SPORTS
Giving back to the game
NU soccer player Kristin Gay gives her time to
young girls’ youth soccer programs, providing a
valuable role model to female athletes PAGE 9
A&E
The splits
After a series of missteps and financial blunders,
Ballet Omaha has permantly retired, leaving
Nebraska without professional ballet. PAGE 12
WEDN iSDAY
September 9, 1998
Make Hay While the Sun Shines
Mostly sunny, high 83. Fair tonight, low 63.
VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 13
McGwire breaks
home run record
By David Wilson
Senior staff writer
For baseball nuts everywhere,
Tuesday night was something special.
But even the not-so-enthusiastic
fans may remember exactly where they
were when Mark McGwire set the reg
ular season home run record in St.
Louis with his 62nd blast of the year.
“I was shocked,” -said Jeff
Williamson, a senior family science
and journalism major, who spent the
evening with friends at bw-3 Bar and
Grill. “It was unreal. It was awesome.
We just saw history.”
The record-breaker came in the
fourth inning when McGwire lined a
shot over the left-field fence.
“When he first hit it I didn’t know if
it was going to go out of the park or stay
fair,” said Nebraska Baseball Coach
Dave Van Horn, who watched the game
at home with his family, “When it got
nut T was inst kind nf relieved fnr him
66
I would place this
among the most
spectacular events in
sports history
Benjamin Rader
UNL history professor
getting out, he’s been hitting the ball
hard. It didn’t surprise me. I think he’ll
probably hit another seven or eight
before the season is over.”
Benjamin Rader, the author of
“Baseball: America’s Game” and a pro
fessor of American history at UNL,
said he decided McGwire would break
the record a month ago.
Rader, too, said the dinger was one
he will remember for life.
“It ranks up among the most spec
Matt Miller/DN
ALLISON ELLIOTT, a senior elementary education major, is the fourth woman in her family to live in the Alpha
Chi Omega Sorority house. The announcement that the house will be torn down in about four years tugged at
her heartstrings, but she acknowledged that the move benefits the campus and the sorority.
Memories will live despite move
It just gives him a chance maybe to
enjoy the rest of the season.”
Williamson, on the other hand, said
he knew the ball would get out once
McGwire swung the bat. Like many
fans, Williamson said he felt some sort
of magical sixth sense that told him
Tuesday night would be the night.
“We didn’t want to be sitting at
home when it happened,” he said.
“When people are, like, ‘Where were
you when it happened?’ we wanted to
say we were at the bar.”
Van Horn said he wasn’t too sur
prised that No. 62 came the night after
McGwire tied Roger Maris’ record at
61.
“I think he’s been really hot lately,”
Van Horn said. “Even when he’s been
tacuiar oi nisioricai rears, Kaaer saia.
“The home run to American fans pre
sents kind of a dramatic finality with
one mighty swat. I would place this
among the most spectacular events in
sports history.”
McGwire’s display of power this
season has no doubt brought fans back
to the game, Rader said.
Van Horn agreed.
“(Some fans) really couldn’t tell
you who’s in first place, but they can
tell you how many homers McGwire or
Sosa has,” Van Horn said.
Karin Rief, a 30-year-old risk selec
tion manager in Lincoln, is one of those
Please see McGWIRE on 10
By Chad Lorenz
Senior editor
On the front steps of Alpha Chi
Omega Sorority, about 60 years
ago, Allison Elliott’s grandfather
stood and serenaded the woman
who would become his wife -
Allison’s grandmother.
Inside the house, 28 years ago,
Allison’s mother and father snug
gled in front of the fireplace, posing
for a snapshot to celebrate their
recent engagement at
Christmastime.
As a high school girl, Allison
would spend some weekends hang
ing out with her older sister, Jen, in
Alpha Chi Omega’s 72-year-old
house. Now, her younger sister,
Kim, does the same.
The windows and walls of the
sorority house have heard and seen
three generations of laughs, chatter
and sobs from the women of
Allison’s family.
Those memories triggered
Allison’s tears last week when she
heard that the university plans to
demolish the house to make way for
a grassy mall.
“The reason I'm the one crying
most is I... I can just see my grand
pa,” she said, interrupted by more
tears.
Allison was one of the many
Alpha Chi Omega women upset to
hear that the house will be torn
down and moved in about four
Please see CLOSING on 7
Union Board debates,
delays vote on homeless
Take a load off, Fanny
By Jessica Fargen
Staff writer
The Nebraska Union Board decided
Tuesday night to delay until its next meeting a
possible vote on a proposed policy to restrict
non-students from certain parts of the
Nebraska Union after 6 p.m.
Though six students during the meeting
and UNL's student government last week called
the proposal discrimination, Bil Roby, execu
tive director of a Lincoln homeless shelter,
asked for the university’s cooperation in help
ing the homeless.
Roby, executive director of Daywatch, a
Lincoln daytime homeless shelter at 1911 R
St., asked students and the university to work
together to provide financial and programmat
ic help to extend the hours of the shelter and
reduce the number of transients in the union.
At the meeting, six students spoke in an
open forum in opposition to the proposed poli
cy, which would require union patrons to pro
duce identification to use the Crib, the unfin
ished northwest study lounge, unfinished
basement and billiard room and television
lounge after 6 p.m.
Daywatch is one of the few places tran
sients can go in Lincoln, but it closes at 4:30
p.m. and is not open on weekends, Roby said.
After the meeting, he said the union is for
students and may not be the best place for
chronic homeless and transient people.
“To restrict areas of the union to students is
not a way to discriminate (against) the home
less,” he said.
Instead, Roby said, those without homes
should be directed to his and other shelters that
have staff trained to deal with this “unique
population.”
After listening to open forum and to their
own discussion, no Union Board members
made a motion to vote on the policy.
Union Board President Matt Luth urged the
board to come back to the next meeting Sept.
22 with more information and more student
opinions and possibly motion to vote on the
Please see UNION on 7
Heather Glenboski/DN
FRESHMAN LIZ ORMSBY, top, and freshman Holly Airhead sit on a sculpture near Kimball
Hall on Tuesday morning. The two were taking a break from music class to enjoy the
weather.
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