NF” Cancer battle
■ ‘Sweetness9 is still the
league all-time leading
rusher, attaining 16,726
yards with the Bears.
CHICAGO (AP) - Walter Payton,
the NFL’s greatest rusher whose
aggressive style masked a playful tem
perament that earned him the nick
name “Sweetness,” died Monday at
age 45.
Payton died of bile duct cancer that
was discovered during his treatment
earlier this year for primary sclerosing
cholangitis, a rare liver disease.
Payton rushed for 16,726 yards in
his 13-year career, one of sport’s most
awesome records. And Barry Sanders
ensured it would be one of the most
enduring, retiring in July despite being
just 1,458 yards shy of breaking
Payton’s mark.
“I want to set the record so high
that the next person who tries for it, it’s
going to bust his heart,” Payton once
said.
Payton was coached for six years
by Mike Ditka, now coach of the New
Orleans Saints, who called him “the
best football player I’ve ever seen.”
“And he led by example on the
field. He was the complete player. He
did everything.... He was the greatest
runner, but he was also probably the
best blocking back you ever saw.”
Payton disclosed in February that
he was suffering from primary scleros
ing cholangitis and needed a liver
transplant.
His physician, Dr. Greg Gores of
the Mayo Clinic, said Payton was sub
sequently diagnosed with cancer of the
bile duct, a vessel that carries digestive
fluids from die liver to the small intes
tine.
“The malignancy was very
advanced and progressed very rapidly,”
Gores said at a news conference.
Because the cancer had spread so
rapidly outside his liver, a transplant
“was no longer tenable,” the doctor
said.
Gores declined to say when the
cancer was diagnosed.
“Walter was the kind of individual
who refused to think, ‘Why me, why
now?’ He just continued to look for
ward,” said Mike Singletary, his team
mate from 1981-87 and a close friend.
Even in his final days, Singletary
said Payton never talked about dying.
“He had dealt with that, but he did
n’t want to talk about that,” he said.
Payton was widely celebrated in
Chicago, the city’s highest-profile ath
lete in the years after Cubs’ Hall of
Famer Ernie Banks retired and before
Bulls’ superstar Michael Jordan
merged.
“Walter was a Chicago icon long
before I arrived there,” Jordan said in a
statement issued after Payton’s death.
“He was a great man off die field, and
his on-the-field accomplishments
speak for themselves. I spent a lot of
time with Walter, and I truly feel that
we have lost a great man.”
A two-time Little All-American,
Payton finished fourth in voting for the
Heisman Trophy in 1974 and was
picked fourth overall by the Bears in
the 1975 NFL draft He rushed for 679
yards and seven touchdowns in his
rookie season and die next year had the
first of what would be 10 1,000-yard
seasons, rushing for 1,390 yards and
13 touchdowns.
In 1977, just his third year in the
NFL, Payton won the First of two MVP
awards with the most productive sea
son of his career. He rushed for 1,852
yards and 14 touchdowns, both career
highs. His 5.5 yards per carry also was
the best of his career.
Against Minnesota, he ran for 275
yards, an NFL single-game record that
still stands. And in 1984, he broke Jim
Brown’s longstanding rushing record
of 12^12 yards.
After carrying mediocre Chicago
teams for most of his career, Payton
saw the Bears finally make it to the
Super Bowl in 1985. Payton rushed for
1,551 yards and nine touchdowns as
the Bears went 15-1 in the regular sea
son, and also caught 49 passes far 483
yards receiving and two TDs. - ^
Chicago beat New England 46-10
in the Super Bowl, but Payton didn’t
score in the game.
When he disclosed his liver disease
at an emotional news conference in
February, the Hall of Famer looked
gaunt and frail, a shadow of the man
who gained more yards than any run
ning back in the history of the NFL.
“Am I scared? Hell yeah, I’m
scared. Wouldn’t you be scared?” he
asked. “But it’s not in my hands any
more. It’s in God’s hands.”
Payton made few public appear
tt
“Am I scared? Hell yeah, I'm scared.
Wouldn't you be scared? But it's not in my
hands anymore. It's in God's hands."
__ Walter Payton
NFL running back, before his death
ances after that and his son, Jarrett,
who plays for the University of Miami,
was called home Wednesday night
“From the day in February when
my dad told the world of his liver dis
ease, the outpouring of love, support
and prayers from around the world
astounded even him,” Jarrett Payton
said, holding back tears as he read a
statement at the Bears’ headquarters in
Lake Forest, 111.
Bom July 25, 1954, in Columbia,
MisS., Payton played college football at
Jackson State, where he set nine school
records, scored 66 touchdowns and
rushed for 3,563 yards. He once scored
46 points in one game. He led the
nation in scoring in 1973 with 160
points, and his 464 career points was
an NCAA record.
Payton’s nickname of“Sweetness”
was a tribute to his personality more
than his running style. He was an elu
sive runner but often took on tacklers
with an aggressive, stiff-armed style
that Relied his sizer ,
“As a person, he was a bright spot
for any darkness that appeared,”
Singletary said.
Even as he was dying, Payton con
tinued to play pranks on his friends.
Last week, he purposely sent former
Bears running back Matt Suhey to
wrong addresses on a trip to
Singletary’s house, and then had him
hide a hamburger and a malt in
Singletary’s garage.
Payton retired after the 1987 sea
son, and the Bears immediately retired
No. 34. He was elected to the Hall of
Fame in 1993, his first, year of eligibil
ity.
“This is a great loss. Walter Payton
was an inspiration to me by the way he
carried himself on the field and off the
field,” said Dallas’ Emmitt Smith, who
with 13,174 yards is the NFL’s active
rushing leader and No. 4 on the list,
3,552 behind Payton.
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue
called Payton “one of the greatest play
ers in the history of the sport.”
“Walter was an inspiration in
everything he did. The tremendous
grace and dignity he displayed in his
final months reminded us again why
‘Sweetness’ was the perfect nickname
for Walter Payton,” Tagliabue said.
UT on high
after key win
over Clones
UT from page 7
season is over, if he keeps playing like
he is, he ought to be 15) to any award
that is available to a quarterback.”
UT fell out of the national race
with a season-opening loss to North
Carolina State, but, other than a set
back to Kansas State, it has shown it
is among the elite in the conference.
It has also shown poise that has
allowed it to stay alive in close games.
Whether the Longhorns were
down 17-0 to Oklahoma, battling
with Nebraska or tied with less than
three minutes remaining against
Iowa State, they have shown poise
and a confidence in their atylity.
“I said before the game that Texas
is a better football team this year,”
McCamey said.
NU fine-tunes playcalling
routine against Jayhawks
PLAYS from page 7
requires the Huskers to use most of
the 25-second clock.
“If you’re running our offense,
when you’re asking our quarterback
to do an awful lot at the line of
scrimmage, you are going to have
the clock running down to five sec
onds, four seconds, three seconds,”
Solich said.
As for how a play actually is
sent into the game, Davison said a
typical down goes as follows:
Solich makes the play on the
sideline, and there are two or three
guys standing there. Usually there
are two or three subs on every play
and one will run to Crouch with the
play.
They raise their hand on the
way in so Crouch knows who to
look for.
Once the play gets inside the
• v- '
' '
huddle, Crouch relays it to everyone
and goes to the line of scrimmage.
Before a play can get to the line
of scrimmage, a relay man must
remember the play.
Both Davison and Wistrom con
fessed that when they first brought
plays into the game, they were ner
vous and had to think twice about
plays.
“By the time I got out there, I
thought I was going to switch it
about three different times,”
Wistrom said. “You have to keep
running it through your head. You
do it more and more, and you get
used to it and feel more comfort
able.”
Remembering the plays is no
longer an issue. Getting them in
quickly is.
“We must sprint them in every
time,” Davison said. “That way Eric
has plenty of time.”
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GasUnK Huskers hit their stride
just like Pettit predicted earlier
PREDICTION from page 7
has made about his lineup and game
plan, and even Pettit has admitted
he’s taken risks.
For one thing, he yanked junior
setter Jill McWilliams - who was
groomed for two years to take over
for All-American and the heart and
soul of last year’s team, Fiona Nepo
- out of being the team’s leader as
the setter in the traditional 5-1
offense and implemented a 6-2
offense where she rotated with a
freshman, Lindsey Wischmeier,
who, before she became a part of
Div. I volleyball, was setting at
Class D-2 Lewiston a year ago.
He yanked senior Tonia Tauke - _
who set nearly every freshman
blocker record three years ago and
is one of the vocal leaders of the
team - in favor of freshman Amber
Holmquist and sophomore Jenny
Kropp.
He tinkered with starting line
ups, rotations and offensive attacks
more than O.J. Simpson tinkers with
alibis.
And while we watched him do
all of this and Nebraska uncharac
teristically lose five matches, three
at home, we should have seen
Saturday night coming. The tinker
ing and gathering up a consistent
attack for two months came to a cli
max before Saturday night. That’s
when the mother lode dropped.
We should have known, like
Pettit’s been telling us all along, that
the Huskers were due.
Due for a win over a high-cal
iber opponent. Due for a breakout
performance from Angie Oxley,
who for a while had been off die
radar blip of Husker playmakers.
Due to prove to Kansas State -
which shocked die Huskers a month
before at the Coliseum for its first
win over NU in school history - that
Nebraska is still Nebraska and
Kansas State is still Kansas State.
The bears came out of hiberna
tion at just the right time. Things
had already begun to fall into place
«
We should have
known, like Pettit’s
been telling us all ,
along, that the
Huskers were due.
for Nebraska, thanks to what Pettit
called the “Wednesday Massacre,”
in which, three nights before, con
ference leaders KSU and Texas both
lost to pull NU one matc^i closer.
Suddenly, after two months of
watching a team struggle to live up
to the ungodly expectations cement
ed each year on being a national
powerhouse, this team of young
players looked like the Husker
teams of old.
And a Big 12 trophy that
seemed unattainable is well within
reach. The Huskers hit their stride
this weekend. The schedule is favor
able - Nebraska has its toughest
road matches out of the way, and it
gets Texas at the Coliseum in the
last match of the season. Things
seem to be falling into place.
But let’s not get carried away.
Despite the mass celebration around
him from his players after the K
State match, Pettit remained cau
tious.
Yes, it was a huge win. No, the
title crown isn’t NU’s for the taking
yet. After all, the Huskers are still in
second place. They still have 10
matches left. They still have to play
an improved Kansas team
Wednesday night in Lawrence.
Every match is important
But some games, like
Saturday’s, are just more important
than others. See you in December.
John Gaskins Is a junior
broadcasting major and a Daily
Nebraskan staff writer.
www.dailyneb.com
yeah, you know, yeah