friday, december 8, 1978
page 14
daily nebraskan
sports
Celebrated coaches could have made Husker history
Praise the Lord. Oh what a relief it is.
That's a load off my mind. Happy days are
here again.
Which cliche did you utter Tuesday
when word came that head football coach
Tom Osborne decided to stay at UNL?
Turning down a generous offer from Uni
versity of Colorado officials in Boulder, Os
borne wants to stay in Lincoln after he
kevin schnepf
gave some thought about the players he
recruited.
Tuesday's news prompted so much
statewide attention that the Lincoln New
Car Dealers Association, a consistent sup
porter of UNL football, wanted to send a
bouquet of red roses to Osborne's wife,
Nancy. You, like many others across the
state were probably shocked by even the
thought of such a change occurring to the
Big Red Machine.
Start speculating
Now that speculation has ended, let's
start speculating. Let us pretned Osborne
had accepted the Colorado offer and
departed winter-worn Lincoln for winter
wonderland Boulder. If Osborne took his
entire staff with him, who could Bob De
vaney sought out to coach a beleaguered
Husker team next fall?
UNL's football program could have
sported a who new look, a new identity, a
new way to please the fans. It could have
become a celebrity staff.
Chosen as head coach to replace the
conservative Osborne, thumb licking
George Allen could fill in Tom's shoes. His
forte, building winners and nothing but,
could have been a good enough reason to
hire him.
Ara the Great
Assisting Allen would be the human
football encyclopedia himself, Ara Parse
ghian. Instead of relaying his knowledge to
a television audience, Parseghian could
have been offered the jobs of coaching the
linebackers, offensive backs, receivers, de
fensive ends, defensive linemen, and tight
ends and wingbacks. One man filling in for
so many positions could have cut the costs
of paying salaries by incredible margins.
Tired of the pinstripes of the baseball's
New York Yankees, Billy Martin could
have been hired as the kicking coach. In
order to replace Billy Todd sufficiently,
Martin could have instilled the killer
instinct into Dean Sukup to kick footballs
as often and as far as Billy kicked chalk
dust and baseball caps.
Raise the dead
The offensive line, which will be missing
the majority of its top blockers next fall,
would have needed a coach that would
begin a legend. The job opening would
have produced enough interest that Vince
Lombardi would have raised from the dead
to accomplish this feat.
Continued on page 15
Returning letterman key to Tigers basketball fortunes
Editor's note: This is the second in a
series of articles previewing Big Eight Con
ference basketball outlooks this season.
Norm Stewart sounds like a man who
has been dealt a lousy hand in poker, but
he's still smiling at the thought of having
a few aces up his sleeve.
The Missouri basketball coach, now in
his 12th year as head coach, lost a lot of
talent from last year's Big Eight post
season tournament champion team. But he
doesn't feel destitute.
"We do have key positions to worry
about," Stewart said, "and a thin nucleus.
But we have good talent, an excellent atti
tude and should come along fast."
Playmaking guard Jeff Currie, a four
year letterman and three-year starter; cen
ter Stan Ray; and forward Clay Johnson,
last year's leading scorer and rebounder,
are ail gone from last season's 14-16 team.
Three vets return
But three top returnees should pace
Missouri through the the early going.
Larry Drew, a 6-foot-2 junior guard
from Kansas City, has started 55 of the 58
games Missouri has played in the last two
seasons.
Brad Droy is the only senior on this
year's squad and can play any one of four
positions.
Curtis Berry started in 17 games for the
Tigers last season and led the team in field
goal percentage by hitting .555 from
the field.
Drew was the number two scorer last
year with a 12.7 per game average. He was
the most valuable player in Missouri's
Show-Me-Classic Tournament and also led
the team in assists with 78.
"From baseline to baseline, I've never
had a player as effective as Larry Drew,"
Stewart said. "He's not only great at spot
ting the open man, but also delivering the
ball to him."
Versatile player
Droy was third in scoring and rebound
ing last year for Missouri. Stewart said
Droy's versatility was an advantage for the
Tigers.
"Brad can play any of four positions
comfortably, which should add a lot to our
ball club," he said.
Berry broke into the starting lineup last
season when Ray broke his hand and aided
the Tigers' point and rebound production.
There are four other returning letter
men led by sophomore guards Kenn Stoeh
ner and Mike Foster, with Stoehner special
izing in offense and Foster in defense.
Stewart will get some added height in
his front line with the return of 7-foot-2
center Tom Dore and 6-foot-9 forward Carl
Amos.
Dore is the tallest player to ever
compete for Missouri and will probably
start now that Ray has left school because
of academic difficulties. Dore's main prob
lem has been a recurring knee injury that
has plagued him during most of his col
legiate career.
Amos is a relatively untested 18-year
old sophomore whom Stewart expects to
improve with game experience.
Newcomers
The newcomers on this year's team
include junior college transfer guard Steve
Wallace, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who
averaged 21 .8 points per game at State Fair
College last year, and 6-foot-l freshman
Barry Laurie, who scored 33.3 points per
game his senior year in high school at Ver
sailles, Mo. High School.
At forward Stewart recruited two Mis
souri all-state high school players. 6-foot-6
Mark Dressier and 6-foot-6 Kirk Shawver
are both given chances of starting for Mis
souri this year.
If Dore's knee doesn't respond this year,
the center position may be filled by 6-foot-10
freshman Lex Drum from Poplar Bluff,
Mo.
"He should log a lot of playing time,"
Stewart said of Drum. "He's a strong in
dividual with an unusually good shooting
touch from a pretty good distance."
Winning so far
Missouri is currently 3-1 this season
with wins over Butler University, 75-65,
Eastern Kentucky, 82-81, and Southern
Illinois University 68-65. The lone loss has
been to the University of Illinois, 69-57.
The Eastern Kentucky and Southern
Illinois wins came in the sixth annual
Missouri Show-Me-Classic, which the Tigers
won again this season.
"There's a lot of intangibles," Stewart
said. "But this particular group of guys all
come from winning backgrounds. They ex
pect to have success and do have success."
Nebraska plays at Missouri on Jan. 20
and the Tigers come to Lincoln to play on
February 17. Both games are on Saturdays.
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Missouri guard Larry
Tigers this season.
Photo by Tad Kirk
Drew (22), the team's second leading scorer of a year ago, will be one of the few stars returning for the
Nine Nebraska players on academic team
Two Nebraska seniors have been
selected as honorary captains of the 1978
Academic All-Big Eight Conference
football teams.
Offensive tackle Tom Ohrt has a career
grade point average of 3.69, the best on the
offensive unit. Monster Jim Pillen, with a
3.87, was tops on the defense and the
honorary team.
"I came to the University of Nebraska to
pursue an education," Pillen said. "Foot
ball was a very close second in my mind."
Pillen said by dividing his time properly,
he could maintain a high average.
"It's not that difficult," he said. "You
just have to budget your time and become
a disciplined person. I've worked hard to
keep a respectable grade point, and it's
an honor to be named defensive captain."
Matt Miller of Colorado and Chris
Garlich of Missouri were named to the
team for the third time. Huskers George
Andrews, Tim Smith and Pillen were
repeaters from last year, as was center
Pete Allard of Missouri.
The overall team average was 3.3.
Nine Huskers in all were named to the
team. Missouri and Kansas State each placed
three players on the team, followed by
Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma
with two each.
Kansas and Colordado each had one
member make the team.
The Nebraska players who made the
team and their grade points included:
Smith, wide receiver, 3.26 in Business
Administration; Ohrt, offensive tackle,
3.69 in Pre-Med; Tom Sorley, offensive
backfield. 3.29 in accounting; Tim Wurth,
offensive backfield, 3.38 in Pre-Med; Kelly
Saalfeld. tied with Allard at center with a
3.3 in Economics; Andrews, defensive end
and a graduate student with a 3.1 in
Business Administration; Rod Horn, defen
sive lineman, 3.19 in Agriculture; Pillen.
defensive back, 3.87 in Agriculture; and
Tim Fischer, defensive back, 3.79 in Agriculture.