Visitors impressed with big-time athletic tour
My brother and I recently took two uncles
and two cousins on a tour of the University of
— Nebraska-Lincoln.
My relatives wanted to see a big-time school
with big-time stuff.
And since they’re from New York, Virginia
and Connecticut, they wanted to see things
' they rarely see—big-time football, rodeos and
pig-rustlers.
My cousin from Buffalo wanted to see a
rodeo. I told him he really didn’t want to see a
rodeo. He wanted to see real live pig rustlers. I
told him he really didn’t want to see real live
pig rustlers.
I tried to tell him he really didn’t want to see
spring football. He really wanted to see spring
football.
So off we jaunted to Memorial Stadium.
Filled with geeky Husker pride, my cousin
sported a corncob hat, orange flourescent shorts
and goofy socks and shoes. He looked like a
big-time Husker fan as we entered the stadium.
And even though he fit in with the khaki
clad coaches that were observing a pre-scrim
mage clinic, we decided not to take part.
With time to kill, I decided to show the
relatives ‘he campus. Being the professional
tour guide hat I am, I showed them the alpha
i Todd
* Cooper
bet sculpture in front of CBA, the spaceship
and that Mueller tower thing.
Sensing boredom from the troopers, I de
cided to show them all the real big-time stuff.
We took a shortcut to the Campus Recreation
Center and stopped in the football bam, a.k.a.
Cook Pavillion.
My uncle, shocked at the dimensions of the
bam, declared in disbelief:
“So this is big-time athletics.”
I didn’t have much to say about the bam. It
was big. It had turf. You get a heck of a shock
if you touch any metal stuff in there.
Oh, and it cost big-time bucks to build, I
said. Since the Huskers have made some sort of
bowl game every year since 1900 and they’ve
lost every one, they decided to build a bam so
they copld simulate bowl conditions.
And I told them the Huskers practice for
every bowl game in the bam. They turn up the
heat. They play tapes of fans really loud.
They still lose bowl games.
But that’s just part of big-time athletics, I
reasoned.
After trying to shock my dorky cousin as we
left the bam, (He was already upset because he
thought he might see pig rustlers and rodeo
clowns in the bam), we decided to go back to
the outdoor bam.
We went by the largest weight room in the
world.
Big-time athletics, big-time bucks, I said.
We went into the locker room where some
big brute lineman (who shall remain number
less and nameless) walked by. My cousin mocked
the big brute.
I told him he couldn’t mock a big brute
because big brutes are a part of big-time athlet
ics.
Turner Gill just happened to be walking out
at the time. My cousins murmured, “Was that
Turner Gill?” I said yep, and he was our last
big-time, big-play quarterback.
As we took our seats, I told my relatives that
it had been a long time since we saw big plays
from a quarterback like Gill.
I also made sure that they knew it would be
the only time we would be able to get a big
time seat at the 50-yard line of Memorial
Stadium.
I filled the big void that a spring scrimmage
can create by boasting about Nebraska’s big
time program for a while. I told my relatives
that, at the spring game the next week, 25,000
fans dressed exactly like my dorkily cladcousin
would watch an intrasquad scrimmage. And I
told them that 76,112 fans make Memorial
Stadium the third-largest populated area in the
state on Saturdays in the fail. And those fans
have for 175 straight games.
They got some big laughs out of that.
We watched the Huskers beat each other up
for a while. It was big-time excitement.
Between the big-time plays and the big
time hits, my uncle took a big-time nap.
Taking that as a hint, I decided we should
leave this big-time stuff behind us.
As we were leaving, Tony Farmer pulled
into the stadium in his lush, black 1985 BMW.
My uncle gazed in disbelief at the BMW:
“Now that’s big-time athletics.”
Cooper Is a freshman news-editorial major and a
Daily Nebraskan sports staff reporter.
-v
Defense
Continued from Page 7
Jones said he saw being thrust into
action as a redshirt freshman more as
opportunity than pressure. Outside
linebackers David White and Trev
Alberts are rehabilitating injuries and
were unable to oractice this spring.
And Jones said more experienced
players, like returning starter Travis
Hill, provide leadership.
“Travis Hill helps me out a lot,”
Jones said. “He’s the one I look up to
for advice and I try to pattern his
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technique.”
Hill, who had two sacks, said he
has tried to encourage the younger
players this spring.
“I really don’t see myself as being
a leader,” Hill said. “On the field I see
myself doing more motivating than
anything.
“This summer, I’m going to work
really hard and, hopefully, these
younger guys will see me working
really hard and will do the same,”
Despite catching two running backs
from Behind Saturday, Hill said he
needs to work on his speed.
“Right now, I run a 4.72 in the 40
and I’d like to improve that,” Hill
said.
But Hill said natural instinct takes
over when he tracks down stray run
ning backs. \'
“Thai’s football,” Hill said. “That’s
me out there playing football. I know
my technique, but I think I’m more of
a football player than a technician.”
Hill said that while his younger
teammates are competing for top
positions, one thing is missing.
“Unification,” Hill said. “We have
to unify. Right now in spring, there’s
a lot of competition — everybody’s
fighting for that travel spot because
we have some vacancies.
“But, we have the talent to fill
those vacancies.”
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Huskers seeded tittn ot six
Cuddeford: Big 8 win possible
By John Adkisson
Staff Reporter
Michelle Cuddeford’s games are
numbered.
Cuddeford, a senior second base
man for the Nebraska softball team, is
hoping to extend her collegiate career
by helping the Comhuskers win the
Big Eight Tournament this weekend
in Oklahoma City.
Nebraska has been rained out of
nine games this season, and for that
reason Cuddeford said her senior sea
son has flown by quickly.
“It seems like4 Where’d the season
go?”’ Cuddeford said. “But playing
my last college game hasn’t really
crossed my mind yet”
If Nebraska does not win the con
ference tournament, its season will be
finished. The 21-16 Huskers, fifth
seed in the six-team tourney, will
play Iowa State in a 3 p.m. first-round
game Friday at Hall of Fame Sta
dium.
A graduate of Lincoln High School,
Cuddeford spent two years at Kear
ney State before transferring to Ne
braska in 1989. She earned a spot in
the starting lineup and this year is one
of only two Nebraska seniors along
with pitcher Stephanie Skegas.
Cuddeford said she has felt no
pressure being in a leadership role.
“Stephanie and I, since we both
transferred, are differentkind of lead
ers,” she said. “But everybody on this
team is a leader in one way or an
other.”
This year, Cuddeford has estab
lished herself as a dominant presence
at the plate. As the No. 3 batter in the
Nebraska lineup, she is hitting .273
and leads the team in doubles with
six.
But the Huskers have struggled,
posting a 3-5 Big Eight record, their
worst conference mark since coach
Ron Wolforth took over five years
ago.
“In no way do I think our record
reflects our season,” Cuddeford said.
“We’ve been a different team in prac
tice than we have been in games.”
Despite Nebraska’s conference
woes, Cuddeford said theHuskers have
a good chance to win this weekend’s
tournament and receive an automatic
NCAA Tournament berth.
“You have to be confident,” she
said. ‘This whole team is going in
there with the attitude that we have as
good a chance to win as anybody.”
Injured fan forgives fling
CINCINNATI (AP)—The grade
school teacher injured by Rob Dibble’s
latest outburst is in a forgiving mood,
but there was no indication Tuesday
whether the National League would
be so accommodating.
The Cincinnati Reds reliever could
be punished by league president Bill
White for hurling a baseball into the
stands after a poor outing in S unday’s
4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
The ball hit first-grade teacher Meg
Porter on the elbow. The injury has
forced Porter, 27, to get medical treat
ment and miss two days of work.
Her lawyer said that Porter and her
husband expect compensation for the
bills and the missed work. But they
don’t hold a grudge.
“She has a medical bill and a couple
of days off work,” lawyer Don Moore
said. “I don’t think they have any
great animosity towards Rob Dibble.
I don’t think they ’re that type of people.
They’re nice people that just went to
a ballgame.”
Dibble’s fling Sunday came
moments after he completed his worst
performance of the season, giving up
five hits and two runs in the last two
innings. He got Ryne Sandberg ori a
called third strike to end the game,
received the baseball and congratula
tions from catcher Joe Oliver. As
teammates came on the field, Dibble
turned and heaved the ball into the
center field stands.
Strike the Gold lives up to lineage
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)—Cal! it
horse sense.
Trainer Nick Zito just knew he had
to keep a 2-year-old named Strike the
Gold, who was going to be sold away
from him.
“I don’t want to lose this horse,”
Zito told co-owner B. Giles Brophy
after being informed last summer the
colt was to be sold in January by
Calumet Farm, another owner.
At the time, the son of Alydar had
not even raced.
On Saturday, Strike the Gold will
start in the Kentucky Derby as a lead
ing contender based on his upset of
Fly So Free in the Blue Grass Stakes.
In September, Brophy and two
friends put together a package deal
with J.T. Lundy, then president of
Calumet, and bought Strike the Gold,
five yearling fillies and a yearling
colt
Two of the fillies are by Seattle
Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown cham
pion, and two are by Alydar. The
other is by Danzig out of the cham
pion race mare Davona Dale. The
yearling colt is by Alydar.
Strike the Gold got to the races on
Oct. 11 when he finished ninth in a
CHURCHILL OOWN& LOUISVILLE, KY
six-furlong maiden event at Belmont
Park. In his next start, he finished
fifth in a maiden race at Aqueduct,
thepi concluded his 2-year-old cam
paign with a victory. He won a maiden
race by 8 1/2 lengths at Aqueduct on
Nov. 15, the day Alydar died.
While Strike the Gold’s perform
ance did not strike up any public
enthusiasm, Zito thought he had a
Derby tyorse because of “the way he
was working, his sire and his breed
ing.
. * . .>
“He looked like his father." t
Alydar won several major stakes
in his career and became a top sire, »
but he is best remembered for finish- »
ing second to Affirmed in the 1978 >
Triple Crown races.
Strike the Gold finished third in a
seven-furlong allowance on Jan. 26 at 1
Gulfstream Park, then finished sec
ond in another allowance on Feb. 23
at Gulfstream — beaten 1 3/4 lengths 1
by Cahill Road, who won the Wood
Memorial but is out of the Derby with *
a leg injury.
On March 16, Strike the Gold, 1
who was eighth after three-quarters
of a mile, closed to finish second one
length behind Fly So Free in the Flor- K
ida Derby.
“The champ (2-year-old champion 1,
Fly So Free) reached back, but if he
keeps reaching back too many times >r
with this horse, sooner or litter we’ll
catch up to him,** Zito said at the time. s.
Strike the Gold caught and passed ;s
Fly So Free in the Blue Grass, beating
him by three lengths.
“He’s peaking just right," said Zito, .r,
whose Thirty Six Red finished ninth or
in last year’s Derby.