Chi Phi
Congratulations Seniors!
Brett Young
Brian Prauner
Scott Henderson
Mark Mueller
And a special thanks to Dave Stanley - Grand Omicron
Softball games take on
new family meaning
AgMen
Congratulations to our '94-'95 Seniors.
Thank you for your commitment and pride
to our house. ^
Randy Bathke
Brian Classen
Brandon Hamer
Troy Hansen
Mike Jacobsen
Craig Long
Grant Miller
Tom Stumbo
1
Congratulations
Seniors.
Bill Lechtenbere
Will Oltmans
Daryl Bader
Clayton Glause
Clint Fuchs
Tad Frahm
Mike Schram
Greg Hansen
Mike McFarland
Nick Wilhelm
Jeff Behuslasky
Scott Ford
Jeff Halverson
The Brothers of Alpha Gamma Rho wish the best of luck to
our departing seniors.
This column, originally published on April
18, placed first in the Daily Nebraksan
Publications Board sports column category.
Bob Offenbacker spent last Friday night
at home and appreciated life while his
daughter, Amy, was away playing softball.
But this wasn’t any normal Friday night
for the Offenbackers. The date was April
14, and it marked the one-year anniversary
of a day both he and Amy would rather
forget.
On April 14, 1994,42-year-old Bob
Offenbacker stood at the NU Softball
Complex during a rain delay as Amy was
playing for the Nebraska softball team.
Then Bob suffered a heart attack during
that fourth-inning play stoppage against
Missouri-Kansas City.
“I remember falling over,” Bob said.
“Then I told Amy to keep playing ball
before I went in the ambulance and not
worry about me. The next thing I remem
ber, I woke up the next morning after
having six-vessel bypass surgery.”
Before the heart attack, Bob was
enjoying the thing he loved most in life,
watching one of his daughters play
softball.
Amy went 3 for 6 with 2 RBIs in a
doubleheader sweep, but that wasn’t
important that day.
Amy’s focus turned to her father and
whether he would recover. Bob’s focus
turned to Amy and when she would return
to playing softball.
Amy missed four games, and she heard
about it from her dad.
“I got after her about it,” Bob said. “I
wondered why she was not with the team,
and I gave he/ the dickens in the hospital.”
Amy finished the season out, and that
seemed to help her dad until he suffered
another heart attack May 26.
Then a new obstacle entered the lives of
the Offenbackers.
On June 11, Bob got the news that he
was going to undergo a heart transplant
after he heard that a heart was available
from someone in West Virginia.
This time both Bob and Amy agreed it
was good for her to leave the softball
diamond again.
She and her sister were playing softball
in Kansas City, Mo., and came home
immediately to be with their dad as he
prepared to undergo the transplant.
Bob had one final thing to overcome. He
Trevor Parks
wanted to return to where he suffered his
heart attack and put that first memory
behind him.
“It was quite an experience to come
back,” Bob said. “It took two or three trips
to go back to where it happened.
“The first time back all sorts of stuff
went through my mind, and then the
memories of it hit me and it was a weird
situation.”
That memory still lingers on for Amy,
who goes by the NU Softball Complex
every day.
“There’s not a day that goes by when I
don’t think about what happened to him
and where it happened,” Amy said. “As
many times as I’m out there, I don’t think
there’s one time I don’t walk over by that
foul-line fence and think about it.”
Now, according to Amy, a year later her
dad is almost as healthy as she is.
And things couldn’t be better.
The Cornhuskers, 31-15, are having one
of their best seasons in years, and that is
the best medicine for Bob.
He is used to seeing Amy in Nebraska
Class A State Championships, and now he
is seeing her trying for a Big Eight
Championship.
This weekend Bob will be there when
Amy and Nebraska take on Iowa State.
He has been a fixture at Amy’s softball
games for the last 10 years, but now his
appearance is something special.
Every time Amy steps on the field, she
knows she is not playing for herself.
“Each time I play, it feels like I’m
playing for him.”
Amy Offenbacker spent Friday playing
softball at Northern Iowa, and Bob
Offenbacker wondered how she was doing.
And Bob and Amy wouldn’t want it any
other way.
Parks is a junior news-editorial major and a
Daily Nebraskan staff reporter and sports
columnist.
Congratulations to our
graduating seniors:
Travis Broderson
Dave Chase
Greg Koch
Craig Siders
Thank you for the memories, leadership, and
dedicated service. We wish you well as you travel
along life's pathways. ACcIClcl