SPORTS ARE TUESDAY
Struggish Metal misfits February 3, 1998
Hampered by injuries, the Nebraska women’s Pantera, a band that often has been considered an
gymnastics team recorded a season-high perfor- outcast of the heavy metal community, will per- YADA, YADA, YaBA
mance Saturday against Missouri. PAGE 7 form Wednesday night in Omaha. PAGE 9 Partly sunny, high 32. Cleartomght, low 23.
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 93
BM11M _ .. Matt Miller/DN
ROBERT MELLAGE, Tai Chi instructor at the F Street Recreational Center, leads his class through the basics Monday night. The
class has all ages of adults, and both men and women participating.
Local instructor teaches tai chi basics
■ Participants gain strength
and coordination from the
Chinese martial art.
By Anne Heitz
Staff Reporter
Waving your hands like clouds isn’t as
easy as it sounds.
For local tai chi instructor Robert
Mellage, the movement is part of a highly
developed art form that requires years of
training and practice.
Mellage teaches tai chi, a Chinese
health-enhancing exercise, at the F Street
Recreation Center in Lincoln.
Tai chi. now gaining popularity in the
United States, began as a martial art in
China and was later adopted by the aris
tocracy, said Karla Decker, director of the
center.
Tai chi was then refined into a medita
tive experience through which students of
the art could build muscle strength and
create inner peace.
During Mellage’s 12-week course, stu
dents learn up to 24 forms of distinct
calming movements with names including
“parting the wild horse s mane,” “snake
creeps down” and “waving hands like
clouds.”
These unique movements emphasize
rejuvenation of health, mind and self-cul
tivation. Mellage said.
Mellage. who has taught tai chi classes
in Lincoln for two years, said along with
teaching the memory of these movements,
he hopes to teach his students relaxation,
balance and coordination through tai chi.
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu /Dailyh
A lot of tai chi’s slow, deliberate move
ments involve shifting weight from one
leg to another or standing on one leg for a
long time, he said. Such exercises increase
a tai chi student’s lower body strength.
Tai chi also builds its students’ coordi
nation, Mellage said.
“These are not everyday movements
that we are used to doing.”
Tai chi is gaining popularity among all
age groups in Lincoln, Mellage said.
Decker said class participants at the F
Street Recreation Center have included
high school students as well as people
more than 90 years old.
“Anyone can do it.” Decker said. “You
just need to set your own personal goals.”
But students shouldn't confuse tai
chi's slow speed with ease.
“The class takes commitment,” she
said. “It's not as easy as it looks.”
Veterans see
name change
as NU ‘curse’
By Brad Davis
and Ted Taylor
Senior Staff
Veterans groups are warning of a “curse” if the NU
Board of Regents follows through with plans to name the
field at Memorial Stadium for retiring Football Coach
Tom Osborne.
John DeCamp, spokesman for the Nebraska Veterans
Council, said in a statement that naming the field could
evoke the “Curse of the Dishonored Veterans,” causing
the Cornhuskers to lose on their home field.
Though the “curse” is an exaggeration, DeCamp is
serious about urging the regents to reverse their decision.
He said naming the field for Osborne detracted from the
stadium's memorial to Nebraska veterans.
“If you’re changing the name," DeCamp said, “you’re
changing the whole meaning of it.”
DeCamp issued a statement and poem Monday in
response to Hastings Regent Robert Allen's letter to the
editor in Sunday’s Lincoln Journal Star.
“This CURSE will last for every game, ‘till honor’s
returned, to Dishonored names. ... One final time ten
thousand dead Speak, Save our honor, now at Big Red’s
Peak,” the poem reads.
In Allen’s letter, he questioned why the veterans
group didn't come forth sooner and testify during one of
the two regents meetings when they discussed the matter.
Allen noted in his letter that the regents began dis
Please see VETERANSon 2
Bill proposes
funding for
testing center
By Todd Anderson
Assignment Reporter
A final stamp of approval for electronic products
sold abroad would come from a new Lincoln testing
center under a new bill before the Legislature.
LB1173, sponsored by Sen. Ron Raikes of
Lincoln, would give $5 million to Southeast
Community College to fund construction of an elec
tronics testing center at the University of Nebraska
Technology Park in northwest Lincoln.
The bill is important for economic development,
because it will help keep money in the state and will
attract new businesses and more revenue for
Nebraska's electronics industry, Raikes said.
Kelvin Hullet, vice president of government
affairs for the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, said
about S1.5 million leaves the state every year to pay
for testing in states such as Connecticut and Alabama.
All new electronics products must be tested in an
Please see CENTER on 3
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