Scott Maurer/DN
csu
Continued from Page 8
“(The Rams) average something
like 250 pounds across the front line,
Mitchell said. “We should be able to
run the ball well.”
Should Nebraska pass, Mitchell
said, the Husker receivers will run
into an experienced backfield.
“They have a fairly strong secon
dary,” Mitchell said. “They’ve de
fended the pass well in their first two
games.”
The Rams gave up 84 yards pass
ing last week.
Regardless, Mitchell said, the
Huskers are concentrating solely on
their offensive production. The Husk
ers gained 787 total yards against
Utah State, accounting for an NCAA
record 44 first downs.
“There’s a lot of room for im
provement,” Mitchell said. “We just
ran over (Utah S late) .right over them.
“We didn’t have to be smooth.”
But the Huskers will have to guard
against overlooking Colorado State
for their Sept. 21 match-up with fourth
ranked Washington.
“Thai’s a big concern on the play
ers’ and coaches’ minds— not look
ing ahead,” Mitchell said. “But that’s
going to be a game.
“I sure won’t miss it.”
Much is bad, but. . .
Cosell forgot about Connors
_Big-time sports in America stink.
I recently heard these words ut
tered from a man who used to repre
sent everything there was to represent
about sports—the good, the*bad (and
most would say ugly) — Howard
Cosell.
Like him or not, when I was grow
ing up he was the essence of the word
“sportscaster.” Now he’s saying the
topic that he built his career around
slinks.
Most people would say, “Oh, that’s
just a bitter old man running off at the
mouth.”
But is it?
Looking at sports headlines lately
I have to say Howard may have a
point. Some days it’s hard to tell the
difference between a sports page and
a police report.
S Scott
Stempson
Howard also mentioned that it has
become so important for college pro
grams to win, they’ll stop at nothing
to do so.
A perfect example of this is the
football program at Oklahoma. Ev
eryone has heard about the rapes,
shootings and drugs, but after reading
Barry Switzer’s book “Bootlegger’s
Boy,” I was shocked to hear of all the
things that went on during Switzer’s
reign at this “winning program.”
The tolerance of programs as long
as they’re winning is one of the big
gest problems as I see it. As Switzer
said, he was told by the Oklahoma
president that as long as he wins a
national championship, his job was
safe even if he was “caught smoking
dope.”
That stinks.
Howard said another problem is
the greed of athletes. You don’t have
to look far to see that. Earlier this
year, when the baseball negotiations
were in full swing, we watched as
players were no longer satisfied with
a measly $2 or $3 million a year, but
had to have $5 or $6 million.
. Of course Rickey Henderson held
out for $63 million or whatever it
was. I ’m sure the Oakland A’s wanted
to pay him something an All-Star like
Rickey deserves to keep him in Oakland
and bring the team another pennant.
(The last time I looked, Rickey was
batting around .260 and the A’s were
about nine games behind the Minne
sota Twins. Of course, Rickey proba
bly pulled his hamstring again, so
he’s got a good excuse.)
More recently, the NFL holdouts
were just more examples of the greed
in sports. Even our own Bruce Pick
ens, a guy who has never played a
down in the NFL, was offered $1
million to play for the Atlanta Fal
cons — and he lumed it down. This
happening when most college gradu
ates can’t find a job, letalone be in the
position to turn down an unbelievable
salary.
That’s greed, and that slinks.
Howard said there are no heroes in
sports anymore, no one to look up to.
After all my searching I was about to
throw my hands up and agree with
him. I was about to say, “Yes, How
ard, you’re right. Everything you said
— greed, win at all costs, and I didn ’t
even mention the drugs — all that is
right.” . . ..
i was aDoui iu give u an up auu
become an opera or ballet fan, but 2 1/
2 weeks ago, someone came along to
change my mind.
He reminded me and everyone who
watched him what’s good about sports
and ourselves. That someone was a
38-year, 358-day-old tennis player
by the name of James Scott Connors.
Just one week before his 39th birth
day, Jimmy began on his trek through
the U.S. Open, capturing the hearts of
everyone who watched him along the
way. Most of the “experts” didn’t
give him a chance to still be playing
on his birthday, but Jimbo’s never
been one to bsten to the experts.
Jimmy played on. He beat players
half his age (which was most of the
field). He came back from deficits
that most players would have given
up on. He played past his birthday and
into the semifinals, where he finally
was beaten by what many consider to
be a younger version of Jimmy—Jim
Courier.
Courier even admitted he tries to
emulate Connors’ style and “never
give-up attitude.” The mere fact that
Jimmy won or lost is not important,'
the important thing is the way he
played.
There is the old saying, “It’s not
whether you win or lose but how you
play the game.” It may sound trite,
but Jimmy exemplified those words.
He didn’t play for the money; he’s
got enough of that. He didn’t play for
the fame; the fame of Jimmy Connors
is long-since established. There were
no drugs involved (except maybe some
Nuprin after those five-setters)..
He played for one reason, the righi
reason. Simply put, Jimmy plays
because he loves the game. He once
said he would play until it killed him
and you believe him. Can you imag
ine Rickey playing baseball until i
killed him? Maybe if there was z
bonus in his contract for dying on the
field.
I think some of the younger tennis
players can take a lesson from Jimmy
as well. Not just his playing, but his
attitude. He showed that maybe im
age isn’t everything, Andre Agassi.
By the way, how far did you gel in the
tournament?
When he finally was beaten, he
didn’t blame an injury instead of giving
his opponent his due, although no
body could’ve blamed him if he had,
could they, Boris Becker?
I'll be tnc first to aamu, nowever,
that Jimmy is no angel. He had some
explosions on the court that were
embarrassing, and reminded us all of
the Jimmy of old. Not defending those
scenes in any way, I think those stem
from his passion and love for the
game and I honestly believe that
passion is so strong that sometimes he
loses his head and has no idep what
he’s saying out there.
That passion seems to be lost in
tennis, and all sports today. It seems
that as long as these athletes can make
a living, never mind that they might
be killing their sport in doing that,
they’re content I don’t think content
ment is a word that has ever entered
into Jimmy Connors’ vocabulary.
We can all lake a lesson from
those two weeks in Flushing Mead
ows, N.Y.
Draw your own conclusions, but
what I’ll take from Jimmy’s perform
ance is that no matter how many
people count you out, and no matter
how far down you arc, if you’re
competing for the right reasons, and
you try hard enough, no matter whal
the scoreboard reads, you’ll never
lose.
I think that’s what sports were
originally meant to be.
And, Howard, that doesn’t stink.
Stempson is a senior news-editorial ma
jor and Daily Nebraskan sports staff re
porter.
Runners start season
By Scott Stempson
Staff Reporter
It will be two youthful cross coun
try teams that travel to Crete tomor
row when the Nebraska men’s and
women ’ s teams compete in the Doane
Invitational.
Coach Jay Dirksen’s teams will
consist mainly of true and redshirt
freshmen. He said his more experi
enced runners will begin the season
next weekend at the Woody Greeno/
Nebraska Invitational at Pioneers Park.
“This will be a good opportunity
to let the younger runners have a
chance to get into the season,” Dirksen
said. “These younger people are going
to really help us in the next year or
two.”
The women’s team will consist of
freshmen Kris Ellenbecker, Stepha
nie Quandt, Michele Schaefer, Kerry
Spires and Kirsten Walz. Sophomore
Julieanne Campbell also will make
the trip, as well as junior Sylvia Veit,
who has been sick.
“Sylvia is the most experienced
lir
runner we have going on this trip,”
Dirksen said. “We thought this would
be a good chance to get back into
shape after being sick.”
The men will field freshmen Rcnier
Henning, Brian Roth, Erik Skaden
and Jeremy Skinner. Juniors Steve
Coulter and Frank Lee also will
compete.
Dirksen said he thinks the compe
tition will be good for this meet. The
Nebraska men will compete against
Concordia, Creighton, Fort Hays State,
Hastings College, Nebraska Wesleyan,
Northwest Missouri State and host
Doane.
The women’s competition will
include those teams as well as Ne
braska at Kearney and Nebraska at
Omaha.
The women’s 5,000 meter race
will start at 10:30 a.m. and the men’s
8,000 meters will begin immediately
following the women’s race.
Dirksen said he didn’t want to
underplay the importance of this meet.
“Our ultimate goal is the Big Eight,”
he said. “But all the meets we com
pete in are important.”
.i)
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GOOD LUCK!
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• Have Lunch with Misty's before the
and ride with us to the game for $1.50
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