Wednesday, December 8r 1982
Page 12
Daily Nebraskan
toppim' Hoppeit is Fighting Kangaroos' mission
By Bob Asmussen
Going into the Nebraska basketball team's 7:30 p. m.
game tonight, the big question is whether the Fighting
Kangaroos can stop Hoppen.
The Fighting Kangaroos of Missouri-Kansas City will
bounce into the Bob Devaney Sports Center tonight with
a 2-4 record. The NAIA school has defeated Missouri
Western and Ottawa. Their defeats have been to
Alabama-Birmingham, Evansville, Rockhurst and South
east Missouri.
"They're a very competitive basketball team and
they're very physical," Nebraska Coach Moe Iba said.
"They have a much better team than people think."
The Kangaroos will start 6-9 center Tim Stumpff.
Stumpff, who is averaging 7.5 points per game and 4.3
rebounds, will try putting the clamps on Dave Hoppen,
Nebraska's second leading scorer with 12 points a game.
The Kangaroos are led by senior guard Bill Frerking,
who is averaging 19.8 points per game. He is followed in
scoring Jby sophomore forward Ronnie Robinson with
12.5 points per game. Robinson leads the team with 5.8
rebounds per game.
"They've got two excellent basketball players in
number 44 (Frerking) and Robinson," Iba said. "Greg
Downing will cover number 44 ."
Besides Hoppen, Nebraska will start guards David
Ponce and Downing and forwards Claude Renfro and
Stan Cloudy. Ponce leads the Huskers in scoring with
15 points a game.
'Wp npprl tn eet Eric (Williams) back in the lineup,"
Iba said. "We could really use him right now."
Ponce is coming off a 26-point effort against
Creighton. Iba said Kenny Walton and Lenard Johnson
made key contributions in the Huskers 65 -62 win.
"We're going to start Ponce this week," Iba said. "He's
playing awfully well and shooting the ball awfully well."
Ponce is starting ahead of Handy Johnson, who had
been starting this season. Iba said he would try bringing
Johnson off the bench against the Kangaroos.
"Handy's struggling shooting the basketball," Iba said.
The play of Walton has been a surprise to Iba. Two
seasons ago Walton was a starter. Last season the senior
from Indianapolis struggled through the season.
Team to be busy in Miami
By Tad Stryker
Between trips to the beach, the Nebra
ska football team will have a lot to do
during Orange Bowl week in Miami.
After the team arrives Dec. 24 and
checks into its headquarters at the Brickell
Point Holiday Inn, activities are planned
each day until the Jan. 3 departure, accord
ing to Jim Barker, chairman of the Orange
Bowl Big Eight team entertainment com
mittee. Christmas Eve arrangements for the team
will be similar to last year's. Three
different church services will be held.
"Afterwards, we're trying to line up
homes in the area where coaches and play
ers and their wives will go for dinner,"
Barker said.
A UNL-sponsored dinner will highlight
Christmas Day, he said. The next evening,
the Huskers will be guests at a party in the
port of Miami.
The Huskers will attend the Monday
night National Football League game be
tween the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo
Bills, as will the Louisiana State players
Continued on Page 13
I
Intramurals
Men's and women's co-recreational tug-of-war
will be today in the Men's Physical
Education building.
Teams are encouraged to enter as soon
as possible for men's and women's intra
mural basketball. The entry deadline is
Jan. 11.
Mark Westphal, Alpha Tau Omega, won
the intramural men's handball singles
championships by defeating Mike Kerri
gan, Beta Theta Pi, 21-10, 16-21, 11-9.
Hal Koch, Phi Delta Theta, defeated
Scott Slaggie, Beta Theta Pi to win the
men's intramural tennis singles title.
The score of the final match was 6-0, 6-1.
The Over the Hill Gang scored 42
points to win the men's intramural swim
ming relays championship. Beta Theta Pi
was second with 26 points. The Jaks won
the women's title with 42 points, followed
by Sandoz 8 with 20 points.
Kathy Kane, Sue Stoner, Jill Reel and
Ann Kennedy of Jaks won the 400-yard
women's freestyle relay with a time of
4:31.02. .The same team of Kane, Stoner,
Reel and" Kennedy also won the 20-yard
individual medley relay with a time of
2:21.57 and the 200-yard freestyle relay
with a time of 2:04.54.
The team of Mike Hayhurst, John
Ebito, Mike Morosin and Mark Wren of
Maks swept the men's relay events. They
won the 400-yard freestyle relay in
3:49.41, the 200-yard individual medley
relay in 1:54.70 and the 200-yard free
style relay in 1:34.4.
Kane, Scott Jerobek, Kennedy and
Wren teamed up to win the 200-yard co
recreational open relay in a time of
1:42.88. Jill Moore, Gregg Eckardt, Steve
Allen and Chris Becker of Abel 9 won
the 100-yard co-recreational tandem relay
in 1:26.7..
Kennedy, Hayhurst, Wren, Reel, Stoner,
Kane, Ebito and Jerobek of the Maks won
the 200-yard co-recreational sweatshirt
relay in 4:20.84.
Beta Theta Pi "A" Won the men's intra
mural water basketball tournament with a
43-41 win against Abel 9. Beta Theta Pi
"A" went through the double-elimination
tournament undefeated.
Members of the winning team are:
Scott Slaggie, Ted Kauf, Todd Swift,
Craig Nelson, Paul Magnuson, Doug Schark
and Bill Oltean.
Sigma Phi Epsilon and- Little Sisters
won the co-recreational basketball cham
pionship with a 41-25 win against the
Gators. The team won all of their games,
including the playoffs, by a margin of 15
points or more.
Members of the winning team are Rick
Schumacher, Lenny Muma, Mark Heng,
Bob Klesath, Arva Griffith, Sue Anderson,
Lana Torczon and Deb Mueller.
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Staff photo by Dave Bentz
Nebraska's David Ponce goes in for a layup in Saturday's 65-62 win against Creighton
in Omaha's Civic Auditorium. The Huskers, now 2-1, take on Missouri-Kansas City at
7:30 p.m. tonight in the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Husker parents become player's substitute family
By Tim Woods
All Nebraska football fans held their
collective breath Oct. 23 when Husker
quarterback Turner Gill fell to the Memor
ial Stadium turf with a concussion against
Missouri.
Perhaps no single Husker fan attending
the game, though, was more concerned
than Susie Wright, a Lincoln homemaker
who serves as Gill's "football mother"
while the Fort Worth, Texas, native attends
UNL.
"I was pretty worried about it," Wright
said Monday. "I was afraid it was much
more serious than it actually turned out to
be."
Wright and her husband, an attorney,
are one of approximately 100 Lincoln
couples who act as. "parents" for UNL
scholarship football players from out of
town.
The parents program was started in
1974 "to help out-of-town recruits keep
from getting homesick," said Lou Roper,
president of First National Bank & Trust
and one of tjie program's founders.
Roper cited one case that illustrates the
need for a parents program.
A recruit from Lawrence, Kan., signed a
national letter of intent with Nebraska and
enrolled in classes, but withdrew from
UNL and went home after only two weeks
of his first semester.
"He was a real 'mama's boy," Roper
said. "He simply had never been away from
home before for an extended period of
time.
"We figured that having a program
where the out-of-town players could inter
act with a substitute family, in an
atmosphere which was similar to that at
home, would make them feel at ease and
not so alone," he said.
Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne received
approval for the program from the NCAA
before its installation, and host families are
advised each spring of NCAA regulations
regarding possible violations, Roper said.
Those regulations, he said, revolve
around the giving of money to players, he
said.
Sponsoring Gill has been "totally re
warding," Wright said.
"We occupy a special place in Turner's
life," she said. "We're more or less a liaison
forhim between his peers and his parents.
"It's just like seeing one of our own
children grow up - he's so mature," she
said.
The Wrights became involved with the
program through Roper, and met Gill at a
special dinner for new players and the
Lincoln parents preceding the 1980 season.
"We just took to each other right
away," she said. "He's just handled himself
so well, considering the amount of pressure
he's been through."
Although the time Gill is able to spend
with the Wrights and their two children
varies each week, he often is able to spend
Sunday dinner with them and often brings
a fellow player.
"It's completely natural for him to be
around us," Wright said. "He's part of the
family."
Still, the glamour of having one of the
most highly touted football players in the
nation around sometimes affects the
neighbors, she said.
Continued on Page 13
