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daily ncbraskan
thursday, September 22, 1977
Pool player hopes to pocket national championship
Photo by Bob Pearson
Champion pool player Richard Vargas
By Kathy Fprcman
This year a UNL senior is shooting for the big one. . .
the national intercollegiate billiard championship. And
after nabbing an eighth place finish in last year's national -tournament,
that could be an easy shot for 22-year-old
Richard Vargas.
Vargas, a secondary education student majoring in
Spanish, first picked up a pool cue at age 12. From that
time on, his "desire to control the game became an ob
session that led Vargas to practice 8 to 10 hours a day.
The perseverance, seems to have paid off for Vargas
who is looking for his third consecutive .regional title. The ,
title is under the auspices of the Association of College
Unions Intercollegiate Tournaments (14.1 Pocket
Billiards.) By winning the UNL title each year, Vargas has
traveled (expenses paid) to regional competition, facing
players from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Last year; Vargas captured the regional championship
at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which won him yet another
expense-paid trip. This time, however, the ticket sent him
to national competition at the University of South
Carolina, in Columbia. For five days, Vargas was matched
against college students from around the nation. When it
was over, out of the approximately 50,000 college
students that had entered local tournaments, Vargas had
finished eighth in the nation.-
Dress code
Vargas said the regional and national tournaments re
quire a strict suit-and-tie dress code, whereas local tourna
ments are usually "come "as you are." Vargas explained
that the finals of the regional and national matches
usually are televised and the dress code is an effort to
improve on the ragged, bar room stereo-typed image of
pool players. - .
One thing all competitions have in common, according
to the UNL champion, is the "tense and serious
atmosphere.' .
"Everyone is a good loser but everyone is trying to
win," Vargas said. The night before a match, the soft-,
spoken senior stays away from the pool table, he said.
"I try to keep the match out of my mind by going to
a movie or something." But during amatch, Vargas is cool
and calm, describing himself as "trying not to let any
emotions show."
Now, in his last year of college tournament eligibility,
Vargas is cautiously optimistic about achieving his
national-title goal. 1 .u-
"The competition is always tough and winning this
year will be especially hard because of my school load."
Vargas currently is student teaching at Culler Junior
High School in Lincoln. He also is taking two other uni
versity classes and is tutoring Spanish 20 hours a
week in the UNL Learning Center on a workstudy
program.
. Little practice
Although his schedule this semester does not allow him
much time to practice, ("I'm lucky to get to play an hour
a day.") Vargas said he thinks playing pool this past sum
mer in Denver, Colo, has improved his game. While in
Denver, Vargas played against professional poo! players,
gaining valuable experience.
Radiating the calm inner strength and self-assurance of
a man much older, Vargas is quick to say the money
making aspect of pool has given the sport a bad reputa
tion. Vargas said he "always has and always will play
mainly for fun and relaxation.
"Pool is a good way to. understand neople since the
way a player plans strategy or reacts to losing tells you a
lot about that person," he said.
Competition increased
Vargas said he is encouraged by the gaining popular
ity of pool in the past few years. Vargas said that last year
the increase of female contestants prompted the first
women's division of the collegiate competition; The senior
said he hopes the trend will surface at the All University
Tournament (scheduled for, November in the Nebraska
Union) producing the UNL's first women competitors.
"I also wish people would start thinking of pool more
as family recreation," Vargas said. He said all ages, from
teens to retirees, are finding pool is "a great winter sport,"
Vargas said he always will be fascinated by pool. "You
can always get better," he said, "I'll play pool until the
last day I can." ;
arts
Hobby Tow
nis
for Walter
Mittys,
ordinary folks with grand desires
By Jim Williams
Some ordinary people have extraordinary desires.
They'd like to do roaring figure-8s in a shining P-51
Mustang. Or painstakingly refurbish a classic Rolls-Royce.
Or improve on Lee's generalship at Bull Run. Or howl flat
out through the turns in a turbocharged Porsche.
Letting ordinary people do these things-scaled down
to manageable size-is the business of stores like Hobby
Town, 134 N. 13 St.
Business is brisk at Hobby Town. Proprietor Chick
Bartlett hustles between talking to suppliers on the
phone, helping customers with plane, train, boat or car
problems, and simply saying hello to people who walk
in.
"We are always busy," according to Chick's wife Betty.
"It's so specialized it takes a lot of time with each cus
tomer. You can't be self-serving in here."
Betty Bartlett said the biggest trade is in models. Mili
tary subjects are the most popular.-Plastic models sell
best, but wood airplane and ship models "do well too.
The shop also carries the figures, maps and rulebooks used
for simulated war games, a pastime Betty Bartlett said is
expecially popular with students.
"Some of them come in here every day to see what's
n;w," she said.
The shop is small, with shelves stacked to the ceiling
with adult toys. A working steam-powered tractor
$89.95. Controlmaster model-train control center -$4958.
An HO gauge Logging Climax railroad engine,
a few inches long but precisely detailcd-$225. A Pocher
D'ltalia model Rolls-Royce kit, in perfect 18 scale, with
working brakes, steering, suspension and almost every
' thing else on the real car-$ 199.95. The same price for an
O.S. model airplane engine, a gorgeous chunk of polished
metal with a cylinder as big as your fist, delicate exposed
rocker arms on top, and a spacey little stub exhaust pipe
poking out the side.
Not everything in the store is that expensive. There's
a full range of 112 scale Grand Prix racing cars from
Tamiya cf Japan for under $25. About a foot long when
completed, each has hundreds of tiny parts that fit to
gether Hke the real tiling, providing working steering and
suspension through tiny gears and springs. Planes, tanks
rockers, motorcycles and most other interesting mechani
cal widgets are represented by kits of varying complexity
and price. There's even special "Contest Rubber" for
rubber-band -powered airplanes for 95 cents a box.
Betty Bartlett said most of the store's customers are
high-school arc or older. "A lot of professional men. too,"
shs said. "They start when they're young. There's four
generation? of people Chick has seen come through here."
A youns professional man was in the store to buy a
fuel tank for the raJio controlled P-51 fighter plane he's
building. He said the total cost for such a project is
around $500, and suggested beginners start with radio
controlled boats.
"A boat you can tip over and it'll still work," he said.
. The store has sold three of Tamiya's new 112 scale
kits of the Porsche Turbo 934 racing car. It's superbly
detailed, with full interior and the electric motor, differ
ential gears, coil-spring rear suspension and mountings
needed for racing.
The presence of danger safely scaled down, may be
one appeal of the adult model idea. But there's another
simple pleasure to it that doesn't cost a cent. It was de
monstrated by a gray-haired man who walked into the
store. Betty Bartlett asked him if he needed help finding
anything.
"No," he said, "I just love to come in here and look
around,"
Films scheduled
The Ralph ; Mueller Planetarium is sponsoring -a
series of free film showings oh NUhomefoQtball game'
days. These films will be at 11:45 a.m. on most SatuM
days, and. 10:45 a.m. on days the games are televised.;
V Many of the films have been provided by the;
Nafidnar;'vAerbnautics and Space Administration?
Jack Dunn, coordinator of planetarium programs'
and activities, said the public has shown a good res-
ponse in the last three years films have been offered.
A tentative schedule of films:
Sept. 24-Skylab-The Second Manned Mission-A
Scientific Harvest
Oct. 1 -Apollo 1 7-On the Shoulders of Giants
Oct. 5-Who'sOut Wiere?
Oct. 22-Jupiter Odyssey
Nov. 12-Mercury-Exploration of a Planet .,
Guitarist will perform
The first artist -in-residence for the Centennial Educa
tion Program will perform a public concert Friday night,
in Kimball Recital Hall.
Steve Waechter, a classical guitarist, will present his
program at 8 p.m. -
Tickets are $1 and . are available from Kimball box
office in the Westbrook Music Building and the Centennial
Education Office in the Neihardt Residential Center. 540
N. 16th St.
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An unfinished racing car of a Lotus 72D Grand Pru in 18 scale.
