Page 12
Daily Nebraskan
Tuesday, April 27, 1982
Sporta
Simmons adapts to split end position
By Bob Asmusscn
During spring football practice last year, wingback
Ricky Simmons was asked to move to the split end posi
tion. The idea didn't exactly thrill him at the time.
Simmons, a Greenville, Texas, native who will be a jun
ior next fall, was recruited by Nebraska as a wingback. He
had played running back at Greenville High School.
"I like running with the ball," Simmons said. "When
the idea of me changing positions was first brought up, I
had my doubts."
Most of the schools that recruited Simmons saw him as
a wingback prospect. Simmons said Iowa State recruited
him to be an I-back, and Texas recruited him to be a re
ceiver and to run track. Texas Tech, North Texas State
and Tulsa recruited Simmons as a wingback.
"Wingbacks do a lot of different things," Simmons
Nebraska tennis team
splits pair of matches
The Husker men's tennis team split a pair of weekend
matches. Nebraska defeated Kansas 54, but lost to Mis
souri 6-3.
Results of the Kansas meet:
Craig Johnson (UNL) defeated Ed Bolen (KU) 6-2, 6-3;
Rick Aubin (KU) defeated Jim Carson (UNL) 4-6, 6-2,
64; Scott Alexander (KU) defeated Ridge Smidt (UNL)
6- 3, 6-0; Dave Schulze (UNL) defeated Craig Tidwell (KU)
64, 6-2; Brian Edwards (UNL) defeated Jim Syrett (KU)
7- 6, 6-2; Doug Elsass (UNL) defeated Franco Cacippolini
(KU) 7-6, 6-2; Tidwell-Bolen (KU) defeated Carson-Johnson
(UNL) 64, 4-6, 64; Alexander-Aubin (KU) defeated
Smidt-Edwards (UNL) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2; Elsass-Schulze (UNL)
defeated Cacippolini-Syrett (KU) 7-6, 4-6, 7-5.
Results of the Missouri meet:
Jay Sims (MU) defeated Cra'g Johnson (UNL) 7-6,
7-6; Mark Cissell (MU) defeated Jim Carson (UNL) 4-6,
7-6, 4-6; Ridge Smidt (UNL) defeated Randy Freeman
(MU) 6-3, 6-1; Scott Whaley (MU) defeated Dave Schulze
(UNL) 6-2, 64; Brian Edwards (UNL) defeated Ken Mac
Dougall (MU) 7-6, 6-2; Brian Filbert (MU) defeated Doug
Elsass (UNL) 7-6, 64; Carson-Johnson (UNL) defeated
MacDougall-Sims (MU) 7-5, 64; Whaley-Freeman (MU)
defeated Edwards-Smidt (UNL) 6-2, 6-2; Cissell-Filbert
(MU) defeated Elsass-Schulze (UNL) 5-7, 64, 6-4.
said, adding that being a receiver is like being a wingback
without running with the ball.
Simmons currently shares the No.l position at split
end with Todd Brown. He said he has been able to over
come the problems of switching to a new position. '
"The problem I had at first was that I couldn't catch
the ball," Simmons said. "I've worked hard to improve
my receiving. Working with Nate (Mason) has helped me a
lot."
Simmons was a redshirt last season. The coaches ap
proached him about redshirting a few days before the
Iowa game. Simmons did not attend practice while he was
deciding what to do.
"When the coaches first approached me about it, I
wasn't real high on the idea," he said.
Simmons said he thought about transferring to ano
ther school. He said he talked to his father and to UNL
Coach Tom Osborne, who he said was supportive.
"He (Osborne) encouraged me to stay," Simmons said.
"It was just a problem, so I could run from it or stay and
face it. I decided to face it now."
Like most athletes who come to Nebraska from Texas,
Simmons had one thing in particular to adjust to - the
weather. He said it was not easy at first.
"At first I couldn't believe how cold it was," Simmons
said. "Being from Texas I wasn't prepared to handle it.
Now the weather doesn't bother me."
The schools that recruited Simmons told him if he
went to Nebraska he'd get lost in the shuffle of players.
Simmons said that at Nebraska he would "just have to
wait his turn to play like everyone else."
Simmons said his main attributes as a receiver are speed
and the ability to run with the ball after he catches it.
Simmons has participated on the Nebraska track team as a
sprinter.
"I feel I can get deep if we need to go deep," Simmons
said.
Simmons said he is looking forward to the start of next
season. He said a national championship for Nebraska is a
possibility.
"First we'll win the conference, then we'll worry about
the national championship," he said.
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Photo by Jodie Fields
Ricky Simmons
Sportsman Ed Weir relives glory days at NU
By Bob Asmussen
Nestled between the UNL Coliseum,
Buck Beltzer Field and Memorial Stadium
on the UNL campus is Ed Weir Track Sta
dium. Most of the students at Nebraska
weren't even born when Ed Weir last
coached the Husker track team in 1955.
Probably none of them were around when
Weir was a member of the Nebraska foot
ball and track teams in the 1920s. Many
students at Nebraska may not realize that
the 79-year-old Superior native is one of
the true sports legends in Nebraska's history-Weir's
varsity career at Nebraska began
in 1923; in both 1924 and 1925, he was se
lected as an all-American at tackle. Notre
Dame Coach Knute Rockne said in 1925
that Weir was "the greatest tackle I've ever
seen."
Weir is a member of the National Foot
ball Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Sports
Hall of Fame. In 1974, Nebraska's track
and field complex was dedicated to him,
something Weir said he didn't expect.
"I feel it's quite an honor," Weir said.
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Photo by Dave Bentz
Former Husker athlete and track coach Ed Weir stands outside the stadium on the
UNL campus which was named after him.
"I'd had a good record here in coaching
and it's one of those things that come
about that I couldn't explain."
Weir coached the Nebraska track team
from 1938 to 1955.
Weir's greatest fame came on the grid
iron. He was team captain twice in his
three years on the varsity. The Huskers
beat Rockne's highly regarded Notre Dame
team two out of the three years Weir play
ed. Weir has fond memories of those games
with the Fighting Irish.
"Red" Grange
"01' Rockne was always pretty good to
Nebraska," he said. "They had come out
here a couple of times with national teams
or near national teams and gotten beat."
Another football opponent of Nebraska
during the years Weir played was Illinois.
Illinois was led by all-American running
back Harold "Red" Grange. Weir said the
key to stopping Illinois was stopping
Grange.
"We had to keep him from getting start
ed," Weir said. "We did that in two of the
three games."
When Weir was a senior, the Huskers
played Illinois at Illinois and defeated them
14-0. That same year, Nebraska beat Notre
Dame 17-0. The Huskers record during that
1925 season was 4-2-2. Both losses came to
teams Weir thought Nebraska could beat,
Missouri and Drake.
"We shouldn't have ever lost that Mis
souri game ," Weir said. 'That's what Coach
Rockne said. He said 'Yeah, you beat us to
day all right but why didn't you take care
of Missouri?' "
After his final season at Nebraska, Weir
went on to play in the National Football
League for the Frankfurt, (Pa.) Yellow
jackets. The Yellowjackets won a league
championship in one of the three years
Weir played.
Weir said there is a world of difference
between football today and football when
he played. He cited the fact that during his
playing days there was no hashmarks, limi
ted substitution and no communication be
tween the coach and the players on the
Held.
No comparison
"It's definitely a different game today
in so many ways because of the substitu
tion." Weir said. "It's foolish for anyone to
try and compare the game of yesterday to
the game today because we used usually no
more than seventeen or eighteen men a
game."
Most of the players in Weir's time play
ed the full 60 minutes of the game. Weir
said since it was the same for both teams,
the team that wore down the opponent at
the beginning of the game had the edge.
"You didn't have the bench strength be
cause our traveling squad was usually 22 or
23," Weir said.
"Here's another big item: When you
came out of the game as a player you
couldn't go back in that game until the
next quarter," he continued. "Suppose you
came out two minutes after the second
quarter started. You couldn't go back in
until the start of the next half."
When Weir played, coaches weren't al
lowed to send in plays.
"A coach could not do anything from
the sidelines in the way of sending informa
tion until one play had been run," Weir
said.
"One game we were backed up against
our goal line and they (the coaches) didn't
want to take a chance on fumbling down
there. I saw our bench get penalized be
cause Coach Schulte wanted them to kick
on an early down, not wait until fourth
down to kick. He was going this way (Weir
moved his leg in a kicking motion) sitting
on the bench and some official penalized
him."
Weir said he was interested in coaching
football but the track coaching opportuni
ty opened, so he took it. Weir was an assis
tant to Schulte, then took over the pro
gram in 1938. Weir had participated as a
hurdler on the Husker track team so the
coaching of track seemed natural to him.
Continued on Page 13
