I graduated from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. At the time, the school had a reputation for being a party school. However, most of those accolades were self-proclaimed.
There were shirts going around campus proclaiming, “Can’t spell drunk without UNK.” There was also a rumor that Playboy declared us a top ten party school. It was probably started by the admissions department in an effort to boost enrollment. The rumor was false, but we did like to have a good time.
A good friend was on the golf team and he shared a house with four other golfers. The Golf House was a slightly less rambunctious version of Animal House. The house itself should have been condemned years before, but in Kearney, houses aren’t condemned. They are just rented cheaply to college students.
We certainly didn’t add to the condition or ambiance of the place. Numerous wedges took four-inch divots out of the 100-year-old carpet and flying Titleists knocked craters into the plaster walls. The place had the constant aroma of stale Keystone Light and CK One.
Eventually, the team was evicted (I may or may not have had something to do with that). But we all have fond memories of the Golf House - nights spent playing Presidents & Assholes and the fights that broke out over foosball games. I wasn’t a member of the golf team, but I was a member of the de facto fraternity we had created. So I was saddened earlier this year when UNK announced that it was cutting golf, baseball and tennis from its varsity sports in order to meet strained budget requirements.
A former member of the team posted on Facebook that the golf team was his last connection to the university. It’s one thing to have a team shut down, but imagine if your alma mater ceased operation entirely. Such was the case for several schools across Nebraska. Hiram Scott College, a liberal arts school in Scottsbluff, only operated for seven years (1965-1972). Dana College shut down in 2010 after 126 years in Blair.
Even more obscure is Nebraska Central College, which operated in the tiny town of Central City, just east of Grand Island. Resources on NCC are hard to find. It doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia page. The former NCC campus is now a K-12 private Christian school. I know this because my wife’s grandfather attended NCC.
According to Lost Colleges.com, the Nebraska Society of Friends opened Nebraska Christian Academy in 1899. The academy was dropped in 1929 and after enrollment dwindled to 20 students in 1953, the college closed. School records and memorabilia were transferred to William Penn College in Oskaloosa, Iowa, but I’ll be damned if I will set foot in Iowa for anything.
My wife’s grandfather, Merlin Black, was a celebrated Army pilot during WWII. He was a big sports fan and a good athlete in his day. He farmed outside of Central City for most of his life but his hobbies included flying planes, coaching baseball and taking care of Central City’s Legion field. My wife remembers spending parts of her summers in Central City, and each night her grandfather would go to the field to water, mow, paint or just tinker.
By the time that I met Merlin, Alzheimer’s had reduced him to a friendly but quiet figure. I never would have assumed he was a WWII hero or a star athlete. Merlin was both a catcher for the NCC baseball team and a running back on the football team. His accolades on the field caught the attention of a Central City youth named Dick Wagner. Wagner would go on to work in the front offices of several Major League Baseball teams including the Cincinnati Reds of the Big Red Machine era. For several Christmases following pennant runs, Wagner would send Merlin bats autographed by the team. I now have those bats displayed in my basement.
My mother-in-law gave me photos from Merlin’s playing days, but of course, they are black and white. From what little I have been able to attain about NCC, the school colors were old gold and maroon. Their mascot was definitely the Quakers – named for the founders of the school. However, LostColleges.comhttp://www.lostcolleges.com/nebraska-central-college lists the team name as The Fighting Quakers which is oxymoronically amazing. After all, Quakers are sometimes referred to as “Friends.”
When I think of “fighting” I automatically think of “Irish.” Despite my disdain for Notre Dame, they certainly have one of the most iconic mascots in all of the sports. A leprechaun with its dukes up is logo perfection. Why reinvent the wheel?
In honor of Merlin and Nebraska Central College, here’s a very unfriendly Quaker.
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