page 14
daily nebraskan
friday, September 15, 1978
sports
Bremser recalls disbelief of 1955 Hawaiian upset
The 26 mph gusts of hot wind were
blowing in the faces of 23,000 Nebraska
fans at Memorial Stadium. The 93 degree
weather provided by the sun was beating
down on their faces. And the scoreless tie
in the fourth quarter against Hawaii gave
them little incentive to cheer.
It was the 1955 season opener for head
coach Bill Glassford's Cornhuskers who in
1954 handed the Rainbows a 50-0 loss in
Honolulu. It was one game UNL was not
supposed to lose.
The Lincoln Star sports editor, Don
Bryant, who is now UNL's sports
information director, predicted a 50-0 out
come before the game. And Glassford's
cautious pregame strategy reminds one of
Tom Osborne preparing for the 1978
edition of the Hawaii Rainbows.
Upset
"We're going to make a real effort to get
the job done," Glassford said. "There's no
such thing as a sure thing in football. You
have to win them on a Saturday after
noon." Well, Bill's sound philosophy proved
correct. The only sure thing that hot
Saturday afternoon was the final score.
When Hartwell Freitas plunged into the
endzone from the one yard line in the
fourth quarter, not only were the fans left
speechless but the voice of Cornhusker
football for the past 40 years, Lyell
Bremser, had nothing to say to his listening
audience.
kevin schnepf
Lyell Bremser having nothing to say.
That is about as shocking as a 72-0 Hawaii
victory would be tomorrow.
"Everybody who was sitting in the
stands was in a stupor, they were
dumbstruck," Bremser said. "I couldn't
believe what I was seeing-it was just lousy
football.
Disbelief
"It had to be the biggest upset in
Nebraska history."
It was such an upset that Sunday's
Lincoln Star front page had a full page
banner headline telling how the "Huskers
Must Start Over." And the sports page was
filled with disbelief.
"It's queer that a Nebraska aggregation
built up by a rejuvenated scholarship
program last year can't block, tackle, or
manufacture a sustained offense," wrote
one sports writer.
Twenty-three years later, after Bob
Devaney brought a football dynasty to
Lincoln, the Huskers will host Hawaii after
handing them a 68-3 loss in Honolulu in
1967.
"There's always a possibility that
Hawaii can win, especially today," Bremser
said. "The talent has been spread around a
lot more than it used to be."
Pronunciation problems
The talent that Hawaii brought to
Lincoln in 1955 was considered in a lower
class than the Husker team. Names like
Dick Veoka, Roland Laanui, Hank
Ariyoshi, Jim Shicuru, Charlie Araki, Colin
Chock, and Ed Kawawaki not only caused
problems for the Huskers, but caused
pronunciation problems for announcers
like Bremser.
The 1955 shocker may have quieted
Bremser, but even when UNL beat Hawaii
three times, the Hawaiian names slowed
Bremser's rapid talking pace.
"I call names like that tongue tanglers,"
Bremser said.
So, Bremser has been studying the
names of the 1978 Hawaii team this week.
He said he hopes he doesn't stumble over
names tomorrow like Keith Ah Yeun,
Claxton Fernandez, Blane Gainson, Bryan
Hanawahine, Wilbert Haslip, Keoni Jar dine,
Casey Kunitomo, Beldon Kealoha, Itai
Sataua, Junior Talaesea, and Semeri
Ulufale.
The roster looks like the credit list of
the "Hawaii Five-O" television drama.
"Anybody doing play-by-play saying he
can reel off all those names is blowing a lot
of smoke," Bremser said. "You can't
be going 100 miles per hour and reel off a
name like Hanawahine. I just hope I have a
loose tongue-I hope it's limber."
The Hawaiian names will give Bremser a
challenge and if history repeats itself, his
tangled tongue will have nothing to say.
"Sorley scrambles and gets away from
Ah Yeun, he runs upfield to the 35, the 40
and is hit by by by Man, women
and child, how the hell do you pronounce
this name!"
'Much improved' Rainbows will be Huskers next foe
By Buck Mahoney
The University of Hawaii Rainbows
came to Lincoln twenty-three years ago, an
overwhelming underdog to .the Nebraska
Cornhuskers. That afternoon, they beat
UNL by the score of 6-0, in a game that
helped lead to the resignation of Nebraska
head coach Bill Glassford. The Rainbows
will be making the trip to the same spot to
morrow and will try to upset the Huskers
again.
Coach Dick Tomey's Western Athletic
Conference team will be looking for their
second win in two games this year. The
Rainbows defeated the New Mexico Lobos
22-16 last Saturday in Honolulu.
Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne said
he thought Hawaii was a much improved
team over the one the Huskers defeated
68-3 two years ago.
"Last time we played them they were
disorganized and not a very good team,"
Osborne said.
The Rainbows won two games and lost
nine in 1976, but last year improved to a
5-6 record. Osborne credited Tomey for
the improvement.
"They're much better coached than any
Hawaii team I've seen," he said.
Ten starters return
The Rainbow Warriors have 10 return
ing starters from last year's team. They are
lead by quarterback Jeff Duva and fullback
Wilbert Haslip.
Duva, a senior from Canoga Park, Calif.,
set a new Hawaii passing record last year
when he averaged 14.2 yards per complet
ion. He passed for 1,487 yards and 10
touchdowns in eleven games.
Haslip, a 5-11, 212 pound senior from
Santa Ana, Calif., is the fourth all-time
rusher in Hawaii history. Last year he set a
single game rushing record with 221 yards
on 22 carries against Idaho. Last Saturday,
he gained 127 yards against New Mexico.
Haslip is not the only runner the Rain
bows will have behind an offensive line
that averages 243 pounds per man. Sopho
more tailback George Bell from FJ Centro,
Calif, set many freshmen rushing records
while playing on the varsity. He gained 132
yards on 22 carric igainst Southwestern
Louisiana University last year.
When the Rainbows go to the air, Duva
will be looking to wise receivers Walt Little
of Winston-Salem, N.C. and Jeff Cabral of
Kailua, Oahu.
Little was the third leading receiver last
year. He caught 18 passes for 254 yards
and one touchdown, lie also returned nine
kickoffs for 142 yards last year and was
the leading returner in 1976.
Cabral, a 6-foot-2 junior, is listed ahead
of DeWayne Jett at split end. Cabral only
caught six passes for 80 yards last year
while Jett caught 16 for 223 yards and
three touchdowns.
Defense impresses Osborne
Osborne said he was impressed by the
way Hawaii's defense played against New
Mexico. The Lobos failed to get a first
down in the fourth quarter while Hawaii
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Photo by Ted Kirk
Two years ago, Rick Bents ran for 21 1 yards and four touchdowns against Hawaii's
Rainbow Warriors. Nebraska plays Hawaii Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
scored 15 points to come from behind to
win.
Two years ago, the Rainbow defense
yielded 428 rushing yards to the Huskers.
Rick Berns gained 211 yards and four
touchdowns on the ground that night to
set a single game rushing record that has
since been broken by I. M. Hipp. Berns said
the defense the Huskers will face tomorrow
is better and more aggressive than the
defense he ran through two years ago.
"They made a lot of mistakes," Berns
said. "They just didn't play good defense.
This year they are coming to the ball
more."
The Rainbow defense is led by end Mike
Arvanetis, tackle Tom Tuinei, and
linebacker Junior Talasea.
Arvanetis, a 6-foot-4, 230 pound senior
from Buena Park, Calif., was second on the
team last year with 103 tackles, nine of
them behind the line of scrimmage.
Tuinei, a 6-foot-4, 250 pound junior,
was third on the team in tackles with 100
and he broke up three passes.
The 6-foot-1, 245 pound Talasea was
ninth on the team with 48 tackles in a
reserve role. The Santa Alia. Calif, junior
also recovered a fumble and intercepted a
pass.
Husker assistant coach Gene Huey said
he believes Hawaii would give the Huskers
a contest.
"Hawaii is a much improved team over
the last two years," he said. "Don't be
surprised when they come in here with a
good football team."
Students buy more tickets, fill sections
By Denice Smee
More students will cheer the Huskers
to victory this year than last year.
WeD, at least more students bought
football tickets this year than last, ac
cording to Helen Wagner, manager of the
ticket office.
This year there were 16,336 student
tickets sold, she said. This compares to
slightly over 16,000 sold last year.
Wagner said certain sections are set
aside for student tickets each year.
These include all of section 1 which is
the north end of east stadium, all of sec
tion 11 which is the south end of east
stadium and the bottom two-thirds of
seats in-between, she said.
Also the east sections in the north and
south stadiums are set aside for student
tickets.
"You have to kind of go by enrollment
in guessing how many tickets students will
buy, and this year we heard it was going
to be high," she said.
The sections set aside for students in
the north end are double-printed, that is
both student and general admission tickets
are printed for the same seats, she
explained.
Then, if there are seats left over out of
these sections after student sales, they are
sold as general admission seats, she said.
Faculty and staff tickets were handled
differently this year, Wagner explained. All
faculty and staff members were entitled to
one ticket at a reduced price and one ticket
at regular price.
This means faculty and staff could buy
one ticket for $36 and $55.50 for another.
Previously, only married faculty and
staff members could buy two tickets, she
said.
This was changed in order to prevent
discrimination against unmarried members,
Wagner said. Faculty members, excluding
those at the medical center, bought 6,000
tickets, Wagner said.
Faculty and staff members at UNO do
not get reduced rates although they do
receive some priority over the general
public in getting tickets, Wagner said.
The stadium's seating capacity is 72,771
she said. The weekly attendance figures for
games also include all concession workers,
boy scouts and ticket takers.
Visiting teams, season ticket holders,
booster club members, and general admis
sions use the rest of the seats.
Visiting teams are allotted a certain
number of seats according to contracts
between the schools, she said. Usually,
this is a reciprocal agreement, so UNL
would get the same number when they
visited that school.
The stadium also has about 760 bleach
er seats located at its corners which -re
sold to groups such as midget fv;oall
teams and high school groups, Wag:.c said.
