v
.V
' r ....
Monday, September 24, 1934
Vol. 84 No. 22
7
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
irmm BM Med iwemnae
By Brad Enka
D&Uy Nebraskan Senior Reporter
Editor's note: This i3 the first
article in a five-part series ex
ploring various issues behind
Nebraska footbalL
It's awfully quiet for a football
Saturday in Lincoln. The Big Red
Behind
Big Red
machine is in Los Angeles. At 1 :30
p.m., a handful of customers
browse in J.C. Penney at 13th and
O streets. At the Hilton Hotel on
Ninth Street, a man in a blue pin
stripe suit chats with the desk
clerk. At Chesterfield, Bottoms
ley & Potts, in the basement of the
Gunny's Building, Brian Fisher
bustles back and forth between
stirring a bucket of Bloody Mary ,
mix and tending bar.
- "After two o'clock," he says on
the run, "ItH be hard to find a
seat."
. Cornhusker football, bread and
butter to UNL and the folks in the
local entertainment business, in
the eyes of some retailers and at
least one business expert, maybe
as hard on local retail trade as,
say, a blizzard or a tornado warn
ing. Here at Chesterfields, 80 loyal
Husker fans crowd around three
television screens. Fisher fills and
refills 20 pitchers of beer, ringing
them up at $3 each.
"On a non-football Saturday we
might do 50 people at the most,"
Fisher says, slicing limes. Today,
he expects to serve three times
that number. Fisher estimates
the average Husker fan will dish
out $15 to $20 for suds and a
sandwich during an away game
and $20 to $25 before and after
the game when the Big Red i3 at
home.
Down the street at Penney's a
clerk rests his chin in his hands
and listens to the game, broad
cast over the store's public ad
dress system. There's not much
else to do.
"It's like that every weekend
when the Huskers play, especially
when they play at home,"" says
James W. Adams, manager at J.C.
Penney. "Business picks up for a
couple of hours before the game,
then drops dead during the game.
It's like a snow day."
John Campbell, president of
Miller & Paine, says: "If we were
going to look at it from a purely
selfish standpoint, we'd rather
have a team like Iowa State."
Campbell explains that large
football crowds and traffic snarls
scare away local business and
points out that most football fans
come to be entertained. He says
the fans that do shop favor small
ticket items and Big Red para
phernalia. Campbell says that while game
day revenues usually are higher
than average business days, the
loss of revenue during away games
outweighs any gains. He says his
Christmas business also is hurt
when students go home and local
high rollers migrate en masse to
Miami for the Orange Bowl.
Jerome A. Deichert, who fol
lows the Lincoln economy for the
UNL Bureau of Business Research,
says he has found no evidence to
indicate that people spend more
during football season than at
any other time of year. "People
spend within a limited budget,"
Deichert says. "If they go to a
football game and then have a
drink on Saturday, they might
decide not to go to a movie during
the week. There's always a trade
off." ,
Jerry Barnes, general manager
for the Hilton, says a home game
will fill the house both Friday and
Saturday. Terry L. Cleveland, gen
eral manager for the Clayton
House, says football weekends are
booked solid as early as May.
"I wish they'd have football six
months a year at least " he said
chuckling.
During the off-season, most
conventions and parties go to the
Hilton or the Cornhusker, hotels
with more than twice the room
capacity of the Clayton House.
While the Clayton House ha3 92
rooms, the Cornhusker has 300.
Hotel managers say the Orange
Bowl exodus doesn't affect their
business.
Continued on page 8
Li v f-
.'.. '.
. ft
- "AO
a
J
t ' ,
1 V V
"S-S..
1 '
' ' 'tit v '
v f
i ft , '
'
(
Bionic moves . . .
David CrmtrOaliy Nebratkan
Christian Hosoi of California hsr.dplar.ts himself into third
place in the second Midwest melee ramp jam at 825 East
ridge Drive Saturday afternoon. Story on Page 7
dents coi
ilci 'chow down' with new food system
By Jim R&smisssen
Daily Nebr&skan Senior Reporter
Students who eat in the UNL
residence hall cafeterias soon will
be able to "chow down" if a new
unlimited food system is approved,
according to the university's food
service manager.
Douglas Rix said that in the
near future, the university prob
ably will change from the serving
line method to unlimited food
buffets. The change could come
within the next two or three
weeks, he said.
Under the new system, students
could dish up their own food and
come back for more as many
times as they wanted. The uni
versity experimented with the
unlimited food system at the
Independent candidate:
The -Rainbow' continues
By Lisa Nutting
Di!y Nebmskan Staff Writer
Dennis Serrette, indepen
dent residential candidate of
the New Alliance Party of New
York is on the Nov. 6 general
election ballot in 33 states,
including Nebraska His vote,
he said, Sdll be a protest vote."
Serrette spoke at the Malone
Community Center in Lincoln
Friday about his campaign. He
said those who want to avoid
"the lesser of two evils" the
Democrats or the Republicans
should cast their vote for
him.
The 44-year-old candidate,
born and raised in Harlem in
New York City, and now living
in Jersey City, has been an
Afro-American trade union and
community leader for more than
two decades. Whils his ultimate
goal may not be to "win" the
election in '84, he said he's
looking for 6- million people
"with the guts" to vote for him
and leave the mark of (the Rev.
Jesse Jackson's) Rainbow Coa
lition on American politics.
"People have got to under
stand that the Rainbow con
tinues," Serrette said. 'That
Jesse Jackson's platform stiH
stands.
"We're building a Vote in '84
to push forward a social
vision that is out to change the
lyes of the poor, blacks, Latin
Americans," Serrette said. "Who
knows what is going to happen
in '88?"
Serrette is urging the 3.5
million people who voted for
Jackson to vote for him,
because "the others don't re
present the interest of all the
peep's of this country," he said.
Though Serrette tours with
few funds, he said he is work
ing hard and is beginning to
break down barriers.
Cather-Pound food service com
plex last semester and student
response was "enthusiastic," Rix
said. The experiment resulted from
a survey of UNL residence hall
students.
"Many students commented
they would like to take as much
as they wanted," he said.
The new system would have
only one restriction: students are
not allowed to take food out of
the cafeteria, with the possible
exception of ice cream cones.
Rix said he expects a 5 percent
increase in food costs with the
new system. The university would
absorb the cost increase this year
by tightening the food service
budget. New equipment purchases
and maintenance funds probably
would be cut to almost nothing,
he said.
Eventually, the increased costs
from the new system would be
passed on to students in the form
of higher board fees, Rix said.
He expressed hope that stu
dent enthusiasm for thertew setup
would offset any ill feeling caused
by the higher costs.
"A 5 percent increase isn't going
to wipe students off the map," Rix
said.
If food prices continue to re
main fairly stable, as they have
the past six to eight months, the
increase in board costs will be
smaller, Rix said. Board fees ac
count for 57 percent of a stu
dent's room and board bill, Rix
said. That's down from about 65
percent in 1970.
Nebraskans share memories
after sum
By Lisa NMting
Daily Nebraskaa Stiff Writer
When Japan hangs its laundry
out to dry, common clotheslines
don't hold up the clothes poles
do. And for a very efficient reason
no wrinkles. .
This Is just one of many Japa
nese customs encountered by a
group of 10 Nebraskans who visit
ed there this summer.
The six-week trip, sponsored by
a grant from United States In
formation Agency, allowed 10
young men (age 17 to 19) from
Nebraska to live and work with
Japanese farm families in an agri
cultural exchange program.
The Project Link Celebration
was Saturday at the Nebraska
Center for Continuing Education.
mer trip to Japan
The delegates shared their expe
riences and slides of Japan.
The trip began with a four-day
visit to Tokyo, where the men
toured the city and learned about
Japanese culture.
They're so beauty-oriented," Jeff
Kistner, of Auburn, said. "Every
thing has to be neat, clean and.
kept up. That's their culture."
From there, each went to his
host farmer's home, where he
stayed for half of the trip. To get a
wide perspective of Japanese cul
ture and agriculture, each dele
gate lived with two different farm
families.
At the second farm Rochford
stayed at, melons were tied from
the branch and grew while sus
pended. Perry Loostrom, of Gothenburg,
found he could nearly look direct:
ly into the eyes of one farmer's
cow the cow stood nearly 6
feet tail
While sights seen by the dele
gates were educational and excit
ing, something, they said, was
even better the people they
met.
The friends I've made, and
experiences, will last a lifetime,"
Loostrom said.
When Kistner went sightseeing
wit h his hosts' grandparents (who
speak little English) he said, "We
took two dictionaries (English to
Japanese and Japanese to Eng
lish) when we went. And some
times, if we couldn't understand
each other, we'd just smile and
ncd we got along great."