Volume 29, No. 6
September 29, 1997
Scott A. Miller
Contact: MU PR Office 662-4844
NEWS
A new "slant" on 1890's Weekend
When Mansfield celebrates its annual "Fabulous 1890's Weekend" this Friday and Saturday, most of the rest of the USA will get the opportunity to watch.
That's because Fox Network television will be on hand to film a segment for its national college football show "The Slant," which will air nationwide the following week.
"We're really excited about coming to Mansfield," said producer John Vaden. "Our show is about unique things dealing with college football and nothing may be more unique than re-creating the world's first night football game. To our knowledge it's the only place in the country where you can see 1890's style football."
Tim Beggy, who appeared in the MTV series "Road Rules," is the host of the show and will participate in the annual re-creation game that will be held this Saturday night in Mansfield's Smythe Park as part of the 1890's celebration.
"The first thing Fox ask was if Tim could be part of the game," reports Steve McCloskey, sports information director and coordinator of the re-creation and other sports events during the weekend. "Of course we said yes and he will get in for at least two plays."
According to Vaden, the scheduled 6- to 7-minute segment will also include other events on Saturday including the "Motorless Parade," the Mansfield-Lock Haven collegiate football game at Van Norman Field and possible footage of the day-long midget football games that include teams from Wellsboro as well as the Susquehanna Valley Pop Warner League.
The Pop Warner games feature teams from Williamsport and Bald Eagle Nittany playing a Pee Wee level game at 5 p.m. with the Junior Pee Wee's squaring off in the "GE Light Bowl" under the lights at 7 p.m.
"The Susquehanna Valley Pop Warner has been involved for a number of years and they really put on a great show," said McCloskey. "It's a big deal for the players because they get to play in front of thousands of people with the winning team being awarded the GE Light Bowl trophy."
The re-creation of the world's first night football game is based on newspaper accounts of the first night football game ever played. The game was held at Mansfield's Smythe Park, the same site as this year's activities, on Sept. 28, 1892 when Mansfield University, then known as the Mansfield State Normal School, hosted Wyoming Seminary. The game ended in 0-0 tie when it was called at halftime because of poor lighting.
In 1992, General Electric produced a 60-second commercial celebrating its role of producing the light for that first game at Mansfield. The commercial has run for the past five years, including its premier on ABC's Monday Night Football on the 100th anniversary of the game. The uniforms for that commercial were donated to Mansfield University and are used in the re-creation game. The game is put on each year by the brothers of Alpha Chi Rho fraternity and is followed by a fireworks display.
Fox is scheduled to broadcast "The Slant" episode featuring Mansfield and the first night football game on Oct. 7, 8, and 11.
Nazi citizenship is next lecture topic
The University Lecture Series will look at the Nazi Germany's definition of citizenship and the impact such a definition has in today's world on Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 3:30 p.m. in North Dining Room.
Brian Dunn, a member of Clarion University's history department, will present "Citizenship and Racial Politics: The Case of Nazi Germany."
Dunn will discuss how, in a racial state like Nazi Germany, membership in the nation is based on blood. National identities, like the American "melting pot," which stress the blending of diverse elements, were anathema to a society dedicated to the creation of a completely homogeneous citizenry. Dunn will argue that examining Nazi policy is especially interesting today, because our country has its own radical advocates of the elimination of "undesirables" and the establishment of "safe" environments for "decent" citizens.
The talk is prepared for a general audience. Refreshments and informal discussion will follow. The series is sponsored by The Provost's Office.
Saturday, Sept. 27, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Steadman. Kathy Robinson of Temple University will present a workshop on Multicultural Music Education. Robinson is a nationally know music educator. She most recently was a guest teacher in South Africa. Her session will focus on children's games from Ghana. There is a small fee to students and faculty. For information, contact Rob Amchin, music, at 4712.
Tuesday, Sept. 30, noon, North Hall Atrium. Absolut Brass, under the direction of David Borsheim, music, will kick off a new concert series. Larry Nesbit, information resources director, says the noon series is an attempt to recreate the ambiance the library enjoyed during last year's holiday music performance by The Mansfieldians in the Atrium. The noon concerts will occur once a month throughout the semester. Other dates and performers are Oct. 28, The Mansfieldians under the direction of Peggy Dettwiler, music, and Nov. 25, The MU Saxophone Quartet, under the direction of Joseph Murphy, music.
Have an Updater announcement? Send it to Scott A. Miller
Monty McAdoo, library, and Joan Tease, media technician, recently published their article "Notebook Computers: To buy or not" in the September issue of "American Libraries," the journal of the American Library Association, which has more than 50,000 members. The article summarizes their experiences with notebook computers in North Hall Library.
Rob Amchin, music, was an invited presenter for the Greater Chicago Orff Schulwerk Association on Sept. 20. His topic "Two-part Inventions" presented materials on integrating folk literature into the music classroom and general music education practices to participants. In October, Amchin will present a six-hour clinic in Houston titled "Percussion Techniques and Ways to Work" in which he will offer music materials and teaching strategies for the general music classroom including work songs form around the world. He will also lead a folk dancing workshop while in Texas.
Hobart King, geography and geology, and student Nicole Jackson made a presentation at the Computing Across the Curriculum meeting at Slippery Rock University. Their session, "GEONET! A Home Page System for Geology Courses at Mansfield University," demonstrated the use of a course home page for teaching and course administration. They developed GEONET as part of a student-faculty research project during Summer '96. You can visit GEONET at http://www.mnsfld.edu/~hking/geonet.html.
Mahmoud Gaballa, business and economics, attended the Middle East and North African Conference of Economics, International Trade and Capital Markets, Aug. 2-4 in Cairo, Egypt. The conference was organized by Egypt's Tanta University in collaboration with the International Academy of Business Disciplines. Gaballa submitted a paper on management of public enterprises in Egypt and received a certificate of appreciation for his contribution to the conference.
Freshman Brianne Liddick finished first in a field of 57 runners at the 13th Annual Baptist Bible College Invitational Saturday afternoon. Liddick crossed the finish line with a time of 19:31, nine seconds better than runner-up Hanna Wright of Dickinson College. Freshman Kristen Clark (20:44) finished seventh with fellow freshman Catherine Deithorn (21:36) coming in 17th. In the men's competition, freshman Todd Stewart of Hornell finished second overall to lead the Mountaineer men to a sixth place finish in the 11-team field. Stewart's time of 27:56 was second to Kevin McGinnis of Stevens Tech (27:32) in the 87 runner field. Senior Mike Lane (Athens/SRU) was 12th with a time of 29:48 with Matt Opdyke placing 25th at 30:41.
Ithaca College scored three touchdowns over the final 7:07 of the game to pull out a 42-17 win Saturday. It marked the third straight week that the Mountaineers had lost a game in the second half. Senior running back Jason Donadi continued his climb up the MU career record list rushing for 92 yards on 20 carries to become just the fourth player in MU history to pass the 2,000 career rushing mark. Donadi now has 2,050 yards. Quarterback Luke Smith, who sat out last week's game with an injury, completed a season-best 15 of 30 passes for 212 yards and two touchdowns. The Mountaineers, now 0-3, host Lock Haven at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27.
The MU field hockey team fell to 1-2 on the season with a 5-0 loss at SUNY-Albany Saturday. Albany scored three goals in the first period and added two more in the second.
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