Football player hopes dream comes true this weekend
• Michelle Pauknan/DN
Ex-Nebraska football player Wilhite with daughter Kianna.
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Join us and I cam how to relax as you prepare for final exams on Monday, Aril 26th
from 2:00 - 4:00 at the Student Union. (Room wilt be posted.)
For more information, call Counseling & Psychological Services at 472-7450.
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Children grow up with big
dreams for themselves. . . to be a
pop star, model or doctor. Or even
to become a professional NFL
player.
This was one of former Nebraska
defensive back Kenny Wilhite’s
dreams.
When Wilhite wasin junior high,
he hung around a “clique” of four
or five kids in his neighborhood.
He said they a lways got into trouble.
It was only u ntil his last encoun
ter, when Wilhite and his friends
were pulled over by police, who
searched theircarand foundagun,
that Wilhite knew he had to change
his life around.
“We were arrested for carrying a
concealed weapon and they took
us to jail," Wilhite said.
“They (Wilhite’s parents) gave
me the worst butt-kicking that I
ever experienced.”
Wilhite played running back,
receiver, defensive back and quar
terback while in high school. As a
sophomore he won the starting job
as quarterback on the varsity squad.
Although that year his school
had a losi ng season, it was also one
of Wilhite’s most memorable when
his school played its last game in
the St. Louis Cardinals’ Busch Sta
dium.
“We were down by four points,
it was our ball with five seconds on
the clock, and we were on our own
45-yard line,” Wilhite said.
At a last-second cry, Wilhite said
his coach called for him to throw a
Hail Mary pass.
“I was going to throw it, but I
couldn’t find anyone open,” he
said.
So, Wilhite’s last alternative was
to run. ,
“I got hit at the line of scrim
mage," he said. “And as I got hit, I
can recall other players on the team
telling me that Coach turned his
back and said, ‘Ah shit!”’
Wilhite said he managed to keep
hisbalance, elude seven more play
ers and make it to the 5-yard line.
“The last player on the team hit
me, and I dove into the end zone
for the winning score — I can
remember the whole team piling
on me in the end zone," he said.
When he finally dug his way out
from under his teammates, Wilhite
said, his coach told him to look at
the instant replay board, where
they replayed his touchdown run
seven more times.
That year Wilhite was named to
the first team all-conference, fol
lowed by a senior season being
again named to the first team all
conference, making all-state and
being named player of the year.
After graduating, Wilhite at
tended Dodge City Junior College
in Kansas, where he received an
Associate of Arts degree.
While at Dodge City, Wilhite
played quarterback, was player of
the year in the conference and was
voted unanimously first team All
American quarterback.
Wilhite said he decided to at
tend Nebraska in 1990
because of the way Coach Tom
Osborne and Assistant Coach Ron
Brown presented themselves to him.
Wilhite said Brown and Osborne
flew to Dodge City to visit with him,
and upon leaving there, flew to St.
Louis to visit with his parents.
“That really impressed me,”
Wilhite said. And the following
Monday he signed a letter of intent
to attend Nebraska.
Nebraska recruited Wilhite as a
receiver, but after his first year, he
said that the coaches wanted him to
play defensive back.
“I wasn’t willing to do that at
first, because I was afraid of not
being able to be as good of a d-back
as I would have as a receiver," he
said.
The first scrimmage game that
year as a defensive back, Wilhite
caught an interception. From that
point on, he said, he felt that he
would do a good job at his new
position.
That season Wilhite’s career was
igniting as he went on to intercept
six passes in eight games. But on
his sixth interception, Wilhite lore
his ACL ligament in his left knee
and was out for the rest of the
season.
f “I was very depressed," Wilhite
said. “I felt that my football career
See WILHITE on 10
Writer answers women’s questions
Why men love sports is revealed
One constant regarding men is
Chat most of them love sports, and
one constant regarding women is
that many of them don’t under
stand why.
I empathize with those women.
It’s not easy to watch men sit around
the television sets with their hands
buried in their pants', cursing out
the Chicago Cubs for losing an
other game, when they could be
doing something else with their
women!
And so, out of the kindness of
my heart, I’ll answer questions
women have been aski ng each other
for years. This is not meant to
excuse what “Real Men* do; it
shouldn’t have to be excused. But
it will explain us.
QUESTION 1: Why do men like
sports?
It’s hard to understand why so
many men like to run around a field
chasing a ball or get on a field or a
mat and try to kill each other.
But I have a theory. It’s not an
educated one, because I know
nothing about anthropology, but it
somehow makes sense to me.
Fifty thousand years ago, men
were apes. (In fact, some women I
know say men are still apes.) They
didn’t have technology, clothing,
or other essential parts of our present
society.
Neither did men have grocery
stores — if a Cro-Magnon was in
the mood for a good 12-ounce
steak, he had to kill the deer him
self. Naturally, he had no guns
either, so he had to tackle the deer
and bash his brains in or some
thing
Man also had to hunt, chase, and
tackle his women. This sounds
hopelessly sexist, but this was50,000
B.C. There was no NOW, Gloria
Steinem or Anita Hill. '
Mother Nature gave the Cro
Magnon the testosterone and the
desire to tackle and kill the thing.
But being the gradual being she is,
she didn’t let the desire to tackle
something expire in humans when
they became civilized.
Therefore, men still want to tackle
and kill something.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a
place to hunt down and tackle a
deer. Mother Nature, though not
easing our desires, used evolution
to turn our bodies into useless
things whose best everyday use is
to push buttons on machines.
What better a thing to tackle and
kill than another human? And so, 1
people invented sports like boxihg *
and wrestling where humanscould
beat and tackle each other to their
hearts’ content.
Of course, some sports were
made more civilized. In ancient
Rome, wrestlers could do anything
to their opponents except to grab
the opponents’, um, pizzles. Now,
unless one watches the WWF, one
won’t sec the same kind of thing.
Other sports, on the other hand,
were made more rough. A few
people who were dissatisfied with
the potential bloodsheds of rugby
and soccer invented football, which
has since, admittedly, become more
benign with the plastic armor a
player must wear.
This is not to say, however, that
all sports are meant solely for kill
ing each other. Baseball, for in
stance, is more of a skilled sport,
although hitting a baseball with
enough force to make a man’s head
explode can be interpreted as a
very violent thing.
Basketball is also considered by
some to be relatively nonviolent,
although referees often have to
remind Charles Barkley of that fact.
See CAVEMAN on 13
