Sports
Winning, losing,
not breaking even
Betting on a favorite team, horse or
dog is fun, exciting and rewarding —
as long as you’re winning.
But gambling also has been known
to ruin families and disintegrate lives,
not to mention savings accounts.
And you never know when you’re
going to win, or when you ’re going to
lose.
For at least one student, gambling
ruined his career at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln. Maybe even
more.
It was Oct. 3, 1987. It was a cool,
sunny day in Lincoln, not the type of
day that hinted of impending disaster.
But it was a day Jim (not his real
name) will never forget.
Not even if he wants to. On that
day. Jim lost over S40,(XX) betting
football games.
It was the single most-disastrous
thing that s ever happened to me in
my life,” Jim said. “I was delirious
with fear. I didn’t know what to do,
where logo... nothing. I just wanted
to run away and hide somewhere
where no one would find me.
“If I knew of such a place, I’d be
there right now.”
Jim’s trouble began early with an
11:30 a.m. game on TBS (Ca
blcvision channel 4), which he had
S2.200 bet on. He doesn’t remember
who played in the game, but he does
remember that he lost.
™ mu ii uviuim tiiui nc
was going lo lose money on his first
game — “The game was pretty much
over by halftime,” he said—Jim tried
to win back what he was going to lose,
plus “a little more.”
Jim bet five games that started at
1:30 p.m. Using three different Lin
coln bookmakers, Jim placed $1,100
on three of the games and $550 on the
other two. In addition, he placed a
$500, five-team parlay on the games.
In a parlay, a player must win all
games. Jim’s five-team parlay give
him 20-1 odds. In other words, had
Jim won all five bets, the parlay
would have paid him $10,000, plus
the $4,(XX) he would have won on
straight bets.
Instead, he lost all five games. He
lost $4,900, raising his toial losses for
the day to $7,100.
Jim said he knew he was in serious
trouble by this time, but his “gam
bling instincts” told him to win back
the money he had lost.
“By the time I had lost all my 1:30
games, I was obsessed with getting it
back and still slicking it to the bookie
(winning money)," he said. “But I
was running out of games.”
Jim decided to stay away from
betting the late afternoon games
played on the West Coast, that started
around 5 p.m. Lincoln time. Instead,
he called a friend, who was a Lincoln
bookmaker with connections to Las
Vegas gambling casinos.
“I knew this guy that had bet some
games over the phone to some p lace i n
Vegas last season,” Jim said. “He
used to work at one of the places for
about four years as an assistant odds
makeror something. I gave him acall
and told him my situation, and he told
me how I could call in bets to these
places over the telephone.”
Since the bets were made over the
phone and from such a far distance,
Jim used three credit cards to ensure
his bets. With the help of his friend, he
called three Las Vegas establish
ments and placed the highest bet they
would accept — Si 1 ,(XX).
The casinos reluctantly allowed
J im to place his bets, but only because
of the relationships between Jim’s
Iriend and the head oddsmakers at
each casino.
SeeGflEEN on 16
Brant Schott/Oailv Nebraskan
A galloper gives his horse a workout early Wednesday morning at State Fair Park, which starts its horse racing season
Friday at 7 p.m. The track will feature night racing for the first time this season.
Official says lights will stabilize track
By Steve Sipple
Senior fcdilor
State Fair Park will begin its thor
oughbred horse racing season Friday
night, and track officials are hoping
recently installed lights will revive
the track’s hard limes.
Attendance and mutual handle
(money bet and won each day) have
declined sharply during the past three
years at Slate Fair Park. Last year,
mutual handle dropped 18.1 percent
and attendance was down 5.6 percent
from the 1986 total, which were so
low that the track’s racing was cut
short by two weeks.
State Fair Park General Manager
John Skold said he’s optimistic the
lights will help reverse the downward
trend his track — and the state’s four
other tracks — have experienced
during the past three years.
“Before the downward trend, no
body had to worry because everything
was going well,” Skold said. “The
tracks were making money. Then wc
hit hard times. One of the obvious
things wc asked is when more people
could come to the track. Obviously,
more people can spend lime at the
track during the night rather than in
the afternoon. We’re hoping that’s
the case.”
ABC Electric of Lincoln installed
the lights at a cost of $236,(XX) during
the summer.
Skold said new night post times
should draw a different — and hope
fully larger — crowd than last
season’s afternoon posts. This sea
son, the races will begin at 7 p.m.
weekdays, 5 p.m. Saturdays and 2
p.m. Sundays.
One crowd Skold said he still
doesn’t expect to draw is the college
crowd. He said he didn’t have Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln students in
mind when the decision was made to
install lights. The UNL campus lies
less than a mile south of State Fair
Park.
'Those people
have their free
time in the eve
ning. We’re hoping
they’ll find their
way out here. ’
— Skold
“We haven’t written off those
people,” he said. “We have tried dif
ferent promotions over the years and
have never gotten our share (of stu
dents). I don’t know if it’s a case of no
background or lack of exposure, or
what.
“College people have never been a
big part of our patronage.”
Skold, in his first year as general
manager after the retirement of Henry
Brandt, said night racing would at
Nine Cornhuskers miss practice
By Mike Kluck
Staff Reporter
A cool, wet practice at Memorial
Stadium Wednesday may have
helped the mood of the Nebraska
football team, but itdidn’t hclpthe list
of wounded players, Comhusker
coach Tom Osborne said.
N ine players were held out of prac
tice with injuries. Many are still recu
perating from Nebraska’s 41-28 loss
to UCLA last Saturday.
Osborne said the off week has
given some of the Huskers the oppor
tunity to miss practice. The Huskers
arc idle this Saturday before playing
Arizona State Sept. 24 in Lincoln.
“There wouldn’t be that many
(injured players) out if we were play
ing Saturday,” Osborne said. “The
way I look at it, there better be a few
more showing up tomorrow. I’m
expecting them out here tomorrow
See HUSKERS on 16
tract middle-aged people who can’t
attend afternoon sessions because
their jobs wouldn’t allow them to.
“‘Yuppies,’ for want of a better
word,” Skold said. “Those guys and
ladies are dedicated to their jobs, yet
they have more dispensable income
than people with a normal-type job.
“Those people have their free time
in the evening. We’re hoping they’ll
find their way out here.”
Skold said he’s hoping enough
people will find their way to State Fair
Park to improve on — or at least
match — last season’s on-track atten
dance and mutual handle totals. Even
if they match last year’s totals, he
said, the project will be worth its cost.
“If we hold our own, with the other
four tracks simulcasting, we’ll be
very pleased,” he said. “If we reverse
the present trend, or no longer de
cline, it will be a good investment.”
Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Bcn, Grand
Island’s Fonncr Park, Columbus’
Agricultural Park and South Sioux
City’s Atokad Park will each simul
cast State Fair Park’s entire season.
Skold said State Fair Park can
prosper even though it will lose
people who would ordinarily have
traveled from those cities to Lincoln
to watch and bet on the races.
State Fair Park generated enough
money to raise its minimum purses by
$1,800 through simulcasting races
from Ak-Sar-Ben, Fonner, and Co
lumbus. This season, State Fair Park’s
minimum daily purse will be $3,000.
The larger purses have helped to
bring back some top jockeys and
trainers who have skipped Stale Fair
Park’s season in the past because of
declining purses.
Included among the trainers who
stable horses is Herb Reiken, trainer
of three-time Ak-Sar-Ben horse of the
year Who Doctor Who.
Skold said horsemen turned in
applications for 2,300 stables. State
Fair Park, he said, can stable 1,200
horses.
—— ... 1 1 ..i
Husker ‘has adjusted’
By Mark Derowitsch
Senior Reporter
Pal Tyrance’s rapid ascension
to the topofNebraska’sdepth chart
took some thought.
Tyranee, one of the Com
huskers’ starting inside lineback
ers, said that focusing on football
helped him to net his starting job.
“1 think 1 just lacked confidence
as a freshman,” he said. “It was
funny. There were a lot of guys who
were high school All-America’s,,
all-slaters and stuff, and I was just
an all-state honorable-mention
player. I needed time to gather my
thoughts and get adjusted to col
lege. Once I did that, I was read> to
Tyrance’s lack of confidence
disappeared during his redstart
ycr m season. He said playing
—i.hbbm....auaw i ■'«
against the varsity’s 1st team
helped develop his confidence.
As a freshman in 1986, Tyrance
tied for 6th-place on the junior
varsity team in tackles with 23.
“Playing against the varsity as a
scout-learner was the key,"he said.
“Thai’s what turned it around”
Nebraska linebackers coach
John Melton said Tyrance’s work
habits during his redshirt year ate
paying off this season.
“He bulked himself up a little,
and he’s a little faster ami a little
stronger,” Melton said. “He just
shot out of die blue and he had a
great spring. He’s a good football
flayer, and I’m very pleased with
__— I
