Devaneys donate
Husker memorabilia
By Rob Winans
Staff Writer
The University of Nebraska Ar
chives has received a significant addi
tion to their collections, courtesy of
one of the greatest figures in NU his
tory.
Bob Devaney,
former head coach
of the Nebraska
Comhuskerfootball
feteam, donated the
ibooks detailing the
|years of his coach
fing career to the ar
lchives.
g Devaney
3coached the foot
jball team to back
Sto-back national
^^thampionships in
1971 and 1972. He
was also a long-time athletic director
prior to his recent retirement.
Michele Fagan, an assistant pro
fessor and archivist for the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the scrap
books are a well-made and colorful
addition to the NU collection.
“They are handily gathered to
gether, making them useful for research
purposes,” she said.
The scrapbooks were originally put
together by friends of Devaney and
fans of Nebraska football. The books
were given to him after the completion
of each season that he was head coach
of the Comhuskers.
“Bob Devaney is one of the most
significant figures in the history of
Nebraska athletics,” Fagan said. “He
is often associated with the rise of
Nebraska football to what it is today.”
The Devaney scrapbooks docu
ment his entire career, including the
time he spent in Wyoming coaching
from 1960to 1961.
Other books detail Devaney’s time
atUNLfrom 1964 through 1975.
The Devaney family chose to keep
the 1972 national championship scrap
book.
Fagan said the scrapbooks consist
of numerous newspaper clippings with
various photographs, covering both
personal and game-by-game features
of each season.
Each one covers the entire
Comhusker season from the begin
ning of fall practice, through each game,
to die bowl game.
The scrapbooks record all awards
and recognition received by the
coaches and players for that particular
year, putting the history of Devaney’s
era into perspective.
The opening page of the 1967 book
shows a press release for a freshman
defensive lineman named Wayne
Meylan, who later became an All
American.
As the book continues, now-famil
iar names appear. Former All-Ameri
can linebacker Barry Alvarez, currently
the head football coach at the Univer
sity of Wisconsin, and Tom Osborne,
who was an assistant to Devaney at
the time, are sprinkled throughout the
portfolio.
Fagan said the contribution will
give the archives a valuable addition
to its sports collection and will boost
interest in the NU archives.
Since the press release for the col
lection, she said, several fans of Ne
braska football have been in to see the
collection.
“The addition of the Devaney
scrapbooks has created a greater aware
ness of our department as a whole,”
Fagan said.
She said the study of sports history
is of increasing interest to both profes
sors and archivists around the coun
try.
“These scrapbooks will be very
valuable to anyone doing research on
Nebraska athletics, and particularly
Nebraska football,” Fagan said.
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Paul Mesner prepares for a show at the O’Donnell Auditorium Tuesday night.
Puppet man
Storyteller makes laughs, living
By Heidi White
Staff Writer
y* >
Paul Mesner found his life-long
love by driving his parents crazy.
At the age of 12 his parents
prompted him to take a summer class at
the Lincoln Community Playhouse,
and it was here where he fell in love
with puppets.
Mesner spent six years developing
the puppeteering skills he learned that
summer by apprenticing under Lee
Ridge at the playhouse.
“It lets you step outside of yourself
and get inside of another persona in a
healthy way, which is great for a teen
ager,” he said. Now, 20 years later,
Mesner is still puppeteering and owns
a professional theater company in
Kansas City, Mo.
Mesner said he struggled and
starved for years, but things eventu
ally began to get better.
“I’ve finally gotten to the point in
my career where I’m making a good
living at it and my skills have ma
tured,” he said.
In 1992, Mesner received the Union
Internationale de la Marionette Cita
tion of Excellence in puppetry, created
by Jim Henson, for his performance of
“Wiley and the Hairy Man.”
Mesner performed this show in
O’Donnell Auditorium at Nebraska
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Wesleyan University Tuesday night.
The story is an African-American
folktale about a boy and his mother
who work together to drive away a
hairy monster living in a nearby
swamp.
“Their relationship is the crux of the
show,” Mesner said.
Mesner said he has performed the
one-man show over 700 times in the
past eight years and is still not tired of
the story.
“They’re much more genuine char
acters than in lots of my other shows,”
he said.
Mesner found the idea for the per
formance when he was working at a
grade school and picked up the book.
He then used it as a workshop and
realized there was something special in
the story.
“It matured and grew into a really
strong show, and it still is,” he said.
Mesner has written some original
stories for his performances, but usu
ally begins with a well-known one and
fractures it so it is still recognizable.
Detours are taken in the original
storyline however.
He said he made changes to keep
the shows interesting, along with add
ing length to the stories, which are
usually very short on their own.
“ You have to put out a lot of energy
to draw them in,” he said.
Mesner said he usually researches
a story for about a year, and then
spends four to six months building
props for the show.
He said he always relies on impro
visation in new performances, and
tries to build on any mistakes he’s
made.
“You never know what the audi
ence will laugh at,” Mesner said.
The first 20 times he performs some
thing, he considers it a growth period
to see if it works. If a show succeeds,
he continues with it and adds it to his
repertoire.
For older shows, Mesner will gen
erally rest on them for a while and
rebuild certain parts. He said constantly
updating the jokes and humor is nec
essary.
Dance classes taken in his youth
have also played an important part in
Mesner’s performances.
“Dance is all about movement and
that’s what puppets do very well,” he
said.
Mesner does a full season of the
ater in Kansas City every year, where
he rotates his shows in and out.
While the steady work is what
keeps him clothed and fed, Mesner
said there is a much simpler reason
why he still works with puppets after
all these years.
“It’s fun to make people laugh.”
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