borglalll expects interesting year church. "We were there for this men's group," he said. "I snuck down the hall and found these guys playing pool and smoking cigars. I was looking at the cigars, but the next thing I knew I was on top of a coke crate 'with a cue in my hand." Other sports Gerni said he is interested in sports other than billiards, and played varsity football and baseball while he was at Purdue. Lincoln was the first stop on Gerni's fall tour, during which he will be at Westroads shopping center in Omaha through Saturday and in Seward Sunday. From there he will travel south, then up the east coast, where he will perform in a "World Premiere of Interpretive Chamber Selections for Billiards" by composer Patrick Kavanaugh in Washington, D.C. Oct. 26. 'According to Gerni, he will shoot on four pool tables while muscians play chamber music with his movements. When asked if he could explain it so I'd have an idea of what would be going on, ' Gerni said, "I really don't know what will happen either." Chicago and Boston, held to measure interest in soccer in Omaha. UNL scoring was led by Mario Hamdan, who had two goals. Dave Erg, Jim Fullerton and Emmanuel Eke be me each scored one goal for UNL. Coach Franz Blaha said goalie Stan Kull played well and that members of the Boston club expressed interest in him. The club, sponsored by the Recreation Dept.,. is coached by Blaha, a native of Austria. Blaha is a professor in the English Dept., and has played amateur and semi-pro soccer and coached soccer in Austria. , Blaha said anyone is welcome to join the club, which practices Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. in Memorial Stadium. There is a $2.50 fee per semester. Competition for the starting 11 positions is keen, according to Blaha. There are about 40 men out for the team, but Blaha said the figure will probably drop to about 25 by the end of the semester. To be considered for the team, a candidate must pay a $10 deposit. Fines for missing practices and games are taken from the deposit, the rest is refunded at the end of the year. The method encourages players to show up for practices and games, Blaha said. Club members officiate intramural volleyball to help raise fees .to add to the $380 alloted them by the Recreation Dept. The club also is helping the Catholic elementary schools start a soccer league in Lincoln. Next match will be Sunday at 2 p.m. in Memorial Stadium. Wrestlers to face tougher opponents By Pete Wea.nan Orval BorgiaUi's twelfth" year as UNL head wrestling coach could produce the team's most interesting year ever. First, the Huskers will face what Borglalli said is the toughest schedule he's had et Nebraska. In addition, this season's team will have more seniors than Borgialii has ever had. spoils shof Is UNL's football team is hitting well, but having a hard time staying healthy, according to Husker coach Tom Osborne. I-back John O'Leary suffered a strained knee In Wednesday's "dummy scrimmage," but the injury is not believed serious. Senior wingback Tom Heiser suffered a sprained toe and middle guard Kelvin Rochrs sustained in ankle sprain. , Other developments included the loss of a grant-in-aid given to Marti Wolever of Council Bluffs, who signed a pro baseball contract with ths Clncinatti Reds. Osborne said it was "a shame" Wolever practiced before signing the contract. If he hadn't, the scholarship could have been given to a walkon who "would give an arm for it." Husker officials don't know the Implications of a ruling by Alabama Federal District Judge Sam C. Pointer denying the NCAA the right to limit traveling teams below the number allowed for home squads. The NCAA limited travd squads to 48 last August, but the ruling states, "Having one team with 60 players and another with 48 is totally Inconsistent with the basic concept of fair atnlctic competition. 4VVVM UVWMWII 11 WUW wrestling leaves the Big 3 with only six schools with wrestling programs (Kansas last wrestled in' 1966), forcing the Husker grapplers to face more non-conference foes. ' . t ' ' . Borgialii cited Air Force, Northwestern and Minnesota .as the toughest nonconference opponents, adding that the schedule is still indefinite. Dropped Nebraska Fort Hayes State, 39-0 losers to Nebraska last December in the Huskers first wrestling shutout, dropped Nebraska from its schedule, according to Borgialii. The Huskers had hoped to wrestle the home portion of the 1975-76 season in the new sports complex but construction delays will probably force the wrestlers to, compete in the Coliseum at least one more year, Borgialii said. "The biggest factor concerning the field house Is recruiting for us," Borgialii said. "It's a lot easier to recruit someone if you know you'll be in, it (the new ficldhouse) and not just think you will." The wrestlers took their physicals Tuesday night. Borgialii said it would be next week before he knew if all the team members had passed. , "Cv yi i ufuugiu in 13 new recruits and ten failed the physical," he said. ' 18 new recruits . This year the Huskers will have. 18 new recruits, including three junior college transfers along with three two-time Nebraska state high school wrestling champions,' an Oklahoma champion and a runner-up from the Iowa high school ranks. However, Borgialii said it will be the seniors who. will determine how well the Huskers fare this season. , "The seniors will make or break us," he said. "If they do what they're supposed to do, well be respectable." The seniors are Mark Borer, Joe Cart, Ken Christensen, Tony Winnings, Bob Jolmson end Tom Knobloch. Also, the Huskers return two-year regulars Bruce Conger ind Bill Hoffman. Nebraska graduated Gary Harnlsch, Tom Luth, and Tom Prichard last spring, but the biggest off-season loss, according to BorglaSU, was Doug Hassig. Hassig, a freshman starter last season, quit wrestling and transferred to Kansas University.