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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1996)
TUESDAY WEATHER: Today - Mostly sunny & warm. Southwest wind 10 to 20 mph. Tonight -Partly cloudy. COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 149 Low in the mid 40's. ■ ■ - April 23, 1996 Beiiinger laid to rest in Kansas Coaches talk of strong faith, good character By Matthew Waite Senior Editor GOODLAND, Kan. — In the four years Turner Gill coached Brook Berringer, he asked him to do many things. At Berringer’s funeral Monday, Gill made one more request — save him a spot in Heaven. “I love you brother,” Gill said, weeping. “I will miss you until the time that we meet again.” More than 1,900 people filled the Max L. Jones Fieldhouse in this small western Kansas town for the double funeral service for Berringer andTobey Lake. Both died Thursday in a plane crash near Lincoln. Berringer and Lake, both licensed pilots, had been out for a pleasure flight in a Piper Cub when the small plane went down. Federal in vestigators are now determining a cause of the crash. After the funeral, private airplanes from the area flew the missing-man formation over the cemetery. The formation, where four planes fly in a row and one splits off from the group, is an honor for downed pilots. Berringer and Lake both grew up in this northwest Kansas town of about 5,000. More than half of the crowd at the fieldhouse trav eled to the rural cemetery where Berringer and Lake were buried. During the three-hour service, the families of both men held each other and wept. Through sniffles, a few laughs could be heard when a tribute video showed Berringer reading Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” to a group of school children. Speaker after speaker told of Berringer and Lake’s good character, their love of life and love of the outdoors. Gill, the NU quarterbacks coach, read a let ter he wrote to Berringer after his death. He praised Berringer for his abilities and for his character. “Not only are you one of the most-talented quarterbacks at Nebraska, you are the very defi nition of a team player,” Gill said. “I am so proud to have coached you. I am so proud to have known you.” More than 50 current and former players and coaches from the Nebraska football team made the trip to Goodland. Coach Tom Osborne praised Berringer for his character and his faith. “This was a difficult assignment for me,” Osborne said. “I loved Brook. I loved the type of person he was.” Osborne said when he and Berringer talked, the topic often was fishing. “Sometimes foot ball didn’t get as much attention as it should have,” the coach said. Osborne said Berringer was one of the best people he had coached of the about 2,000 play ers he has seen at Nebraska. Osborne — him See FUNERAL on 3 Matt Miiler/DN The family of Tobey Lake looks on during funeral services Monday for Lake and Brook Berringer in Goodland, Kan. Goodland hushed as community mourns mm mm ..■ ■>■ -. ___ «TT- ...«« « Li^LI.. J 1_t_l M oy mannew wane Senior Editor GOODLAND, Kan.—For a Monday morn ing, it is quiet here. Only a few cars dot the streets of this north west Kansas town of 5,000. The only people outside are police officers setting up barricades near the Max L. Jones Fieldhouse. The breakfast crowd at Ray’s Restaurant near Main Street isn’t talking. The regulars are quiet. Chet Ross, a retired Air Force chaplain, walks •into Ray’s around 8:30 a.m., tells the waitress behind the counter “no doughnut today” and sits down in one of the green booths. He knows the waitress, and she knows his order before he says it. She leaves, and Ross is quiet. The former chaplain led a candlelight vigil Friday night on a football field. Goodland lost two of its own Thursday. Brook Berringer, the former NU quarterback, and Tobey Lake, also a Goodland native, were killed when the Piper Cub plane they were fly ing crashed near Lincoln. The community was shocked, Ross said. “Community was very important to both. ” MIKE QUILLING Goodland teacher “They were two young athletes that were very highly respected,” he said. “Grief is always a shock.” Grief leads to questions of why. “That’s the question you can always ask but never answer,” said Ross, who has lived in Goodland for most of the last 50 years. Berringer was a hero to many in Goodland, Ross said, and Lake was a hard-working young citizen. “While one has received a little more fame than the other, they were both tremendous young men,” he said. As Ross spoke, Bob Craven entered Ray’s and sat down. Craven, who owned an excava tion company before retirement, used to em ploy Lake. nc waa a inguiy ucpciiuauic pcisuu, a ven said. “He had good morals. His social be havior was extra perfect.” Ross said Lake was a clean-cut kid. “I never heard him use an incorrect, you’d say bad, curse word,” Ross said, adding that Lice’s feat was a “novelty these days.” Even before people had begun to gather for Monday’s funeral, Ross said he knew it was going to be a big one. He said the fact that the services were being held in the Max L. Jones Fieldhouse showed the community’s respect and affection for Berringer and Lake. “Usually our churches are large enough for our funerals,” he said. Guiding traffic outside the fieldhouse before the funeral, Mike Quilling, a reserve officer and Goodland band teacher, said the size of the fu neral didn’t surprise him.. “Community was very important to both,” he said, directing a large white Cadillac into a stall. Berringer was a hometown hero, an inspira tion to schoolchildren here, Quilling said. See GOODLAND on 3 Students protest Playboy visit By Tea Taylor Senior Reporter Overshadowed by a larger, happier group of UNL students celebrating Earth Day, only four students gathered Monday near Broyhill Fountain to pro test Playboy magazine’s two-day visit to Lincoln. Holding signs reading“Playboy Off our Campus,” and “Playboy Not Wel come On Our Campus” the small group said the university’s acceptance of the magazine’s presence was “frus trating.” “They are offering up students like some sort of sacrificial lamb,” said Nancy Berg, the protest’s organizer. “It’s like, here — this is what you are going to be valued on.” Berg, a freshman secondary music education major, said the magazine sent a message to females that “ulti mately, what’s more important is how I look.” Freshman art major Amy Wozny said the fact that many UNL students were looking forward to the October issue was “unfortunate.” “I just thought we were getting past that whole exploitation of women thing,” she said. Wozny said also having UNL women appear in Playboy could have negative impacts down the line. “That could lead to other things happening on campus like date rape,” she said. Another area of concern for the pro testers was the magazine’s advertise ments, which have appeared in the Daily Nebraskan. Hans Yungc, a sophomore photog raphy major, said he was disappointed that the Daily Nebraskan ran the ad for Playboy. “But it’s not fair to protest the DN entirely,” he said. “I’m a student here, and I pay my tuition, and my bills and I shouldn’t have to, all of a sudden, open the DN and see that Playboy is coming to campus. See PLAYBOY on 8 Earth Day celebrates continued improvements By Cherie Krueger Staff Reporter Boca burgers, hemp products and mountain bikes were abundant on Broyhill Plaza on Monday as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln celebrated Earth Day. Ecology Now and the Environ mental Resource Center put to gether a day filled with speakers, booths and a lot of hope for the fu ture of the planet. Representatives of the various organizations were pleased with the student turnout, despite the chilly weather. ' “It went very well,” said Carol Klein, a volunteer with the Environ- * mental Resource Center. “We al ways hope for more, but with this weather we can’t expect that much.” See EARTH DAY on 6