Sports
First female DN sports editor visits campus
By Darran Fowler
Senior Editor
June Bicrbower, the Daily Nebras
kan’s first female sports editor, was
the editor at a time when women
reporters were
forbidden from the
press box at
Memorial Sta
dium.
Bierbowcr,
who turns 70 this
summer, was the
DN’s sports edi
tor for two years Bierbower
from 1938 to 1940. She was in Lin
coln and toured the DN on Friday
while attending her 50-ycar class
reunion.
Bierbowcr said she never covered
a Nebraska football game because it
was “tradition not to let women in the
press box.”
Instead, she watched the game from
the stands where she said it was “too
tough to take notes outside.” She
compensated by writing a column
about the game later in the week, she
said.
Bierbower, who retired eight years
ago after spending 33 years in public
relations at Washington State Uni
versity in Pullman, Wash., said she
was never bitter about being kept
from the press box. Most women today
would be sorry to hear this attitude,
she said.
“At that time I don’t think I fought
it or anything,” she said. “I wasn’t a
bit unhappy. It didn’t bother me at
all.”
‘ ‘ I knew most of the people (in the
press box) and they were nice about
it. It didn’t phase me. I got a good seat
at the game and I wrote about it after
wards. I just had a lot of fun.”
Bierbower, who stepped into the
DN job after another editor quit, did
have a run-in with the sports editor at
the University of Califomia-Berkeley.
When the editor (she couldn’t recall
his name) got wind of her position he
wrote a “scathing” column about it,
she said.
Bierbower countered with a col
umn of her own.
“His was pretty bad,” she said.
“Mine was snottier still.”
Not long after her reprisal, she
said, the two resorted to exchanging
Christmas cards and he wrote a letter
telling her he was “just kidding.”
As a form of reconciliation, he got
Bierbower a one-time position with
the San Francisco Chronicle to cover
the 1941 Rose Bowl between Ne
braska and Stanford — from the press
box.
He never went to the game him
self. She said she did not personally
meet him until the 1960s. Bierbower
graduated in the fall of 1940 and was
unemployed, making it easier to find
time to cover the Huskcrs’ 21-13 loss
to Stanford.
“I really appreciated him giving
me that chance,” she said.
Her first job was with the Lincoln
Chamber of Commerce before see
sawing between the Lincoln Journal
and Omaha World-Herald as a sports
reporter from 1952 to 1954. She took
the position at Washington State in
1957.
Being a sports editor in college
helped her land a job at Washington
State, she said.
“They thought that was really
something and that’s why they hired
me,’’ she said.
Bierbower, a sports fan at heart,
said sports reporting lost its zeal after
graduation. She likes to cheer, she
said, something reporters can’t do at
sporting events.
She said sports reporters have to
work loo hard before, during and af
ter.
“I just decided that’s not for me,’ ’
she said. “Sports, to me, has got to be
fun. It was fun as a kid, but when it
came to a career I wanted to do some
thing else.’’
“Besides, it’s so hard for me to
keep my mouth shut. When I go to a
game I get mad a lot of times. You
have to live under too many con
straints when you write sports.”
Washington State defeated Ne
braska 19-10 at Memorial Stadium in
1977. Bierbower attended and rooted
for the Cougars during the game, but
afterwards she had a change of heart,
she said.
‘‘When I saw how devastated the
crowd was as they left the game, I
nearly cried myself,” she said. ‘‘They
were so dejected.”
Bierbower did finally sec a game
from the Nebraska press box, but only
as an observer. In 1982, while visiting
her sister, she wanted to attend the
Nebraska-Iowagamebutcouldn’tgct
a ticket. However, Don Bryant, Ne
braska sports information director,
got her a media pass to the press box.
She said her and Bryant were
‘‘friendly rivals” when she wrote for
the Lincoln Journal, and he worked at
the Lincoln Star.
‘‘That was so nice of Don Bryant
to let me go to that game,” she said.
‘‘I couldn’t thank him enough.”
UNL golfers hope
for stronger season
By David Moyer
Staff Reporter
Nebraska women’s golf coach
Robin Scherer said she saw the mak
ings of a belter team in her squad,
which finished fifth in the Big Eight,
ranked 32nd nationally.
“If we played up to our potential,
we were a top-20 team, but at other
limes we weren’t quite there,” Sch
erer said. “I’mextremely happy with
the way they played overall, though. ’ ’
Two Huskcrs, Ann Guibcrson and
-4 4 —
I would really like to
make it into the top
15 next season. . .
Scherer
NU women’s golf coach
-f f -
Joanne Brooks, earned top-100 rank
ings this season. Guibcrson, a junior
from Monument, Colo., finished the
year ranked 79th.
Brooks, a sophomore from Tau
ranga, New Zealand, ended the sea
son 28th, with a chance to qualify for
the NCAA tournament. The only
woman who could possibly beat her
out for the last regional spot is ranked
34th, Brooks said - so her chances
look good.
Brooks said her problems came in
her short game, mainly putting. She
will try to work out those kinks this
summer.
“I would really like to make it into
the top 15 next season, but that will
take a lot of hard work practicing,”
she said.
As the women swing into the fall
season, they hope to look 4 ‘as good as
if not better than this year,” Scherer
said. With Brooks and Guibcrson
leading the returnees and one or two
recruits coming in, Scherer said the
Huskcrs hope to improve on their
national ranking, and get a chance to
“putt” themselves atop the Big Eight.
AS SchcbetuDaHy Nebraskan
University of Nebraska-Lincoin student Geri Bush massages the leg of marathoner Terry
Streamer on Sunday.
Morning run
in marathon
is math break
By Chris Hopfensperger
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska Lin
coln professors Roger and Sylvia
Wiegand spent Sunday morn
ing running the streets of Lin
coln.
The husband-wife combina
tion competed in this year’s 13th
annual Lincoln Marathon. They
are professors in UNL’s mathe
matics and statistics department.
Sylvia, who competed in her
11th Lincoln Marathon, finished
the marathon in just over three
hours and 40 minutes. Roger,
who has competed in more than
200 road events since starting
18 years ago, ran the 13-mile
half-marathon, finishing in
1:37.53.
“I’m pretty pleased,” Sylvia
said. “I’ve run in all but two of
these (Lincoln Marathons), and
I hope that if I were in good
shape I might have been faster,
but I know that I ’ m not. For
the shape I’m in, this is good.”
Roger said time constraints
limited his training for the run.
“It’s about 20 minutes slower
than I used to be able to run it,
but hey, wc all get older,” he
said. “These days I’m lucky to
get in 30 miles a week, but I’ve
been training enough that I
thought I could handle ^with
out too much pain and I'm trying
to lose some weight.
“I thought if I could run this
ata 7:30(per mile) pace it might
inspire me to take off 115 pounds.
I need something,” he said.
ihe desire to control his
weight is one reason he took up
distance running, he said.
Wolforth disappointed with teams early exit in tourney
By Darran Fowler
Senior Editor
The Nebraska softball team never
got out of the starting gate at the Big
Eight tournament in Oklahoma City
this weekend.
It was two-and-oul as the No. 2
seed Comhuskers lost to Oklahoma
State 4-2 Friday in the opening round
and were eliminated by No. 1 seed
Kansas 2-0 Saturday afternoon in the
loser’s bracket. Kansas lost a first
round game to Missouri.
The early exit means the Huskcrs
blew a potential at-large bid into the
NCAA post-season tournament.
Husker coach Ron Wolforth said
the 31-19 Huskers needed to finish
second 10 have any chance of getting
a bid. An automatic bid is extended to
the tournament champion.
‘‘I don’t think it’s even a possibil
ity now,” Wolforth said.
The fourth-year coach said Satur
day night that he probably was more
disappointed with the outcome than
the players. He said they were dc
joctcd immediately following the game
with Kansas, but regrouped quickly
after that.
He said he was glad to sec the
players bounce back and forget about
the losses, hut added “maybe they
■didn’t take it serious enough.’’
“It would have taken him longer
to get over the losses if he were a
player,’’ Wolforth said.
“Everybody wants to win, but it
comes down to needing to win,” he
said.
Not that the Huskcrs weren’t close
to winning.
“We had Oklahoma State on the
ropes and we didn’t take advantage of
it, he said.
Nebraska led Oklahoma Slate 2-1
in the sixth inning, but mistakes helped
the Cowgirls to come back.
“We didn’t take care ol the ball,”
Wolforth said. “We made a couple
bad pitches, some wrong decisions on
defense and that’s all she wrote.
We actually were seven outs from
beating them but 1 guess that’s why
we play 21 (outs).’’
Stephanie Skcgas pitched the loss,
finishing the season with a 21-6 rec
ord. Marie Bowie, 10-12, gave up a
two-out, bascs-loadcd single in the
top of the seventh inning against
Kansas.
Wolforth said Bowie was ahead
on the count-no balls, two strikes
but delivered a “flat” pilch dial scored
Kansas’ two runs.
“Wc didn’t play poorly,” he said.
“Wc just didn’t play well enough to
win either one of them.”
Production from the third through
sixth batters would have helped in
both games, he said. Those bailers
went hitlcss in the tournament.
“When you do that you stand a
chance of losing and we did,” Wolforth
said.
He added that this season the
Huskcrs lacked the competitiveness
and intensity to be more successful.
“As I look back 1 did everything I
could to cultivate that in them and it
just wasn’t possible to bring it out or
1 just didn’t push the right buttons.”
