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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1996)
J NU Sports seasons filled with success, marred by tragedy By Mitch Sherman Senior Editor Championships, heartbreak, un precedented accomplishments, team work, intensity, disappointment and world-class performances on the play ing fields. Turmoil and tragedy off it. The last nine months of Comhusker athletics have been the best of times, and they have been the worst of times. We’ve seen perhaps the greatest runner ever to set foot on the turf of Memorial Stadium in a Comhusker uniform nearly ruin his future with one ill-advised decision. We’ve seen that same man resurrect his life, and with the backing of his coach and team mates. lead his team to a national championship. We’ve watched a volleyball team — motivated by the heartbreak and driven to reach the top — achieve greatness and refuse to die because of three battle-tested seniors’ leadership. We’ve stood on the sidelines and watched an embattled men’s basket ball team and its heavily criticized coach ripped apart at midseason, only to rebound and prove everyone wrong by finishing the season with five straight wins and an NIT champion ship. We’ve witnessed a women’s bas ketball team, powered by a combina tion of proven veterans and young tal ent, reach its goal of the NCAA Tour nament before falling in the first round to Colorado State. We’ve seen a wrestling team, the latest version of Tim Neumann’s powerhouse under construction, fal ter at the NCAA Championships. We’ve seen the Husker track squads claim their spots among the nation’s elite, and a swimming program on the upswing as it prepares for the chal lenging waters of the Big 12 Confer ence. Husker soccer, in its second year, has moved forward and shown signs of becoming a national power before the end its first decade. A Nebraska softball team, constantly improving, year by year, has moved another step forward this season; and the Husker baseball team has struggled to recover from the loss of 1995’s key players. Nebraska tennis has been a disap pointment; the women’s golf-team showcased its first-ever conference champion and their male counteiparts have searched for consistency in an up-and-down year. For the first time in 18 years, Francis Allen did not find a way to guide his men’s gymnastics team, plagued by injuries this season, to the NCAA Championships. But the women’s team earned its second straight trip to the championships af ter a record-setting year that ended in “On the surface, the year in Nebraska sports appears much like many others. But under close inspection, these last feiv months have been filled with events never before seen or experienced in Lincoln. ” the disappointment of failing to qualify for the Super Six. In the early morning of Sept. 10, Lawrence Phillips, a junior I-back on the football team, entered the apart ment of a teammate and assaulted Kate McEwen, a member of the women’s basketball and Phillips’ ex girlfriend. Later that same afternoon — less than 24 hours after running for 206 yards against Michigan State and jumping to the forefront of the Heisman Trophy race — Phillips was kicked off the Nebraska football team. “We will do everything we can to help him get his life back together,” Coach Tom Osborne said. “But he is dismissed from the football team, ef fective immediately.” Phillips’ dismissal was the latest in a long line of black eyes suffered by the program on the national media front. Earlier in the fall, questions arose surrounding Phillips’ encounter with professional agents, and in an unrelated debate, Osborne was ques tioned nationally for imposing a one day ban of Daily Nebraskan reporters from practice after the paper published two editorial cartoons questioning the coach’s disciplinary tactics. Riley Washington, a reserve wingback was arrested over the sum mer and charged with attempted sec ond-degree murder. He spent 13 days in prison, returned to the football team and still awaits trial. Soon after Phillips was arrested and pleaded no contest, the national me dia invaded the UNL campus and the city. Sports Illustrated criticized Osborne for the way in which he handled his law-troubled players. CBS ran a 48 Hours telecast devoted to ath letes and violence, focusing almost solely on Nebraska. Phillips spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest on Oct. 19. “I could have just left,” he told an Omaha radio talk-show host. “I didn’t do that. I stayed here. I’m going to school. I’m going to do what’s right.” Five days later, the I-back returned to the practice field, but he did not play in Nebraska’s Oct. 28 game at No. 8 Colorado — which, by the way, the second-ranked Huskers won 44-21, their 21 st straight victory and eighth win of the season. With 10:13 to play in the first quar-As ter of the Iowa State game a week later, , Phillips carried the ball for the first time in more than a year at Memorial Stadium. It was a two-yard gain. For the day, he ran 12 times for 68 yards, but showed flashes of the punishing back who ran over, through and around Oklahoma State and Michigan State earlier in the season for 359 yards and seven touchdowns. “If you’re a great running back,” Husker assistant coach Frank Solich said before Phillips’ return, “you don’t lose your ability because you have not been out there.” The return of the star I-back ignited another uproar among the national media. On Oct. 31, CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg visited Osborne’s weekly press conference in the South Stadium’s N-Club Lounge. “If one of your players had roughed up a member of your family,” Goldberg asked Osborne, “and had dragged her down a flight of stairs, would you have reinstated that player on the team?” Osborne did not answer, but he did cut his press conference short 20 min utes before its scheduled end. Goldberg, who delivered a scathing report on the CBS Evening News three days later, defended the legitimacy of his question and blasted the local me dia for failing to press Osborne ear lier. “It’s an obsession, winning,” he 5, See SPORTS on 7 . i COTTONWOOD CLUB ATTENTION STUDENTS! 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Planned Parenthood of Lincoln For an appointment call: 441-3300 - 2246 "O" Street 441-3333 - 3705 South Street Leaving campus for the summer? Take a Summer Reading Course with you. > Summer Reading Courses Read and Succeed in 1996 There are 22 courses available. One political science course is especially relevant to Summer 1996: “Presidential Campaigns and Elections.” Analyze the day-to-day political events from a new perspective. Registration period ends May 24. Call 472-1392 for more information. U University of Nebraska Lincoln Division of Continuing Studies Evening Programs and Ufeiong Learning Services UNL is a nondiscriminatory institution.