Archive
Life Itself XIX: Set the Scene True Life Stories
Life Itself XIX:
Set the Scene True Life Stories
Southern Fried Love Road Trip Diary II
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/08/12/southern-fried-l…ad-trip-diary-ii
Southern Fried Love Road Trip Diary I
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/01/a-southern-road-trip-diary
Goin’ down the Lincoln Highway with Omaha music guru Nils Anders Erickson
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/10/01/goin-down-the-li…-anders-erickson/
Stretch of the Lincoln Highway in Elkhorn, Neb.
Leo Biga’s Journey in the Pipeline; Following The Champ, Terence “Bud” Crawford in Africa
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/14/leo-bigas-journe…awford-in-africa
The Champ Goes to Africa: Terence Crawford Visits Uganda and Rwanda with his former teacher, this reporter and friends
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/06/26/the-champ-goes-t…rter-and-friends
Omaha history salvager Frank Horejsi: Dream calls for warehouse to become a museum
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/11/omaha-history-sa…-become-a-museum
Omaha Corpus Christi procession draws hundreds
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/13/omaha-corpus-chr…n-draws-hundreds
Iraq War veteran Jacob Hausman battles PTSD and finds peace
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/31/iraq-war-veteran…-and-finds-peace/
A Hospice House Story: How Phil Hummel’s End of Life Journey in Hospice Gave His Family Peace of Mind and Granted Him a Gentle, Dignified Death
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/27/a-hospice-house-…-dignified-death
Extremities: As seen on TLC’s “Hoarding: Buried Alive” – Mary Thompson takes her life back one piece at a time
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/19/extremities
Greg Pivovar, owner of the Stadium View shop, poses in his store in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, May 27, 2010. Pivovar is a one-man welcoming committee for College World Series fans. The Omaha attorney greets every (legal age) customer with a free can of beer and nudges them toward the barbecue, brats or, when LSU is in town, seafood jambalaya.(AP Photo/Nati Harnik) — AP
The Little People’s Ambassador at the College World Series
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/26/the-little-peopl…ege-world-series
The History Man, Gary Kastrick, and his Project OMAHA lose home base
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/03/gary-kastricks-p…es-its-home-base/
The Bone Hunter: Paleontologist Michael Voorhies Uncovers Dinosaur Fossils
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/the-bone-hunter
Dr. Michael Voorhies
Dream catcher Lew Hunter: Screenwriting guru of the Great Plains
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/dream-catcher-lew-hunter/
After whirlwind tenure as Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser goes gently back to the prairie, to where the wild plums grow
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/after-a-whirlwin…-wild-plums-grow/
Keeper of the Flame: Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/keeper-of-the-fl…inner-ted-kooser/
Verne Holoubek’s Road Less Traveled: How Harley Davidson, Printed T-Shirts, and the Counter-Culture Movement Helped this Former Nebraska Farm Boy Make Pop Culture History
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/the-road-less-traveled
Goodwin’s Spencer Street Barber Shop: We Cut Heads and Broaden Minds, Too
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/29/goodwins-spencer…roaden-minds-too/
Freedom riders: A get on the bus inauguration diary
From the Archives: A Road Trip Sideways
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/21/get-on-the-bus-a…-ride-to-freedom/
Therman Statom works with children to create glass houses and more
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/glass-artist-the…kids-art-brigade
Linda Walker of Bay Shore, New York lifts her hand in prayer as President Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th president of the United States in Washington on Tuesday Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/ St. Petersburg Times, Martha Rial) ** TAMPA OUT. USA TODAY OUT. HERNANDO TODAY OUT. CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE OUT **
Crowds gather on the National Mall in Washington for the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Polishing Gem: Behind the scenes of John Beasley Theater & Workshop’s staging of August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/polishing-gem-be…gem-of-the-ocean/
Back in the Day: Native Omaha Days is reunion, homecoming, heritage celebration and party all in one
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/11/back-in-the-day-…party-all-in-one/
It’s a Hoops Culture at The SAL, Omaha’s Best Rec Basketball League
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/its-a-hoops-cult…asketball-league
Hadley Heavin’s Idiosyncratic Journey as a Real Rootin-Tootin, Classical Guitar Playing Cowboy
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/01/a-real-rootin-to…r-playing-cowboy
Omaha’s Grand Old Lady, The Orpheum Theater
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/omahas-grand-old…-orpheum-theater
Alexander Payne’s Circuitous Journey to His Wine Country Film Comedy
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/28/from-the-archive…ntry-film-comedy
My Midwest Baseball Odyssey Diary
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/my-midwest-baseball-odyssey-diary/
UNO Wrestling Retrospective – Way of the Warrior, House of Pain, Day of Reckoning
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/21/a-three-part-uno…day-of-reckoning/
The Downtown Boxing Club’s House of Discipline
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/04/the-downtown-box…se-of-discipline
Heart and Soul: Kenny Wingo and Dutch Gladfelter Keep it Real at the Downtown Boxing Club
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/09/28/heart-and-soul-k…town-boxing-club/
New school ringing in Liberty for students
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/new-school-ringi…rty-for-students
Bobby Bridger’s Rendezvous
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/bobby-bridgers-rendezvous
A Passion for Conservation: Tara Kennedy
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/25/a-passion-for-co…ion-tara-kennedy
A Rosenblatt Tribute
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/a-rosenblatt-tribute/
ER, An Emergency Room Journal
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/16/er
Merciful Armies of the Night, A Ride-Along with Paramedics
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/16/merciful-armies-of-the-night
War and Peace: Bosnian refugees purge war’s horrors in song and dance that make plea for harmony
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/18/war-and-peace/
 |
Bertha’s Battle: Bertha Calloway, the Grand Lady of Lake Street, struggles to keep the Great Plains Black History Museum afloat
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/berthas-battle
Favorite Sons: Weekly Omaha pasta feeds at Sons of Italy Hall draw diverse crowd
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/28/favorite-sons-we…lse-little-italy/
Santa Lucia Festival, Omaha Style
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/05/santa-lucia-festival/
Devotees hold fast to Latin rite
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/15/devotees-hold-fa…o-the-latin-rite/
Show goes on at Omaha Community Playhouse, where Henry Fonda and Dorothy McGuire got their start
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/04/the-show-goes-on/
From the Archives: Opera comes alive behind the scenes at Opera Omaha staging of Donizetti’s “Maria Padilla” starring Renee Fleming
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/26/from-the-archive…ing-rene-fleming
It was a different breed then: Omaha Stockyards remembered
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/24/it-was-a-differe…yards-remembered/
Separate Voices, Separate Lives: The Alien Abduction Chronicles
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/separate-voices-…ction-chronicles
Life Itself XVII: To All the Writers I’ve Loved Before – 25 Years of Stories About Writers and Writing
Life Itself XVII:
To All the Writers I’ve Loved Before – 25 Years of Stories About Writers and Writing
Noah Diaz making run for his dream at Yale School of Drama and theater companies nationwide
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/08/05/noah-diaz-making…anies-nationwide
Journalist-author Genoways takes micro and macro look at the U.S, food system
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/06/06/journalist-autho…u-s-food-syystem
Things coming full circle for Doug Marr, Phil’s Diner Series and Circle Theatre
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/04/24/things-coming-fu…d-circle-theatre/
Doug Marr and wife Laura Marr
A book a day keeps the blues aways for avid reader and writer Ashley Xiques
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/03/a-book-a-day-kee…er-ashley-xiques
Voyager Bud Shaw gives up scalpel for pen
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/04/20/voyager-bud-shaw…-scalpel-for-pen
Kevin Simonson on Interviewing Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/05/kevin-simonson-o…nd-kurt-vonnegut/
Literary star Ron Hansen revisits the Old West in new novel “The Kid”
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/08/25/literary-star-ro…ew-novel-the-kid/
Ron Hansen
Noah Diaz:
Metro theater’s man for all seasons and stages
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/19/noah-diaz-metro-…asons-and-stages
Old Hollywood hand living in Omaha comes out of the shadows: Screenwriter John Kaye scripted “American Hot Wax” and more
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/01/30/old-hollywood-ha…hot-wax-and-more
Bomb girl Zedeka Poindexter draws on family, food and angst for her poetry
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/11/zedeka-poindexte…t-for-her-poetry/
Playwright turned history detective Max Sparber turns identity search inward
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/02/07/playwright-turne…ty-search-inward/
Paul Johnsgard:
A birder’s road less traveled
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/24/paul-johnsgard-a…ad-less-traveled
Lew Hunter’s small town Nebraska boy made good in Hollywood story is a doozy
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/25/lew-hunters-smal…story-is-a-doozy
Lew Hunter with Francis Ford Coppola
Alesia Lester: A Conversation in the Gossip Salon
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/09/alesia-lester-a-…the-gossip-salon/
Hardy’s one-man “A Christmas Carol” highlights Dickens-themed literary festival
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/03/hardys-one-man-a…iterary-festival/
Omaha World-Herald columnist Mike Kelly:
A storyteller for all seasons
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/04/02/omaha-world-hera…-for-all-seasons/
Mike Kelly
Creative couple: Bob and Connie Spittler and their shared creative life 60 years in the making
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/12/23/bob-and-connie-s…rs-in-the-making/
A WASP’s racial tightrope resulted in enduring book partially set in 1960s Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/28/a-wasps-racial-t…t-in-1960s-omaha/
Alex Kava:
Bestselling mystery author still going strong
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/03/alex-kava-bestse…ill-going-strong/
Yolonda Ross adds writer-director to actress credits; In new movies by Mamet and Sayles as her own “Breaking Night” makes festival circuit
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/02/28/yolonda-ross-add…festival-circuit/
Omahans put spin on Stephen King’s “The Shining” – Jason Levering leads stage adaptation of horror classic to benefit Benson Theatre Project
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/17/omahans-put-thei…-theatre-project
Omaha author Timothy Schaffert delivers again with his new novel, “The Swan Gondola”
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/07/omaha-author-tim…the-swan-gondola/
Timothy Schaffert
The Omaha Star celebrates 75 years of black woman legacy
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/11/the-omaha-star-c…ack-woman-legacy/
Ex-reporter Eileen Wirth pens book on Nebraska women in journalism and their leap from society page to front page
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/03/22/ex-reporter-eile…ge-to-front-page/
Bob Hoig’s unintended entree into journalism leads to career six decades strong
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/25/bob-hoigs-uninte…cades-strong-now/
Wounded Knee still battleground for some per new book by journalist-author Stew Magnuson
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/20/wounded-knee-sti…or-stew-magnuson/
Omaha native Steve Marantz looks back at city’s ’68 racial divide through prism of hoops in new book, “The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/01/omaha-native-ste…of-omaha-central/
From the heart: Tunette Powell tells it like it is
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/10/from-the-heart-t…ls-it-like-it-is/
Finding her voice: Tunette Powell comes out of the dark and into the spotlight
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/24/finding-her-voic…to-the-spotlight/
Omowale Akintunde film “Wigger” deconstructs what race means in a faux post-racial world
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/21/deconstructing-w…ost-racial-world/
Beware the Singularity, singing the retribution blues: New works by Rick Dooling
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/beware-the-singu…-by-rick-dooling/
Richard Dooling
Lit Fest delves into what we fear, how we relate in extremis
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/09/lit-fest-delves-…late-in-extremis/
Omaha Lit Fest puts focus on Women Writers and Women in Publishing
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/06/omaha-lit-fest-p…en-in-publishing
Omaha Lit Fest Offers a Written Word Feast
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/10/18/omaha-lit-fest-o…itten-word-feast
Writing close to her heart: Author Joy Castro
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/11/23/author-joy-castr…in-two-new-books/
Ron Hull reviews his remarkable life in public television in new memoir
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/10/06/8945/
Ferial Pearson, award-winning educator dedicated to inclusion and social justice, helps students publish the stories of their lives
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/25/ferial-pearson-a…s-of-their-lives
Lit Fest brings author Carleen Brice back home flush with success of first novel, “Orange Mint and Honey”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/lit-fest-brings-…e-mint-and-honey/
Novel’s mother-daughter thing makes it to the screen
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/26/novel’s-mother-d…it-to-the-screen
Carleen Brice
Sun reflection: Revisiting the Omaha Sun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of Boys Town
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/28/sun-reflection-r…ose-on-boys-town
Alexander Payne and Kaui Hart Hemmings on the symbiosis behind his film and her novel “The Descendants” and how she helped get Hawaii right
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/01/23/alexander-payne-…get-hawaii-right/
Thy kingdom come: Richard Dooling’s TV teaming with Stephen King
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/16/thy-kingdom-come…ith-stephen-king/
Buffalo Bill’s Coming Out Party Courtesy Author-Balladeer Bobby Bridger
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/06/buffalo-bills-co…er-bobby-bridger/
The Worth of Things Explored by Sean Doolittle in his New Crime Novel “The Cleanup”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/the-worth-of-thi…ovel-the-cleanup/
When Safe Isn’t Safe at All, Author Sean Doolittle Spins a Home Security Cautionary Tale
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/19/when-safe-isnt-s…-cautionary-tale/
Acclaimed Author and Nebraska New Wave Literary Leader Timothy Schaffert
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/nebraska-new-wav…imothy-schaffert/
A Man of His Words, Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/07/a-man-of-his-wor…illiam-kloefkorn/
JACOB HANNAH / Lincoln Journal Star
Kurt Andersen’s new novel “True Believers” revisits 1960s through reformed radical breaking her silence
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/28/kurt-andersens-n…king-her-silence/
Dissecting Jesse James
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/dissecting-jesse-james
Ron Hansen’s masterful outlaw blues novel about Jesse James and Robert Ford faithfully interpreted on screen
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/27/ron-hansens-mast…preted-on-screen
Playwright Carlos Murillo’s work explores personal mythmaking
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/26/playwright-carlo…sonal-mythmaking
The Many Worlds of Science Fiction Author Robert Reed
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/22/the-many-worlds-…thor-robert-reed
He knows it when he sees it: Journalist-social critic Robert Jensen finds patriarchy and white supremacy in porn
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/17/i-know-it-when-i…upremacy-in-porn
Litniks Unite! The Downtown Omaha Lit Fest brings writers, artists and readers together in celebration of the written word
Omaha Lit Fest: In praise of writers and their words: Jami Attenberg and Will Clarke among featured authors
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/19/omaha-lit-fest-i…featured-authors/
Omaha playwright Beaufield Berry comes into her own with original comedy “Psycho Ex Girlfriend”
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/20/omaha-playwright…iend-now-playing/
Omaha Lit Fest: “People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/07/omaha-lit-fest-p…-thing-they-like/
Martin Landau and Nik Fackler discuss working together on “Lovely, Still” and why they believe so strongly in each other and in their new film
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/23/martin-landau-an…-in-the-new-film/
Martin Landau and Nik Fackler
“Lovely, Still,” that rare film depicting seniors in all their humanity, earns writer-director Nik Fackler Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Screenplay
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/03/lovely-still-tha…first-screenplay/
Filmmaker Nik Fackler’s magic realism reaches the big screen in “Lovely, Still”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/when-dreams-that…neath-do-surface
Nik Fackler, the Film Dude Establishes Himself a Major New Cinema Figure with “Lovely, Still”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/the-film-dude-es…ew-cinema-figure/
Writers Joy Castro and Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes explore being women of color who go from poverty to privilege
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/12/writers-joy-cast…rty-to-privilege/
Being Jack Moskovitz: Grizzled former civil servant and DJ, now actor and fiction author, still waiting to be discovered
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/being-jack-mosko…to-be-discovered/
With his new novel, “The Coffins of Little Hope,” Timothy Schaffert’s back delighting in the curiosities of American Gothic
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/13/with-his-new-nov…-american-gothic/
Timothy Schaffert Gets Down and Dirty with his New Novel “Devils in the Sugar Shop”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/29/timothy-schaffer…n-the-sugar-shop/
Rachel Shukert’s anything but a travel agent’s recommended guide to a European grand tour
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/rachel-shukerts-…opean-grand-tour/
Author Rachel Shukert: A nice Jewish girl gone wild and other regrettable stories
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/author-rachel-sh…rettable-stories/
Rachel Shukert
After whirlwind tenure as Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser goes gently back to the prairie, to where the wild plums grow
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/after-a-whirlwin…-wild-plums-grow/
Keeper of the Flame: Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/keeper-of-the-fl…inner-ted-kooser
Ted Kooser
Being Dick Cavett
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/04/being-dick-cavett-2/
Homecoming always sweet for Dick Cavett, the entertainment legend whose dreams of show biz Success were fired in Nebraska
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/04/homecoming-is-al…ed-in-nebraska-2/
Dick Cavett
Dream catcher Lew Hunter: Screenwriting guru of the Great Plains
http://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/dream-catcher-lew-hunter/
Q & A with playwright Caridad Svich, featured artist at Great Plains Theatre Conference
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/02/a-q-a-with-playw…eatre-conference/
Featured Great Plains Theatre Conference playwright Caridad Svich explores bicultural themes
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/featured-great-p…icultural-themes
Playwright-screenwriter John Guare talks shop on Omaha visit celebrating his acclaimed “Six Degrees of Separation”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/02/playwright-john-…es-of-separation/
Attention must be paid: Arthur Kopit invokes Arthur Miller to describe Great Plains Theatre Conference focus on the work of playwrights
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/attention-must-b…s-and-their-work/
Q & A with Edward Albee: His thoughts on the Great Plains Theatre Conference, Jo Ann McDowell, Omaha and preparing a new generation of playwrights
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/29/a-q-a-with-edwar…n-of-playwrights/
Great Plains Theatre Conference ushers in new era of Omaha theater
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/28/great-plains-the…of-omaha-theater/
John Guare
Hard times ring sweet in the soulful words of singer-songwriter-author Laura Love, daughter of the late jazz man, Preston Love Sr.
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/01/hard-times-ring-…uthor-laura-love
Gospel playwright Llana Smith enjoys her Big Mama’s time
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/07/gospel-playwrigh…r-big-mamas-time
Blizzard Voices:
Stories from the Great White Shroud
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/07/27/blizzard-voices-…eat-white-shroud
Click Westin, back in the screenwriting game again at age 83
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/11/click-westin-bac…-again-at-age-83/
“The Bagel: An Immigrant’s Story” – Joan Micklin Silver and Matthew Goodman team up for new documentary
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/16/the-bagel-an-imm…documentary-film
Actor Peter Riegert makes fine feature directorial debut with “King of the Corner”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/12/actor-peter-rieg…ng-of-the-corner/
Talking screenwriting with Hollywood heavyweight Hawk Ostby: Omaha Film Festival panelist counts “Children of Men” and “Iron Man” among credits
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/02/talking-screenwr…mong-his-credits/
Hawk Ostby
Tempting fate: Patrick Coyle film “Into Temptation” delivers gritty tale of working girl and idealistic priest in search of redemption
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/09/tempting-fate-pa…ch-of-redemption/
Otis Twelve’s Radio Days
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/otis-twelves-radio-days/
Three old wise men of journalism – Hlavacek, Michaels and Desfor – recall their foreign correspondent careers and reflect on the world today
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/three-old-wise-men-of-journalism/
John and Pegge Hlavacek’s globe-trotting adventures as foreign correspondents
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/02/john-and-pegge-h…n-correspondents/
John Hlavacek
Preston Love: His voice will not be stilled
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/03/preston-love-his…l-not-be-stilled/
Marguerita Washington: The woman behind the Star that never sets
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/marguerita-washi…-that-never-sets
“Walking Behind to Freedom” – A musical theater examination of race
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/21/walking-behind-t…mination-of-race
Sacred Trust, Author Ron Hansen’s Fiction Explores Moral Struggles
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/06/sacred-trust
Jim Taylor, the other half of Hollywood’s top screenwriting team, talks about his work with Alexander Payne
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/30/jim-taylor-the-o…lexander-payne-2/
Author, humorist, folklorist Roger Welsch tells the stories of the American soul and soil
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/author-humorist-…he-american-soul/
From the Archives: Warren Francke – A passion for journalism, teaching and life
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/from-the-archive…eaching-and-life
Author Scott Muskin – What’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing writing about all this mishigas?
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/05/author-scott-mus…ll-this-mishigas/
Vincent Alston’s indie film debut, “For Love of Amy,” is black and white and love all over
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/29/vincent-alstons-…nd-love-all-over
Screenwriting adventures of Nebraska native Jon Bokenkamp, author of the scripts “Perfect Stranger” and “Taking Lives'”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/28/screenwriting-ad…ve-jon-bokenkamp/
Murder He Wrote: Reporter-author David Krajicek finds niche as true crime storyteller
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/28/murder-he-wrote-…rime-storyteller/
Bobby Bridger’s Rendezvous
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/bobby-bridgers-rendezvous/
Nancy Duncan: Her final story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/her-final-story/
Nancy Duncan: Storyteller
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/nancy-duncan-storyteller/
From the Archives:
Nancy Duncan’s journey to storytelling took circuitous route
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/01/from-the-archive…circutious-route
Joan Micklin Silver: Maverick filmmaker helped shape American independent film scene and opened doors for women directors
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/joan-micklin-sil…-women-directors/
Joan Micklin Silver: Shattering cinema’s glass ceiling
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/shattering-cinemas-glass-ceiling/
Joan Micklin Silver
Doug Marr, Diner Theater and keeping the faith
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/doug-marr-keeping-the-faith/
Short story writer James Reed at work in the literary fields of the imagination
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/03/short-story-writ…-the-imagination
Culturalist Kurt Andersen wryly observes the American scene as author, essayist, radio talk show host
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/culturalist-kurt-andersen/
Slaying dragons: Author Richard Dooling’s sharp satire cuts deep and quick
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/slaying-dragons-rick-dooling/
K
Kurt Andersen
Life Itself XII: Omaha History Stories
Life Itself XII:
Omaha History Stories
Cathy Hughes proves you can come home again
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/06/28/cathy-hughes-pro…-come-home-again
Coming home is sweet for media giant Cathy Hughes
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/06/05/coming-home-is-s…ant-cathy-hughes
North Omaha rupture at center of PlayFest drama
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/04/30/north-omaha-rupt…f-playfest-drama/
John Knicely: A Broadcast Journalism Career Five Decades Strong
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/02/26/john-knicely-a-l…e-decades-strong/
Dundee Theater: Return engagement for the ages
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/10/28/dundee-theater-r…ent-for-the-ages
The Urban League movement lives strong in Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/11/17/the-urban-league…-strong-in-omaha/
Native Omaha Days: A Homecoming Like No Other
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/08/11/native-omaha-day…ng-like-no-other
Brenda Council: A public servant’s life
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/06/26/brenda-council-a…ic-servants-life
South Omaha Museum: A melting pot magic city gets its own museum
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/04/13/a-melting-pot-ma…s-its-own-museum
Mural project celebrates mosaic of South Omaha culture
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/19/mural-project-ce…th-omaha-culture/
One Hundred Years Strong: Bryant-Fisher Family Reunion
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/06/23/100-years-strong
Baseball and Soul Food at Omaha Rockets Kanteen
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/06/23/baseball-and-soul-food/
In their own words – The Greatest Generation on World War II
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/05/02/in-their-own-wor…-on-world-war-ii/
The tail-gunner’s grandson: Ben Drickey revisits World War II experiences on foot and film
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/05/02/the-tail-gunners…on-foot-and-film
Love affair with Afghanistan and international studies affords Tom Gouttierre world view like few others
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/02/21/love-affair-with…-like-few-others/
Father Ken Vavrina: Crossing Bridges
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/29/father-ken-vavri…e-serving-others/
Omaha Children’s Museum all grown up at 40: Celebrating four decades of letting children’s imagination run free
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/05/07/omaha-childrens-…ination-run-free/
Eighty years and counting:
History in the making at the Durham Museum
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/31/eighty-years-and…he-durham-museum
Durham Museum to celebrate 40-and-40: Forty years as train station and four decades as museum
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/04/durham-museum-to…ecades-as-museum
“Nebraska Methodist College at 125: Scaling New Heights”
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/09/15/nebraska-methodi…ling-new-heights
Omaha history salvager Frank Horejsi:
Dream calls for warehouse to become a museum
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/11/omaha-history-sa…-become-a-museum
North’s Star: Gene Haynes builds legacy as education leader with Omaha Public Schools and North High School
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/12/02/norths-star-gene…orth-high-school/
Alone or together, Omaha power couple Vic Gutman and Roberta Wilhelm give back to the community
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/09/29/alone-or-togethe…to-the-community
Creative couple: Bob and Connie Spittler and their shared creative life 60 years in the making
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/12/23/bob-and-connie-s…rs-in-the-making/
David Corbin and Josie Metal-Corbin: Moving Right Along
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/07/03/moving-right-alo…wn-in-retirement/
Ben and Freddie Gray: North Omaha Power Couple
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/13/gray-matters-ben…hways-to-success/
Omaha’s old lion of philanthropy Dick Holland slowing down but still roaring and challenging the status quo
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/12/04/omahas-old-lion-…g-the-status-quo
Crime and punishment questions still surround 1970 killing that sent Omaha Two to life in prison
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/30/crime-and-punish…o-life-in-prison/
North Omaha: Voices and Visions for Change
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/29/north-omaha-voic…sions-for-change
Two Part Series:
After Decades of Walking Behind to Freedom, Omaha’s African-American Community Tries Picking Up the Pace Through Self-Empowered Networking
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/13/two-part-series-…wered-networking
Mike Green and Dick Davis: Lifetime Friends, Former Backfield Mates, Now Entrepreneurs
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/20/lifetime-friends…-black-citizenry/
Two families suffer Omaha’s segregation and waken the conscience of a nation
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/11/09/my-newest-cover-…ence-of-a-nation/
When New Horizons Dawned for African-Americans Seeking Homes in Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/17/when-new-horizon…ericans-in-omaha
South Omaha stories on tap for free PlayFest show; Great Plains Theatre Conference’s Neighborhood Tapestries returns to south side
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/05/06/south-omaha-stor…o-the-south-side/
Celebrating 90 years, the Omaha Community Playhouse takes seriously its community theater mission
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/05/03/omaha-community-…-theater-mission
Playwright turned history detective Max Sparber turns identity search inward
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/02/07/playwright-turne…ty-search-inward
Jim Trebbien: Lifelong love affair with food led to distinguished culinary arts education career at Metropolitan Community College
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/02/culinary-artist-…ommunity-college
The Artist in the Mill: Linda Meigs brings agriculture, history and art together at Florence Mill
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/08/01/linda-meigs-brin…at-florence-mill
Patrick Drickey: Golf Shots
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/05/golf-shots-pat-d…eat-golf-courses/
Nancy Kirk: Fabric and Faith
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/21/nancy-kirk-arts-…erfaith-champion/
Edith Buis: A Life Immersed in Art
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/eddith-buis-a-life-immersed-in-art
Life comes full circle for singer Carol Rogers
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/08/28/life-comes-full-…ger-carol-rogers
Goin’ down the Lincoln Highway with Omaha music guru Nils Anders Erickson
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/10/01/goin-down-the-li…-anders-erickson
Omaha’s Old Market:
History, stories, places, personalities, characters
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/19/omahas-old-marke…ities-characters/
The X-Men Weigh-In on Designing a New Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/25/the-x-men-weigh-…ning-a-new-omaha
Designing Woman: Connie Spellman Helps Shape a New Omaha Through Omaha By Design
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/13/designing-woman-…-omaha-by-design
Play considers Northside black history through eyes of Omaha Star publisher Mildred Bown
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/04/29/play-considers-n…-of-mildred-bown
Mike Saklar: Whatsoever You Do to the Least of My Brothers
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/01/whatsoever-you-d…t-you-do-unto-me/
Teela Mickles: Nurturing One Lost Soul at a Time
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/29/nurturing-one-lo…-back-to-society/
Kent Bellows: Soul in Motion
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/21/kent-bellows-soul-in-motion/
Kent Bellows legacy lives on
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/13/bellows-legacy-lives-on
Young artist steps out of the shadows of towering presence in his life
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/03/a-young-artist-s…ence-in-his-life
Exhibit by photographer Jim Krantz and his artist grandfather, the late David Bialac engages in art conversation through the generations
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/28/photographer-jim…-the-generations/
Book explores University of Nebraska at Omaha’s rich history
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/02/book-explores-un…has-rich-history/
A brief history of Omaha’s civil rights struggle distilled in black and white by photographer Rudy Smith
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/05/02/a-brief-history-…apher-rudy-smit
Rich music history long untold revealed and celebrated by Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/02/a-rich-music-his…sic-hall-of-fame/
The History Man, Gary Kastrick, and his Project OMAHA lose home base
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/03/gary-kastricks-p…es-its-home-base
Omahans recall historic 1963 march on Washington
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/08/12/omahans-recall-h…ch-on-washington
Great Migration Stories: For African Americans who left the South for Omaha, the specter of down home is never far away
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/07/30/great-migration-…s-never-far-away
THE GREAT MIGRATION: WHEREVER PEOPLE MOVE, HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/05/07/the-great-migrat…ere-the-heart-is
CIVIL RIGHTS: STANDING UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/05/07/civil-rights-sta…ake-a-difference/
The Omaha Star celebrates 75 years of black woman legacy
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/04/11/the-omaha-star-c…ack-woman-legacy
Marguerita Washington:
The woman behind the Star that never sets
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/marguerita-washi…-that-never-sets
Omaha World-Herald columnist Mike Kelly:
A storyteller for all seasons
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/04/02/omaha-world-hera…-for-all-seasons
Bob Hoig’s unintended entree into journalism leads to career six decades strong
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/01/25/bob-hoigs-uninte…cades-strong-now
Omaha Fashion Past
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/02/04/omaha-fashion-past
Theater-Fashion Maven Elaine Jabenis
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/04/theater-fashion-…n-elaine-jabenis
Timeless Fashion Illustrator Mary Mitchell: Her Work Illustrating Three Decades of Style Now Subject of New Book and Exhibition
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/01/07/timeless-fashion…k-and-exhibition
From the Archives: Warren Francke – A passion for journalism, teaching and life
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/from-the-archive…eaching-and-life/
Documentary considers Omaha’s changing face since World War II
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/15/documentary-cons…nce-world-war-ii/
Omaha Community Foundation project assesses the Omaha landscape with the goal of affecting needed change
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/05/10/omaha-community-…ng-needed-change/
Omaha Community Foundation:
A Giving Connection Serving Those Who Serve
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/09/30/omaha-community-…-those-who-serve
Everything old newly restored again at historic Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/15/everything-old-i…-church-in-omaha
Remembering Omaha Old Market original, fruit and vegetable peddler Joe Vitale
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/19/in-memory-of-a-o…ddler-joe-vitale
From the Archives: Ode to the Omaha Stockyards
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/14/from-the-archive…omaha-stockyards
Last days and halcyon times of the Omaha Stockyards remembered
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/the-last-days-an…yards-remembered/
“Memories of the Jewish Midwest: Mom and Pop Grocery Stores, Omaha, Lincoln, Greater Nebraska and Southwest Iowa”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/12/memories-of-the-…southwest-iowa-2/
Retired Omaha World-Herald military affairs newsman Howard Silber: War veteran, reporter, raconteur, bon vi vant, globetrotter
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/10/06/retired-omaha-wo…nt-globe-trotter
From the Archives: Former Omaha television photojournalist Don Chapman’s adventures in imagemaking keep him on the move
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/29/from-the-archive…-him-on-the-move
Omaha’s KVNO 90.7 FM turns 40: Commercial-free public radio station serves the community all classical music and local news
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/02/11/omahas-kvno-90-7…ent-set-it-apart
Nancy Bounds, Timeless Arbiter of Fashion Beauty, Glamour, Poise
http://leoadambiga.com/2012/02/04/nancy-bounds-a-t…ty-glamour-poise
Charles Jones: Looking Homeward
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/03/looking-homeward/
Back in the Day:
Native Omaha Days is reunion, homecoming, heritage celebration and party all in one
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/11/back-in-the-day-…party-all-in-one
Native Omaha Days: A Black is Beautiful celebration, now, and all the days gone by
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/04/native-omaha-day…the-days-gone-by
The Ties that Bind:
One family’s celebration of Native Omaha Days
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/11/the-ties-that-bi…ative-omaha-days
photo by Cyclops-Optic (Jack David Hubbell)
My Brother’s Keeper, The competitive drive MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson’s older brother, Josh, instilled in him (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/30/my-brothers-keep…instilled-in-him
Luigi’s Legacy, The Late Omaha Jazz Artist Luigi Waites Fondly Remembered
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/18/luigis-legacy-th…ondly-remembered/
Carole Woods Harris Makes a Habit of Breaking Barriers for Black Women in Business and Politics
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/17/carole-woods-har…ess-and-politics
By land, by sea, by air, Omaha Jewish veterans performed far-flung wartime duties
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/22/by-land-by-sea-b…g-wartime-duties
Omaha’s Tuskegee Airmen
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/18/the-tuskegee-airmen
Donovan Ketzler: Last of the Rough Riders
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/18/last-of-the-rough-riders/
Warren Buffett, left, and Stan Lipsey at the Omaha Sun in the 1970s.
An Omaha legacy ends, Wesley House Community Center shutters after 139 years — New use for site unknown
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/05/21/an-omaha-legacy-…for-site-unknown
Sun reflection: Revisiting the Omaha Sun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning expose of Boys Town
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/28/sun-reflection-r…ose-on-boys-town/
Burden of Dreams:
The trials of Omaha’s Black Museum
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/14/burden-of-dreams…a’s-black-museum
Long and winding saga of Great Plains Black History Museum takes new turn
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/14/long-and-winding…kes-a-new-turn-2/
Coloring History:
A long, hard road for UNO Black Studies
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/25/coloring-history…no-black-studies
Omaha’s Monty Ross talks about making history with Spike Lee
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/06/monty-ross-talks…-with-since-1981/
Radio One queen Cathy Hughes rules by keeping it real: Native Omahan created Urban Radio format
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/29/radio-one-queen-…-keeping-it-real/
Show goes on at Omaha Community Playhouse, where Henry Fonda and Dorothy McGuire got their start
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/04/the-show-goes-on
Omaha’s Grand Old Lady, The Orpheum Theater
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/omahas-grand-old…-orpheum-theater
Magical mystery tour of Omaha’s Magic Theatre, a Megan Terry and Jo Ann Schmidman production
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/19/the-magical-myst…idman-production
Nancy Duncan: Her final story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/09/her-final-story
From the Archives: Nancy Duncan’s journey to storytelling took circuitous route
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/01/from-the-archive…circutious-route
Bertha’s Battle: Bertha Calloway, the Grand Lady of Lake Street, struggles to keep the Great Plains Black History Museum afloat
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/berthas-battle
Requiem for a Heavyweight, the Ron Stander Story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/requiem-for-a-heavyweight
This version of Simon Says positions Omaha Steaks as food service juggernaut
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/15/this-version-of-…rvice-juggernaut
Bedrock values at core of four-generation All Makes Office Furniture Company
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/17/bedrock-values-a…urniture-company/
Customer-first philosophy makes family-owned Kohll’s Pharmacy and Homecare stand out from the crowd
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/18/customer-first-p…t-from-the-crowd
Altman on Altman: A look at the late American auteur Robert Altman through the eyes of his grandson, indie Omaha filmmaker Dana Altman, and other cinephiles
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/altman-on-altman
A Contrary Path to Social Justice: The De Porres Club and the fight for equality in Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/01/a-contrary-path-…quality-in-omaha
University of Nebraska at Omaha Wrestling dynasty built on tide of social change
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/30/uno-wrestling-dy…of-social-change
Academy Award-nominated documentary “A Time for Burning” captured church and community struggle with racism
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/12/15/a-time-for-burni…ggle-with-racism
When Omaha’s North 24th Street brought together Jews and Blacks in a melting pot marketplace
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/30/when-omahas-nort…-that-is-no-more
Filmmaker Alexander Payne and his father George remember the family’s Virginia Cafe
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/04/01/filmmaker-alexan…ys-virginia-cafe/
Billy Melton served with Omaha’s “Sweet Sixteen” in the all black 530th Quartermaster Battalion
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/30/omahas-sweet-six…master-battalion
In her 101 years, ex-vaudeville dancer Maude Wangberg has lived a whirl of splendor
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/in-her-101-years…hirl-of-splendor/
The Brandeis Story:
Great Plains family-owned department store empire
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/07/the-brandeis-sto…the-great-plains
In Memoriam: George Eisenberg
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/03/27/in-memoriam-george-eisenberg
Charles Hall’s Fair Deal Cafe
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/05/11/charles-halls-fair-deal-cafe
Deadeye Marcus “Mac” McGee still a straight shooter at 100
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/15/deadeye-marcus-m…t-shooter-at-100
The series and the stadium: CWS and Rosenblatt are home to the Boys of Summer
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/25/the-series-and-t…e-boys-of-summer/
A Rosenblatt Tribute
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/a-rosenblatt-tribute
El Puente: Attempting to bridge divide between grassroots community and the system
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/22/el-puente-attemp…y-and-the-system/
Rabbi Azriel: Legacy as social progressive and interfaith champion secure
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/05/15/rabbi-azriel-leg…-champion-secure
Nebraska’s Changing Face; UNO’s Changing Face
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/03/18/nebraskas-changi…os-changing-face
Good Shepherds of North Omaha:
Ministers and Churches Making a Difference in Area of Great Need
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/04/the-shepherds-of…ea-of-great-need
©Omaha World-Herald
When Rosenblatt was Municipal Stadium. At the first game, from left: Steve Rosenblatt; Rex Barney; Bob Hall, owner of the Omaha Cardinals; Duce Belford, Brooklyn Dodgers scout and Creighton athletic director; Richie Ashburn, a native of Tilden, Neb.; Johnny Rosenblatt; and Johnny Hopp of Hastings, Neb.
Art imitates life for “Having Our Say” stars, sisters
Camille Metoyer Moten and Lanette Metoyer Moore, and their brother Ray Metoyer
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/02/05/art-imitates-lif…ther-ray-metoyer
Brenda Allen’s real life ccuntry music drama took her from Nebraska to Vietnam to Vegas
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/06/01/brenda-allens-re…vietnam-to-vegas
Ex-reporter Eileen Wirth pens book on Nebraska women in journalism and their leap from society page to front page
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/03/22/ex-reporter-eile…ge-to-front-page
Documentary shines light on civil rights powerbroker Whitney Young: Producer Bonnie Boswell to discuss film and Young
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/03/21/documentary-shin…e-film-and-young/
Free Radical Ernie Chambers subject of new biography by author Tekla Agbala Ali Johnson
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/12/05/free-radical-ern…bala-ali-johnson
Creighton College of Business anchored in pioneering entrepreneurial spirit and Jesuit philosophy
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/19/creighton-colleg…esuit-philosophy
Gender equity in sports has come a long way, baby; Title IX activists-advocates who fought for change see much progress and the need for more
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/gender-equity-in…he-need-for-more/
One Helluva Broad: Mary Galligan Cornett
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/09/one-helluva-broa…galligan-cornett
When a building isn’t just a building:
LaFern Willams South YMCA facelift reinvigorates community
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/03/when-a-building-…-just-a-buildin
Carolina Quezada leading rebound of Latino Center of the Midlands
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/05/03/carolina-quezada…-of-the-midlands
Allan Noddle’s food industry adventures show him the world
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/28/allan-noddles-ad…ow-him-the-world
Devotees hold fast to the Latin rite
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/15/devotees-hold-fa…o-the-latin-rite/
Steve Rosenblatt: A legacy of community service, political ambition and baseball adoration
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/27/steve-rosenblatt…seball-adoration
From the Archives:
Peony Park not just an amusement playground, but a multi-use events facility
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/08/from-the-archive…-events-facility
Making the case for a Nebraska Black Sports Hall of Fame
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/27/making-the-case-…rts-hall-of-fame
El Museo Latino opened as Midwest’s first Latino art and history museum-cultural center
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/06/14/el-museo-latino-…r-in-the-midwest/
The Garcia Girls
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/06/the-garcia-girls
South Omaha’s Jim Ramirez: A Man of the People
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/01/jim-ramirez-a-man-of-the-people
Community-builders Jose and Linda Garcia Devote Themselves to a Life Promoting Latino Art, Culture, History
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/09/30/community-builde…-culture-history/
Jose and Linda Garcia find new outlet for their magnificent obsession in the Mexican American Historical Society of the Midlands
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/25/jose-and-linda-g…-of-the-midlands/
Parween Arghandaywal pronounces words during English class at the University of Nebraska Omaha for visiting Afghan teachers in 2002. (©Omaha World-Herald Photo by Bill Batson)
Afghan women arrived in Omaha under the sponsorship of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Saleemah, a teacher from Kabul and wearing a scarf is hugged by Masuma Basheer, an employee of America West Airlines in Omaha and a formerly from Afghanistan. (©Omaha World-Herald photo by Bill Batson)
Tom Gouttierre conferring UNO honorary status on Hamid Karzai during the then-Afghan president’s visit to Omaha
UNO Center for Afghanistan Studies plays role in multi-national efforts to restore Afghan educational system
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/25/uno-center-for-a…ucational-system
UNO Afghanistan Teacher Education Project trains women educators from the embattled nation
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/20/uno-afghanistan-…embattled-nation/
The enchanted life of Florence Taminosian Young, daughter of a whirling dervish
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/10/the-enchanted-li…whirling-dervish
Louise Abrahamson’s legacy of giving finds perfect fit at The Clothesline, the Boys Town thrift store the octogenarian founded and still runs
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/05/louise-abrahamso…uns-at-boys-town
Shirley Goldstein: Cream of the Crop – one woman’s remarkable journey in the Free Soviet Jewry movement
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/05/shirley-goldstei…t-jewry-movement
An Open Invitation: Rev. Tom Fangman Engages All Who Seek or Need at Sacred Heart Catholic Church
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/01/09/an-open-invitati…-catholic-church
The Sweet Sounds of Sacred Heart’s Freedom Choir
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/10/the-sweet-sounds…ts-freedom-choir
Salem’s Voices of Victory Gospel Choir Gets Justified with the Lord
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/07/salems-voices-of…ed-with-the-lord
After steep decline, the Wesley House rises under Paul Bryant to become youth academy of excellence in the inner city
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/27/after-a-steep-de…n-the-inner-city
Song girl Ann Ronell
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/19/song-girl-ann-ronell/
A Family Thing: Bryant-Fisher Family Reunion
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/04/a-family-thing-b…r-family-reunion
Rev. Everett Reynolds Gave Voice to the Voiceless
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/18/rev-everett-reyn…to-the-voiceless
From the Archives: Minister makes no concession to retirement, plans busy travel, filmmaking schedule
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/01/from-the-archive…mmaking-schedule
From the Archives: Golden Boy Dick Mueller of Omaha leads Firehouse Theatre revival
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/09/23/from-the-archive…-theatre-revival/
Requiem for a Dynasty: UNO Wrestling
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/28/requiem-for-a-dy…ville-university/
UNO wrestling dynasty built on tide of social change
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/03/17/uno-wrestling-dy…-social-change-2/
Magazine and mission founded on spirit of giving: Metro Magazine publisher Andy Hoig celebrates philanthropy
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/03/06/a-magazine-and-a…tes-philanthropy/
Lucile’s Old Market, Mother Hubbard magnificent obsession: From one eccentric to another – Mary Thompson on her late mother Lucile Schaaf
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/11/28/luciles-old-market/
Finding Forefathers: Lincoln Motion Picture Company Film Festival gives nod to past and offers glimpse of future
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/11/20/finding-forefath…limpse-of-future
Freedom riders: A get on the bus inauguration diary
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/21/get-on-the-bus-a…-ride-to-freedom
Joan Micklin Silver: Maverick filmmaker helped shape American independent film scene and opened doors for women directors
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/10/joan-micklin-sil…-women-directors
Joan Micklin Silver: Shattering cinema’s glass ceiling
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/18/shattering-cinemas-glass-ceiling
Sam Cooper’s freedom road
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/07/sam-cooper’s-freedom-road/
Man on fire: Activist Ben Gray’s flame burns bright
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/09/02/ben-gray-man-on-fire
Two blended houses of worship desegregate Sunday: Episcopal Church of the Resurrection and New Life Presbyterian are houses undivided
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/30/two-blended-hous…houses-unidvided
Hidden In plain view: Rudy Smith’s camera and memory fix on critical time in struggle for equality
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/29/hidden-in-plain-…gle-for-equality/
Isabella Threlkeld’s lifetime pursuit of art and ideas yields an uncommon life
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/04/isabella-threlke…an-uncommon-life/
Men of Science
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/02/men-of-science/
Blacks of Distinction
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/18/blacks-of-distinction-2
The Myers Legacy of Caring and Community
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/11/the-myers-legacy…ng-and-community
Cool Cat Billy and the Sportin’ Life
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/01/sportin-life
Art Missionaries, Bob and Roberta Rogers and their Gallery 72
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/art-missionaries
Get your jitney on: August Wilson play “Jitney” at the John Beasley Theater resonates with cast and crew
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/18/get-your-jitney-on
Puttin’ On the Ritz: Billy Melton and the crew Rrcall the Ritz Cab Co.
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/18/puttin-on-the-ritz
A force of nature named Evie:
Still a maverick social justice advocate at 100
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/16/a-force-of-natur…e-advocate-at-99
THE WORLD-HERALD
The Storz Saga: A Family Dynasty – Their Mansion, the Brewery that Built It, the Man Who Loved It, a Legacy of Giving, the Loss of a Dream
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/15/the-storz-saga-a…-loss-of-a-dream
The Magnificent Obsession of Art Storz Jr., the Old Man and the Mansion
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/15/the-magnificent-…-and-the-mansion
Gospel playwright Llana Smith enjoys her Big Mama’s time
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/07/gospel-playwrigh…r-big-mamas-time
Doug Marr, Diner Theater and keeping the faith
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/doug-marr-keeping-the-faith
When We Were Kings: A Vintage Pro Wrestling Story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/04/when-we-were-kin…-wrestling-story
RIP Preston Love Sr., 1921-2004. He Played at Everything
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/03/preston-love-192…ed-at-everything/
Preston Love: His voice will not be stilled
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/03/preston-love-his…l-not-be-stilled
The Smooth Jazz Stylings of Mr. Saturday Night, Preston Love Sr.
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/03/mr-saturday-night/
North Omaha champion Frank Brown fights the good fight
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/01/15/north-omaha-cham…s-the-good-fight
John and Pegge Hlavacek’s globe-trotting adventures as foreign correspondents
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/02/john-and-pegge-h…n-correspondents
When Boys Town became the center of the film world
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/when-boys-town-b…f-the-film-world/
Flanagan-Monsky example of social justice and interfaith harmony still shows the way seven decades later
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/flanagan-monsky-…y-60-years-later
Rich Boys Town sports legacy recalled
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/rich-boys-town-s…-legacy-recalled/
Winners Circle: Couple’s journey of self-discovery ends up helping thousands of at-risk kids through early intervention educational program
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/couples-journey-…-of-at-risk-kids
Otis Twelve’s Radio Days
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/otis-twelves-radio-days/
Thomas Gouttierre: In Search of a Lost Dream, An American’s Afghan Odyssey
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/19/in-search-of-a-l…s-afghan-odyssey
Goodwin’s Spencer Street Barber Shop:
We Cut Heads and Broaden Minds, Too
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/29/goodwins-spencer…roaden-minds-too/
Now Wasn’t That a Time? Helen Jones Woods and the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/29/17
Black Women in Music
Life Itself XI: Sports Stories from the 2000s
Life Itself XI:
Sports Stories from the 2000s
Giving a helping hand to Nebraska greats
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/03/08/giving-a-helping…-nebraska-greats/
The State of Volleyball: How Nebraska Became the Epicenter of American Volleyball
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/01/21/the-state-of-vol…rican-volleyball/
Huskers’ Winning Tradition: Surprise Return to the Top for Nebraska Volleyball
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/01/21/huskers-winning-…raska-volleyball/
An Omaha Hockey Legend in the Making: Jake Guentzel Reflects on Historic Rookie Season
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/07/10/an-omaha-hockey-…ic-rookie-season
Boxing coach Jose Campos molds young men
https://leoadambiga.com/2018/02/01/boxing-coach-jos…-molds-young-men
From couch potato to champion pugilist
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/11/22/from-couch-potat…hampion-pugilist
Living legend Tom Osborne still winning game of life at 79
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/10/27/living-legend-to…me-of-life-at-79/
The end of a never-meant-to-be Nebraska football dynasty has a school and a state fruitlessly pursuing a never-again-to-be-harnessed rainbow
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/26/the-end-of-a-nev…arnessed-rainbow/
Baseball and Soul Food at Omaha Rockets Kanteen
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/06/23/baseball-and-soul-food/
Soul food eatery Omaha Rockets Kanteen conjures Negro Leagues past and pot liquor love menu
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/11/17/soul-food-eatery…liquor-love-menu
A case of cognitive athletic dissonance
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/17/a-case-of-cognit…letic-dissonance/
Thoughts on recent gathering of Omaha Black Sports Legends
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/09/29/thoughts-on-rece…k-sports-legends/
From left, Bob Gibson, Marlin Briscoe, Johnny Rodgers and Ron Boone pose for a picture during a special dinner “An Evening With the Magician” honoring Marlin Briscoe at Baxter Arena on Thursday.
Marlin Briscoe: The Magician Finally Gets His Due
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/12/27/marlin-briscoe-t…lly-gets-his-due/
UPDATE TO: Marlin Briscoe finally getting his due
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/09/20/marlin-briscoe-f…-getting-his-due/
Marlin Briscoe: Still making history
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/12/10/marlin-briscoe-n…-of-fame-be-next/
Marlin Briscoe – An Appreciation
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/05/13/marlin-briscoe-an-appreciation
Pad man Esau Dieguez gets world champ Terence Crawford ready
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/04/25/pad-man-esau-die…e-crawford-ready
Some thoughts on the HBO documentary “My Fight” about Terence Crawford
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/12/some-thoughts-on…terence-crawford
Omaha warrior Terence Crawford wins again but his greatest fight may be internal
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/05/21/omaha-warrior-te…-may-be-internal
Terence “Bud” Crawford is Nebraska’s most impactful athlete of all-time
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/12/09/terence-bud-craw…lete-of-all-time/
.jpg)
©Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank
TERENCE CRAWFORD STAMPS HIS PLACE AMONG OMAHA GREATS
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/02/24/terence-crawford…ong-omaha-greats
This is what greatness looks like. Terence Crawford: Forever the People’s Champ
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/24/terence-crawford…he-peoples-champ
New approach, same expectation for South soccer
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/04/14/new-approach-sam…for-south-soccer/
South High soccer keeps pushing the envelope
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/05/06/south-high-socce…ing-the-envelope
Masterful: Joe Maass leads Omaha South High soccer evolution
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/04/24/masterful-joe-ma…soccer-evolution
The Chubick Way comes full circle with father-son coaching tandem at Omaha South
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/03/03/the-chubick-way-…m-at-omaha-south
A good man’s job is never done: Bruce Chubick honored for taking South to top
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/07/19/a-good-mans-job-…ing-south-to-top
Bruce Chubick builds winner at South: State title adds capstone to strong foundation
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/18/bruce-chubick-bu…trong-foundation
Storybook hoops dream turns cautionary tale for Omaha South star Aguek Arop
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/09/18/storybook-hoops-…-star-aguek-arop/
What if Creighton’s hoops destiny team is not the men, but the women?
https://leoadambiga.com/2017/02/08/what-if-creighto…en-but-the-women
Diversity finally comes to the NU volleyball program
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/11/14/diversity-finall…lleyball-program
Ann Schatz on her own terms – Veteran sportscaster broke the mold in Omaha
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/30/ann-schatz-on-he…he-mold-in-omaha/
The Silo Crusher: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Trev Alberts
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/08/27/the-silo-crusher…ove-trev-alberts
Former Husker All-American Trev Alberts Tries Making UNO Athletics’ Slogan, ‘Omaha’s Team,’ a Reality
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/15/former-husker-al…s-team-a-reality
Omaha North superstar back Calvin Strong overcomes bigger obstacles than tacklers; Record-setting rusher poised to lead defending champion Vikings to another state title
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/08/29/omaha-north-supe…ther-state-title/
Having Survived War in Sudan, Refugee Akoy Agau Discovered Hoops in America and the Major College Recruit is Now Poised to Lead Omaha Central to a Third Straight State Title
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/01/having-survived-…ight-state-title
Dean Blais Has UNO Hockey Dreaming Big
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/01/29/dean-blais-has-u…key-dreaming-big
Gender equity in sports has come a long way, baby; Title IX activists-advocates who fought for change see much progress and the need for more
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/11/gender-equity-in…he-need-for-more
Omaha fight doctor Jack Lewis of two minds about boxing
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/21/omaha-fight-doct…nds-about-boxing
An Ode to Ali: Forever the Greatest
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/04/an-od-to-ali-forever-the-greatest
A Kansas City Royals reflection
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/01/a-kansas-city-royals-reflection
Bob Boozer, basketball immortal, posthumously inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/05/20/bob-boozer-baske…all-hall-of-fame/
Firmly Rooted: The Story of Husker Brothers
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/09/firmly-rooted-th…usker-brothers-2
Sparring for Omaha: Boxer Terence Crawford Defends His Title in the City He Calls Home
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/01/08/sparring-for-oma…ty-he-calls-home
The Champ looks to impact more youth at his B&B Boxing Academy
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/14/the-champ-looks-…ations-expansion/
The Champ Goes to Africa: Terence Crawford Visits Uganda and Rwanda with his former teacher, this reporter and friends
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/06/26/the-champ-goes-t…rter-and-friends
My travels in Uganda and Rwanda, Africa with Pipeline Worldwide’s Jamie Fox Nollette, Terence Crawford and Co.
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/08/01/my-travels-in-ug…-crawford-and-co
Omaha conquering hero Terence Crawford adds second boxing title to his legend; Going to Africa with The Champ; B&B Boxing Academy builds champions inside and outside the ring
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/04/21/omaha-conquering…outside-the-ring/
UNO hockey staking its claim
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/06/uno-hockey-staking-its-claim
Austin Ortega leads UNO hockey to new heights
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/05/austin-ortega-le…y-to-new-heights
Homegrown Joe Arenas made his mark in college and the NFL
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/03/05/homegrown-joe-ar…lege-and-the-nfl/
High-flying McNary big part of Creighton volleyball success; Senior outside hitter’s play has helped raise program stature
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/10/24/high-flying-mcna…-program-stature
Doug McDermott’s magic carpet ride to college basketball Immortality: The stuff of jegends and legacies
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/05/06/doug-mcdermotts-…nds-and-legacies/
UNO resident folk hero Dana Elsasser’s softball run coming to an end: Hard-throwing pitcher to leave legacy of overcoming obstacles
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/04/28/uno-resident-fol…coming-obstacles
HOMETOWN HERO TERENCE CRAWFORD ON VERGE OF GREATNESS AND BECOMING BOXING’S NEXT SUPERSTAR
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/10/23/hometown-hero-te…s-next-superstar
Terence “Bud” Crawford in the fight of his life for lightweight title: top contender from Omaha’s mean streets looks to make history
https://leoadambiga.com/2014/02/25/terence-bud-craw…-to-make-history
In his corner: Midge Minor is trainer, friend, father figure to pro boxing contender Terence “Bud” Crawford
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/07/30/in-his-corner-mi…nce-bud-crawford
Giving kids a fighting chance: Carl Washington and his CW Boxing Club and Youth Resource Center
https://leoadambiga.com/2013/12/03/giving-kids-a-fi…-resource-center/
JOHN C. JOHNSON: Standing Tall
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/05/14/john-c-johnson-standing-tall
Deadeye Marcus “Mac” McGee still a straight shooter at 100
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/03/15/deadeye-marcus-m…t-shooter-at-100
Rich Boys Town sports legacy recalled
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/rich-boys-town-s…-legacy-recalled/
The series and the stadium: CWS and Rosenblatt are home to the Boys of Summer
https://leoadambiga.com/2016/06/25/the-series-and-t…e-boys-of-summer
Hoops legend Abdul-Jabbar talks history
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/09/hoops-legend-abd…ar-talks-history
The man behind the voice of Husker football at Memorial Stadium
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/20/the-man-behind-t…memorial-stadium
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum exhibits on display for the College World Series;
In bringing the shows to Omaha the Great Plains Black History Museum announces it’s back
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/05/17/negro-leagues-ba…nounces-its-back
Steve Rosenblatt: A legacy of community service, political ambition and baseball adoration
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/27/steve-rosenblatt…seball-adoration/
Houston Alexander, “The Assassin”
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/22/houston-alexander-the-assassin
The Pit Boxing Club is Old-School Throwback to Boxing Gyms of Yesteryear
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/01/04/the-pit-boxing-c…ms-of-yesteryear
The Last Hurrah for Hoops Wizard Darcy Stracke
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/17/the-last-hurrah-…rd-darcy-stracke/
Going to Extremes: Professional Cyclist Todd Herriott
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/11/25/going-to-extreme…st-todd-herriott/
Danny Woodhead, The Mighty Mite from North Platte Makes Good in the NFL
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/10/05/danny-woodhead-t…-good-in-the-nfl/
Kenton Keith’s long and winding journey to football redemption
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/07/04/kenton-keiths-lo…tball-redemption/
One Peach of a Pitcher: Peaches James Leaves Enduring Legacy in the Circle as a Nebraska Softball Legend
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/10/one-peach-of-a-p…-softball-legend
Green Bay Packers All-Pro Running Back Ahman Green Channels Comic Book Hero Batman and Gridiron Icons Walter Payton and Bo Jackson on the Field
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/05/green-bay-packer…son-on-the-field
Ron Stander: One-time Great White Hope still making rounds for friends in need
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/ron-stander-stil…-friends-in-need
Buck O’Neil and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City Offer a Living History Lesson about the National Pastime from a Black Perspective
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/27/buck-o’neil-and-…lack-perspective
Memories of Baseball Legend Buck O’Neil and the Negro Leagues Live On
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/memories-of-buck…-leagues-live-on
My Midwest Baseball Odyssey Diary
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/11/my-midwest-baseball-odyssey-diary
Lifetime Friends, Native Sons, Entrepreneurs Michael Green and Dick Davis Lead Efforts to Revive North Omaha and to Empower its Black Citizenry
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/20/lifetime-friends…-black-citizenry
A Good Deal: George Pfeifer and Tom Krehbiel are the Ties that Bind Boys Town Hoops
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/a-good-deal-geor…-boys-town-hoops/
Tom Lovgren, A Good Man to Have in Your Corner
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/03/tom-lovgren-a-go…e-in-your-corner/
Omaha’s Fight Doctor, Jack Lewis, and His Boxing Cronies Weigh-in On Omaha Hosting the National Golden Gloves
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/20/omahas-fight-doc…al-golden-gloves/
The Fighting Hernandez Brothers
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/06/the-fighting-hernandez-brothers/
Redemption, A Boys Town Grad Tyrice Ellebb Finds His Way
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/06/redemption
Wright On, Adam Wright Has it All Figured Out Both On and Off the Football Field
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/06/wright-on
A Rosenblatt Tribute
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/a-rosenblatt-tribute
The Little People’s Ambassador at the College World Series
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/26/the-little-peopl…ege-world-series/
The Two Jacks of the College World Series
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/26/the-two-jacks-of…ege-world-series
UNO wrestling dynasty built on tide of social change
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/03/17/uno-wrestling-dy…-social-change-2
Requiem for a Dynasty: UNO Wrestling
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/07/28/requiem-for-a-dy…ville-university/
UNO Wrestling Retrospective – Way of the Warrior, House of Pain, Day of Reckoning
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/08/21/a-three-part-uno…day-of-reckoning/
Omaha native Steve Marantz looks back at city’s ’68 racial divide through prism of hoops in new book, “The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central”
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/04/01/omaha-native-ste…of-omaha-central/
It’s a Hoops Culture at The SAL, Omaha’s Best Rec Basketball League
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/06/its-a-hoops-cult…asketball-league/
Born again ex-gangbanger and pugilist, now minister, Servando Perales makes Victory Boxing Club his mission church for saving youth from the streets
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/19/born-again-ex-ga…from-the-streets/
Fight Girl Autumn Anderson
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/fight-girl/
Brotherhood of the Ring, Omaha’s CW Boxing Club
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/19/brotherhood-of-the-ring/
Harley Cooper, The Best Boxer You’ve Never Heard Of
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/05/harley-cooper-th…e-never-heard-of/
Requiem for a Heavyweight, the Ron Stander Story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/31/requiem-for-a-heavyweight/
When We Were Kings, A Vintage Pro Wrestling Story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/04/when-we-were-kin…-wrestling-story/
Heart and Soul, A Mutt and Jeff Boxing Story
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/04/heart-and-soul/
The Downtown Boxing Club’s House of Discipline
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/04/the-downtown-box…se-of-discipline
Making the case for a Nebraska Black Sports Hall of Fame
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/03/27/making-the-case-…rts-hall-of-fame/
OUT TO WIN – THE ROOTS OF GREATNESS: OMAHA’S BLACK SPORTS LEGENDS
https://leoadambiga.com/2015/12/20/out-to-win-the-r…k-sports-legends/
Opening Installment from my series Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness
An exploration of Omaha’s Black Sports Legends
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/10/from-my-series-o…k-sports-legends
Closing Installment from my series Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness
An appreciation of Omaha’s Black Sports Legends
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/10/closing-installm…k-sports-legends/
Bob Gibson, A Stranger No More (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/06/16/bob-gibson-a-stranger-no-more
Bob Gibson, the Master of the Mound remains his own man years removed from the diamond (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/18/bob-gibson-the-m…from-the-diamond/
My Brother’s Keeper, The competitive drive MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson’s older brother, Josh, instilled in him (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/04/30/my-brothers-keep…instilled-in-him/
Johnny Rodgers, Forever Young, Fast, and Running Free (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/18/johnny-rodgers-f…ots-of-greatness/
Ron Boone, still an Iron Man after all these years (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/18/ron-boone-still-…ots-of-greatness
The Brothers Sayers: Big legend Gale Sayers and little legend Roger Sayers (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/15/the-brothers-say…end-roger-sayers/
Bob Boozer, Basketball Immortal (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/14/bob-boozer-basketball-immortal
Prodigal Son: Marlin Briscoe takes long road home (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/08/13/prodigal-son-mar…e-long-road-home/
Don Benning: Man of Steel (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/17/don-benning-man-…ots-of-greatness
Dana College Legend Marion Hudson, the greatest athlete you’ve never heard of before (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/07/14/marion-hudson-th…ots-of-greatness/
Soul on Ice – Man on Fire: The Charles Bryant Story (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2011/12/09/soul-on-ice-man-…ots-of-greatness/
The Boxers – Sweet Scientists from The Hood (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win Series: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/11/from-my-series-o…ts-from-the-hood/
The Wrestlers – Masters in the Way of the Mat (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win Series: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/08/11/from-my-series-o…e-way-of-the-mat
A Brief History of Omaha’s Black, Urban, Inner-City Hoops Scene (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/25/from-my-series-o…city-hoops-scene/
Neal Mosser, A Straight-Shooting Son-of-a-Gun (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/06/16/from-my-series-o…ing-son-of-a-gun
Alexander the Great’s Wrestling Dynasty – Champion Wrestler and Coach Curlee Alexander on Winning (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/17/from-my-series-o…ander-on-winning
Black Women Make Their Mark in Athletics (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
https://leoadambiga.com/2012/04/10/from-the-series-…ark-in-athletics
Life Itself IX: Media and related articles from the analog past to today’s digital era
Ariel Roblin
Mike Kelly
Howard Silber
Warren Buffett, left, and Stan Lipsey at the Omaha Sun in the 1970s.
Doug Wesselmann, aka Otis Twelve
Journalist-author Genoways takes micro and macro look at the U.S, food system
Journalist-author Genoways takes micro and macro look at the U.S, food system
©by Leo Adam Biga,
Originally published in the Summer 2018 issue of Food & Spirits Magazine (http://fsmomaha.com)
It should come as no surprise that a writer who chronicled a year in the life of a Nebraska farm family, exposed the dangers of a broken American food system and is now researching Mexico’s tequila industry has always marched to the beat of a different drummer.
Growing up, Ted Genoways was encouraged to read books well beyond his years by his natural museum administrator father, Hugh H. Genoways. That was okay with the youngster because he liked reading, even though it took his dad makiing a bargain with him to replace comic books with classics.
The great American interpreter of the common man’s struggles, author John Steinbeck, became an inspiration for Genoways and remains so today. The exposes of muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair further lit a fire in him – that still burns – to stand up for the underdog.
“I just recently got fascinated by the work done by the ‘Stunt Girls,’ the forerunners of the muckrakers and the first undercover investigators. Their whole notion was to get into spaces hidden from public view and write about what was going on there in order to bring public pressure to bear and change conditions.”
Following in the footsteps of these socially conscious writers, Genoways has documented the hardships facing small farmers, migrants and immigrants and he’s explored the effects of big ag on towns and families.
Storytelling has captivated him for as long as he can remember. “Strangely fascinated” by the stories others told him, Genoways developed a habit of writing them down and illustrating them, a precursor to the student journalism he practiced in high school and college and to his career today as journalist and author.
Some of the stories he heard as a boy that most captured his imagination concerned his paternal grandfather’s experiences working on Nebraska farms and in Omaha meatpacking plants. Though Genoways hails from an urban background, this city boy has repeatedly turned to rural reaches for his work. After all his travels, including a short stint in Minnesota and a decade-plus back east as editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Lincoln, Nebraska is where he now calls home.
His father’s work meant a nomadic life for Genoways. He was born in Lubbock, Texas and grew up in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, where the family stood out both for lack of want and for the title, Dr., his Ph.D. father carried. Most of his friends and schoolmates were the sons and daughters of blue-collar working parents, some of whom were laid off by the mills and struggling to get by. By contrast, his father was curator of mammals at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
When the elder Genoways accepted the directorship of the Nebraska State Museum, the family moved to Lincoln in 1986. At Lincoln East High School, Genoways found in Jim Schaffer the first of two crucial mentors in his foundational years as an aspiring published writer.
“Jim was our journalism teacher and the publications advisor,” said Genoways, who with some fellow students and the encouragement of Schaffer founded a school magazine, Muse. Only three years after its launch the Columbia School of Journalism named it the nation’s best high school publication.
“That whole experience of working on that magazine was really formative. It was also a case where because we were all so new to that stuff, we didn’t think a lot about genre distinctions. We were all writing fiction and poetry and descriptive pieces and to whatever extent a high school student can we were trying to report on things that seemed to be of broader significance – national issues and things relevant to the school.”
Muse getting singled-out resulted in Genoways and his classmates going to New York to accept the Columbia recognition. By virtue of Schaffer working on a dissertation about baseball columnist Roger Angell, the Nebraska group got entree to visit the legend at his New Yorker magazine office during their Manhattan trip.
“It was quite an experience. We went also to Spy Magazine, which we were interested in because one of the editors, Kurt Andersen, was from Omaha.”
Three decades later, Genoways is now the established professional emerging young writers seek out.
All in all, he said Muse proved “definitely an important beginning point for me.”
It worked out that Genoways and Schaffer matriculated to Nebraska Wesleyan University at the same time – to study and teach, respectively. Again, with Schaffer’s blessing, Genoways founded a magazine, Coyote.
“It was more ambitious and probably more openly irreverent,” Genoways said. “It was something we really enjoyed. it was a great incubator for just trying out all kinds of ideas and really seeing what a magazine could be.”
At Wesleyan, Genoways found another key influence in the late state poet William Kloefkorn.
“To have an interest as I did in both the literary side and the journalistic side and then getting to work with Bill Kloefkorn at Nebraska Wesleyan while also working with Jim there was really ideal. I’ve had a lot of great teachers over the years, but I think it would be pretty impossible to match the kind of wisdom and knowledge Bill had with that incredible generosity. He was always teaching and always glad to share his thoughts with young people who were wanting to know more. I feel really lucky to have had somebody like that at a point when I was just getting started.”
Genoways soaked it all in.
“I was an English major with a creative writing-poetry emphasis and thesis but was a journalism minor. I would say over time my interests and my work have moved back and forth between those things. But I don’t see them as all that different. I mean, my first book of poems, Bullroarer, was kind of a reimagining of the life of my grandfather, who worked in a meatpacking plant in Omaha when he was young, and that definitely was part of what got me interested in investigating the meatpacking industry and writing the book The Chain (Farm, Factory and the Fate of Our Food).”
A particular story oft-told by the author’s father influenced Genoways eventually writing The Chain.
“When my dad was a kid. the family came to Fort Calhoun for Easter. And for whatever reason, his father thought it would be a good idea to show him where the Easter ham comes from. The story is that my grandfather worked in the Swift packinghouse, He took him into the kill floor there. My father said he didn’t know exactly what his dad was thinking taking an 8 or 10 year old kid to see the hogs being slaughtered, but it made a real impression on him.”
As an adult, Genoways sees an interconnected tood system full of health hazards that span the planting, fertilizing and harvesting of the grain that feeds livestock to the ways animals are housed, killed and processed.
“The Chain was this whole idea of wanting to see this go from seed to slaughter.”
More family lore has spurred his work.
“My grandfather’s upbringing during the Great Depression and landing out in western Nebraska on a farm and raising my dad out there was a big part of what was behind writing This Blessed Earth (A Year in the Life of an American Family Farm). That’s the reason there’s kind of a coda at the end, where I go back to some of those places I remember from my childhood with my dad – but now with a new understanding of all the pressures my grandfather had been under and all the factors that had helped shape my dad’s childhood.
“So to me it’s all part of the same work – it’s just different ways of approaching it and reaching different audiences. But also I suppose kind of testing out what medium and what approach works best for different kinds of material.”
He has used literary journalistic prose and straight investigative reporting for examinations of unsafe, unsanitary conditions at Hormel hog plants in Austin, Minnesota and Fremont, Nebraska and animal abuse in Iowa and for his delineation of challenges facing small family farmers. His work has appeared in Mother Jones, OnEarth, Harpers and other national magazines.
“As much as I love the pure activity of the research and writing, my hope always is it does more than just entertain and inform. I would hope it’s also shining a light on issues people hadn’t thought about before and making them see the world in a different way and maybe moves them to want to do something about injustices of the world. There’s no question I’ve got a point of view. It’s one of the reasons magazine journalism, which traditionally is more forgiving on those sorts of things, feels like the right place for me.”
Genoways doesn’t shy away from showing his sympathies for the average Joe or Jill who get the shaft from big money forces beyond their control.
“I’m always starting by seeing a complex of issues or events I think are worth investigation. I always feel like what i can contribute to the conversation is constantly saying it’s not simple – here’s another complex dimension of that. I’m interested in exposing the mechanisms of systems to show how things are stacked against the little guy. So my interest is in leveling the playing field and making sure everybody gets a fair shake. But that’s really as far as my philosophy extends. I don’t have a big political agenda.”
His reporting in meatpacking company towns revealed sped-up productions lines whose workers. many illegal. suffer more injuries and illnesses. He also shed light on predominantly white Fremont’s racially-charged stands and measures to make life inhospitable for undocumented workers and their families.
Finding packers willing to talk to him can be a challenge, but he said he’s hit upon a reliable strategy of reaching out to “whoever in the community is advocating on behalf of the workers,” adding, “There’s all these nonprofits providing interpretive services or medical help or helping navigate the immigration process.” In Austin, Minnesota, where workers suffered a neurological disorder from exposure to an aerosolized mist created from liquifying hog brains, he developed enough rapport with the afflicted that he got several to sign waivers.
“That waiver allowed the state-appointed social worker for this case to turn over her records and the release of their medical records. Having these monthly reports on their progress created a timeline, a kind of verifiable trajectory for their symptoms and illness. It also then allowed me to have this record of dates to go back to the workers themselves and jog their memories. It also opened up other kinds of conversations.”
Since paranoid management makes on-site journalist observations at any plant next to impossible, Genoways finds other ways to recreate what goes on there.
“The central problem of working on anything with meatpacking is you’re almost certainly not going to see the workplace, and so you have to kind of reconstruct it from what the workers can describe but then also try to find whatever you can in the way of documentary evidence to go with that.
“in addition to second-hand accounts from line workers and supervisors,” he said “ideally I try to get applicable government inspection records and reports of problems documented at those places. so it’s a lot of triangulation rather than direct access. To me, the process is interesting. Anytime someone tries to drop the curtain to conceal what’s going on somewhere, it feels like the place we should be going and trying to see what is behind the curtain. It’s an indicator there’s something going on we should be paying attention to.”
He suggests instead of companies investing in mega security to keep prying eyes out “money might be better spent changing processes and policies so you don’t have to worry about public scrutiny.”
He and photographer wife Mary Anne Andrei have worked on magazine and book projects together.
“I love working with Mary Anne. We seem to have some kind of built-in radar that allows us to be focused on our part of the project while remaining attuned to what the other person needs. That communication means Mary Anne is asking questions in interviews and I’m sharing what I see as she’s getting shots. It’s a true collaboration.”
In the Hammonds, they found a tight-knit, fifth-generation farm clan now growing soybeans who defied a proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline route to have cut right through their property.
“Our interest really got ramped up when the neighbor to the south of them who had been renting them two quarters of ground for many years said, ‘I don’t agree with this stance you’ve taken and I’m not going to allow you to farm this ground anymore.’ The Hammonds took a real financial hit from having expressed this strong opposition to the pipeline and that was the point at which we said we’d like to spend a year as your family works to deal with struggling to make ends meet when you’ve taken a stand like that.”
Genoways saw the family as a symbol for thousands jlike them.
“They embodied so many of the challenges of modern farming as well as struggles that all family farms are up against — how big to get, how much risk to assume.
Things just kept stacking up, Prices bottomed out
There were all sorts of new pressures. And to their great credit Rick Hammond and his daughter Meghan and her fiance Kyle all said, ‘We’ve committed to doing this, we’ll stick it out. We want people to see what it’s really like here – what the stresses are.’ So they let us follow them around for that year, It was a tremendous commitment on their part and they really hung in there with us, even in times that were incredibly stressful for them.
“I hope that openness they exhibited translates into something that allows people to see just what that life is really like.”
Genoways recently returned from a trip south of the border for research on his new book, Tequila Wars: The Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico.
Visit http://www.tedgenoways.com.
Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at https://leoadambiga.com.
John Knicely: A life in television five decades strong
John Knicely: A life in television five decades strong
©Story by Leo Adam Biga
©Photos by Jeff Reinhardt
Appearing in the March 2018 issue of New Horizon
Anchormen are mainstays of the old local network affiliate television tradition that saw men, almost never women, read news on-air. Much has changed in TV in terms of gender equity. Women anchors, reporters and news directors are common now,. But there’s no getting around the fact that for a large portion of the viewing audience age 55 and above, a man delivering the news was the norm. Though men now share newscasting duties with women as part of co-anchor teams, it’s still a male-dominated field behind the camera.
Just as there’s frequent turnover in other industries, people don’t stay put in broadcast journalism very long. In TV, where ratings and focus groups rule job security and on-air personalities look to bigger markets, station hopping comes with the territory. Plus, reporting-anchoring is often a gateway to other careers, such as corporate public affairs. That’s why WOWT co-anchor John Knicely is that rarest of creatures. He’s been the face of the same station for 26 years. It constitutes the longest run by any one anchor in this market since television emerged in the late 1940s-early 1950s.
His presence on local TV extends back even further – all the way to 1974, when the Sidney, Neb. native and University of Nebraska Lincoln graduate first joined WOWT, not as a newsman but on the sports side. He was a popular Omaha TV sports figure from then through 1981, when he made his only career move outside this market to do sports in St. Louis for three years. He returned to Omaha in 1984, still doing sports, only at WOWT’s chief rival, KETV, where he was part of the top-rated local newscast team that also featured Carol Schrader, Michael Scott and Jim Flowers.
Going from sports to news and connecting with viewers
Then, in 1992, he was part of a media shakeup that made headlines when he and Flowers left No. 1 KETV for then doormate WOWT and he simultaneously made the unusual move over from the sports desk to the news desk. WOWT’s ratings climbed and he’s remained in the anchor chair ever since.
“I had heard of another sports guy who made that transition in another market,” Knicely said of the sports to news switch. “As we thought about it, my wife and I, it was a way to advance and not have to move out of town. With five kids at home at the time it was really appealing. It was, I suppose, taking a chance because you’re known for 20 years in sports and then changing over to news. But we had a really good consultant then. He said, ‘Don’t try to be any different just because you’re doing news now – be yourself’ – which was great advice. You don’t have to be something else.
“The biggest thing was meshing with my co-anchor Pat Persuad. It’s not that it had to be hard or anything. it’s just that I was always sports alone. I produced everything myself – went out into the field and did it and it was done. But in this case you’re working with somebody and there’s kind of a rhythm you need to develop and get into – and a trust . And for Pat, she had a sports guy coming in to do this. She’d had a couple previous anchors that she worked with. She was very gracious. My wife Sue and I made a point to go out to lunch with Pat so that she could get to know us better.”
In broadcast journalism, it’s all about connecting enough with viewers to make them feel comfortable having you, so to speak, in their living room or kitchen or bedroom.
“You make a connection if you’re genuine, if you’re real about who you are,” Knicely said. “There’s a comfort level I think that develops. Of course, not everybody’s going to like your style or like something about you, but that’s the business.
“You think back to the first time you were on TV and how foreign that camera lens seemed to you. You’re wondering, ‘What am I talking to?’ There’s nothing talking back to you or anything. But I think pretty early on I was able to get that and be at ease doing it, and if you’re at ease, then I think your viewer’s at ease, too.”
He actually discovered his knack for communicating to others in high school speech class.
“I got in front of the class to give a speech and I just felt comfortable, right at home. I really enjoyed it. There was something about them responding to what I said. I usually did something that I thought was humorous. You got that instant feedback” not unlike a stage performer.
“I was successful at it.”
Just as many successful communicators imagine they’re speaking to one person in the audience, Knicely said, “I think in a way I do that – it’s almost like the camera becomes that individual. It’s the only thing out there. You don’t really think about the number of people you’re being seen and heard by. but it’s definitely that projection right into that camera.”
He’s not always at his best.
“I think some nights you don’t feel like you connected as well. Maybe the copy didn’t get in early enough for you to look at it and make some changes – because it has to be conversational. That’s really critical.”
A good newscast presentation has to do with intangibles like charisma, chemistry and energy but also measurables like pace. Anything can throw the whole works off, whether a flubbed line or a technological glitch or just not feeling yourself.
Knicely’s consistently resonated with enough viewers – two generations of them – that he’s outlasted countless other local on-air talents. Along the way, he’s carved a niche as a participatory journalist. It started with the “I Challenge John” series he did at KETV and it’s continued through the “John at Work” and “Knicely Done” segments he’s become known for at WOWT. He’s also developed a sterling reputation for integrity.
A man of faith
Off the air, he often shares his values and faith at public functions where he’s asked to speak.
He finds congruence between his on-air and off-air self.
“If I didn’t have my faith, it would be a different story because I may then have to be this person on camera but off the camera a different person. But since I’m the same person in both places that really takes that kind of pressure off because it’s nothing I really have to worry about since I’m still being myself.”
His professionalism doesn’t allow his personal views to leak through his work as a journalist.
“In regard to the stories you do, it’s always objective and both sides of the story. I understand there are different views and feelings and it’s not my job to give my views. If I’m speaking at an organization that invites me to come and speak and they ask me to share my faith, I’m certainly able to do that.”
Ageless
As Omaha’s version of Dick Clark, he’s seemingly defied aging by still looking remarkably like he did when he started all those years ago. The former high school athlete – he played football, basketball and golf – has always made fitness a priority and he still exercises most every day. At the station he gets in a workout between evening newscasts at its subterranean workout room, complete with racquetball court and basketball hoop. When his kids were young and visiting dad at work, they’d shoot hoops there.
He’s gracefully aged into Omaha’s longest-lived TV icon. He’s a grandfather several times over. He’s twice the age of most of his colleagues and has more experience in the business than many of them have lived. All of which makes him the dean of area TV journalists.
Still manning the anchor desk at age 66 means he’s also defied a growing trend toward younger on-air talent. His familiar face and age may actually be a plus for audiences since the demographic that consumes network affiliate programs tends to be older and thus he’s the face of a proven, trusted news organization. That matters in an era with a glut of online news and social media, much of it unreliable or unvetted.
Doing it all
Knicely has not only withstood TV’s ageism, he’s gone against the grain by shooting, editing and writing his own stories in the field – a rare practice among anchors. It flies in the face of the stereotype that anchors are talking air heads who can’t string two words together unless they’re scripted for them on a teleprompter, or in today’s studio world, on an Ipad.
“There aren’t many news anchors that go out and shoot a story, edit it, write it, read it. ‘Knicely Done’ – I do all that myself. They’ve given me a camera to use. I know exactly what I want and I know what makes a good story. I know the natural sound you’ve got to mix in, so I can shoot it and produce it. Some of that goes back to shooting sports – I was familiar with angles and shots.
“But it’s a lot of extra work doing it that way. The typical way – you go do the interview, write the story and then hand it off and that’s all your involvement is. But I don’t do it that way. My way, there is that accomplishment and the creativeness you get to express.”
He’s heard the jokes about anchor people and, he said, “I don’t think it applies to me because I’m involved in every aspect and want to be,” adding, “I want to have a good product I present that has my name on it.”
Filing his own stories for “John at Work” and “Knicely Done” has given him an opportunity to stand apart from the pack by getting his hands dirty and showing his personality. For the latter, he did everything from working on a garbage hauling crew to climbing a 2,000 foot television tower to being a middle school principal to flying with the Blue Angels.
“The one thing about it is that it keeps it fresh and new. You’re presenting something in a different fashion. News doesn’t always have to be serious. It can be informative and give you an idea of what’s going on in the community that you wouldn’t otherwise hear about. There’s really good things about that approach. And it’s not about you, it’s the fact that this is what’s happening behind the scenes with certain jobs or personalities in our community that you get to showcase.”
The segments also counter the frequent criticism leveled at TV news that it reports too much negativity.
“You hear all the time, ‘Why do you guys only give the bad news?’ Well, we don’t. When the good news kind of goes by and you’ve watched it, I don’t know what happens to it. It’s like, ‘Did you forget that we did a good positive story?’ ‘Knicely Done’ is always positive. It’s highlighting good works in our community.
“Maybe because of the emphasis of the lead story at the top of the newscast, which is usually a serious story about an issue or some crime or disaster, the good news kind of gets lost. It’s kind of sad that’s the case. Also, you’re exposed to news throughout the day with the different mediums out there and you hear a lot of bickering and negative things going on and you kind of lump it all together with news in general. Maybe viewers are not as discriminating in thinking about it.”
He’s convinced that local news broadcasts, whether over the air or streaming, remain relevant.
“The first thing would be breaking news because it’s happening now and we can bring it to you right now, Newspapers have video and online services, so you can get it there, but not in the same capacity, Then there’s the local issues that develop that we cover in real-time. It could be the school board voting that night on the new superintendent and we capture the results and reactions on camera. We can bring you really anything happening in the city – crime and scams going on right now, things you need to be aware of as a viewer.”
On the lighter side, he’s a pretty good sport who doesn’t take himself too seriously. whether working someone else’s job or accepting a competitive challenge.
“Yeah, you have to know how to fail and live with it. It’s always pretty much tongue-in-cheek. We make it fun.”
He no sooner started the “I Challenge John” pieces, he said, then he was “swamped with letters – I couldn’t answer them all and I couldn’t do them all.” Many challenges he accepted were from kids. “I lost to a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds.” Once, memorably, he played goalie and tried and failed to stop youth ice hockey players from scoring on him. “My self-esteem just sank. But they were fun things.”
He’ll never forget two challenges.
“A guy had me come out to Carter Lake for a water ski challenge. Well, I water ski, so I thought this shouldn’t be tough. We get out in the boat and he says, ‘See that ski jump over there? You’re going to go over that.’ Sure enough, next thing I knew i went over it. He told me beforehand, ‘When you hit that, don’t pull back on the rope.’ There’s this trickle of water always coming down on the board to keep it slippery – so you can slide. Well, I hit that ramp, pulled back on the rope, and my skis started going straight up. I was looking right up into heaven. I landed smack on my back and went under water and I thought, ‘Okay, the rescue boat is going to be here,’ and it was and the guys were laughing.
“One humiliation after another.
“Another time, I played chess at Brownell-Talbot against their champion. He was a brilliant senior. He played me with a paper sack over his head in front of the whole student body. They would call out my move and in 10 seconds he had the next move, and he checkmated me, I later ran into one of the professors there, and he said, ‘I know chess and I knew he had you checkmated earlier.’ And so I asked the kid, ‘Why didn’t you do it then?’ and he said, ‘Well, I promised the student body I’d take the whole hour.'”
Some challenges Knicely politely declined out of safety concerns. Para sailing was one. “I thought, ‘I’ve got five kids, I can’t get up in that thing by myself.’ I even declined parachuting. I’ve done it since.”
From the heart
Perhaps the most personal storiy he ever filed was in tribute to the derring-do of his late father, Jack Richard Knicely, an Omaha native who co-piloted B-24s and C-46s in the China-Burma-India Theater. He flew missions over the “Hump” (Himalayan Mountains). The son accompanied the father on an honor flight to Washington D.C. to visit the World War II Memorial.
The trip meant a lot to both of them.
“You won’t find anyone more loving of his country than my dad was. In his late age he would get tearful when he would talk about the men and women who served. There was one very dangerous, almost desperate situation that his co-pilot pulled them out of that he would get tearful about remembering.
“That memorial visit was really fantastic because the plane was full of veterans. When we got to D.C.. there was a gauntlet of people cheering as all these veterans walked through and, boy. it was emotional. Dad actually sat next to a guy who also flew B-24s. Pretty amazing. It was so special to see Dad’s reaction to what a great tribute they put together in their honor. It was humbling. It was just great to experience it with him.”
The Greatest Generation holds great store for Knicely.
“I love that description When you think that they were 18. 19, 20 years-old and without question enlisted right away to do what they could for our country. Totally selfless. We can’t thank them enough.”
His father’s passing offered another opportunity to pay respect to his service, which included years in the Air Force Reserves before retiring with the rank of colonel.
“At his funeral they had a full military salute. As we drove into the cemetery I looked over at all these young military people standing at attention as the hearse drove by. Then they had the gun salute and folding of the flag and presentation. Wow, did that ever hit hardcore .”
Showing another side of things
Knicely’s entrepreneurial news reporting has its roots in a series he did at WOWT about two decades ago.
“Our news director then was John Clark and I asked him, ‘Can you just give me my own camera because it will free me up to get some things that otherwise I can’t get?’ So, he did. It started that way. He had seen my work at KETV. But my going out and finding stories really evolved from when I came over to WOWT in 1992. We had a little time before I could go on the air and so I proposed that I go live in the projects in North Omaha for three days. John assigned a photographer to me who was kind of street smart and we went in and lived in the Hilltop Housing project for two nights and three days and found just a whole bunch of positive stories that you don’t hear about in that community of young women really working hard to improve, take care of their families and get out.
“The one apartment in the whole complex that allowed the bad guys to come in just tortured everybody. That’s the way it was. The idea for the series kind of caught my news director off guard. He was like, ‘Should we do this or not?” He okayed it and we had three good nights of stories out of it. A lot of good positive stuff. We called it ‘Three Days in The Jets’ because the people living there called the projects The Jets. I edited it and wrote it. I used music. Back then, you could use music more. It makes a big difference in a story.”
A purpose-driven life and career
Hundreds of stories have followed. He’s won recognition from his peers for his work. Yet, this nearly 45-year fixture of Omaha media wasn’t even sure he wanted a career in television as late as his graduation from UNL with a broadcast journalism degree.
“My dad was a lawyer. My brother’s a lawyer. Even right to the end of school I was still kind of thinking that, too.”
There already was a journalist in the family though. His mother Betty wrote a column called “Panhandle Mother” for the Sidney Star-Telegraph that John admired and she encouraged his own reporting interests.
Then fate or divine providence intervened.
“Coming out of college, I had two job offers. One was Sioux City TV. The other was Lincoln radio. I took the one in Lincoln because I had a girlfriend in Lincoln. TV would have been the better choice in hindsight. But then three months later there was a job opening at Channel 6 in Omaha and my old college professor Dr. Larry Walklin said, ‘You should apply for that.’ It was a weekend sports job. So I came down here and interviewed.
“I had long hair back then. I got the job in like a week’s time. The opportunity just came. I really think God opened the door for me at that time. There was a sense about it that this is supposed to happen.”
He’s indebted to his teacher for the job tip.
“He didn’t have to call me and find me. I was out of school. But he was so nice to do that and I’ve thanked him several times since.”
An aphorism from his old prof turned words to live by once Knicely entered the real world of working media.
“Dr. Walklin always told us ‘never assume anything.’ In college you didn’t understand what that meant, but, boy, when you get in the business you do.”
Knicely joined a strong, veteran newscast.
“Gary Kerr was the anchor. Dale Munson did weather, Steve Murphy was news director, Ray Depa was assistant news director. Wally Dean was there, too. They were so professional. True journalists. They were just a tremendous example and it was a real learning experience working around them. Wonderful guys.”
The three broadcast network affiliates had the market to themselves.
“It was such a different era back then with just three TV stations. It was very competitive.”
Knicely was off and running in his career. But something was missing.
“I’d probably worked here six months to a year. I had all these things going for me: a great job, friends, fun activities. You’d think you’d be happy because you’re meeting all these goals. But I just had this shallowness inside me. The depth wasn’t there. I was kind of running from God and couldn’t get away. It was like He was saying, ‘John, I have a real purpose for your life,’ and it just resonated for me.
“Things were happening in my family, too, with deeper walks in faith by my mom and dad and my brother. I grew up around church but I realized, ‘No, there’s some depth they have that I don’t. Finally, I got down on my knees on Christmas Eve. I was working alone. I just said, ‘Alright, Lord, I give you my life – you use it the way you want to use it, and that’s my commitment to you.’ It was a very personal thing. God really spoke into my life. I started reading the Bible. It was jumping off the pages to me. That was 1975. It’s been a long time.”
Moving past tragedy and trauma
His faith was seriously tested before and after his born again experience. In his teens his mother Betty was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“She had an operation and never really recovered from that. She was in a coma state. Before she passed away, we all came home and she would acknowledge us. My brother asked her if she’d like to say the Lord’s Prayer and in spite of the fact she was in a coma she came out of it to say that with him. Spiritually, it was pretty dramatic for everybody in the family. With our Christian faith, we’re confident she was with the Lord and we’ll meet again one day.”
His father later remarried a widow, Jan, with two girls of her own and thus Knicely found himself part of a blended family as a young adult.
“I didn’t know what to expect with a new mom introduced to the family, There was an adjustment but we all understood what a blessing it was and it proved to be an absolute godsend for everybody. They were married almost 40 years when he passed away at age 92. Her daughters looked at him as Dad. Jan’s just a very loving, kind person and treated us like her own, especially our kids.”
Decades later, Knicely’s own family experienced a crucible no one should have to endure. His daughter Krista was attending Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where she lived alone off campus, when an intruder broke into her place one night and began assaulting her before help arrived. She called her parents in Omaha, distraught after barely escaping with her life.
“It was traumatic,” Knicely recalled. “We get the phone call that night, ‘Mom and dad, somebody just attacked me.’ We’re here and she’s down in Waco and how do you get through the night until you get down there and hold her. The whole ordeal was a miracle of how she was saved. There wasn’t anybody around. There was no hope when this guy attacked. It was clear he was intent on harming her because she fought with everything she could. The first words she remembered saying when she realized this wasn’t some practical joke or something were, ‘Help me, Jesus.’
“While she was still struggling, being choked, two guys coming to pick her up saw what was going on through the window and one ran to get police officers they’d just pased in the neighborhood. The officers got there and burst in with guns drawn. They told the guy to freeze but he bolted and Krista’s friends ran after him, caught up to him and tackled him, and put a nice welt on the guy for me. He was arrested. It turned out he had done similar things to other women.”
The criminal justice process meant reliving the incident.
“There was the whole ordeal of going through the trial,” Knicely said. “At the sentencing you have the opportunity to speak to the defendant. I wrestled all night with whether I was going to say anything or not. The next day I still hadn’t decided. Then, in the courtroom the next thing I know I’m moving up to the stand and talking.”
He believes what he spoke was inspired from on high.
“I was able to address that guy and tell him ‘what you did is not going to have a hold over our family – we forgive you for what you did, it’s wrong, and you’re going to get the punishment you deserve.’ It just kind of released everything on behalf of my family and Krista my daughter.”
Krista’s moved on with her life but there’s still repercussions.
“She still has to work through that,” Knicely said. “It’s not been the easiest healing. When she was able to forgive her perpetrator it was a transformation and she went on to become Miss Nebraska. Her platform was bringing awareness about violence against women. We couldn’t have known all these positive things were going to happen. We’re still so thankful to this day.”
Stolid, almost never controversial, and still at it
Knicely is in a decidedly young person’s game and he acknowledges, “I’m getting to the end of my career. I’m aware of that.”
His son John surprised him by following him in the business. John junior is now an anchor in Seattle.
“I told him even if he wasn’t my son, I’d watch him. He does a good job.”
Knicely, the “old man,” doesn’t concede anything.
“I feel like I’m just as active as I ever was.”
The work also hasn’t grown stale for him.
“It’s still fresh in many ways and that doesn’t seem possible. But it might be because the content changes every night and there’s a change that happens as you sit down to go on camera and do the news. It’s an opportunity to connect with viewers.
“It’s pretty remarkable that it’s not like, ‘Oh no, not this again.’ But it’s not that way. It’s the people you work with, too, that make a difference. Mallory’s full of life and fun to joke with. Rusty Lord and Ross Jernstrom are fun.”
Knicely’s squeaky clean image has never been tarnished by controversy, He did suffer ribbing for an on-air faux pas when he said crystal meth instead of Crystal Light and the mistake ended up on the butt of a joke on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show.
Years earlier, Knicely was cast as a villain in some circles for jumping ship from KETV to WOWT. Channel 6 was motivated to break up the ratings leader team at Channel 7 and Knicely knew of the strategy thanks to an inside source.
“I was communicating with a person I knew at 6. Then I had a clandestine meeting with the general manager at a very discreet little coffee shop. I realized in talking to him that, yeah, this could happen. WOWT’s concern was a non-compete clause in my contract which said you had to stay off the air for a year in the market. They were content with that. Well, when 6 hired me and Jim Flowers, Channel 7 went right to a judge to make sure non-compete was enforced. But the judge ruled against them, saying Neb. is a right to work state and there was nothing so unique about us that couldn’t be replaced, so we were on the air in three months instead of a year.”
The only time Knicely left for a bigger market was St. Louis. There were other occasions when he eyed a move. When still doing sports at 7, he was the runner-up for the sports director slot at a station in Phoenix.
“But being close to family and being comfortable raising my kids in this community won out and I just didn’t very actively pursue anything. If I was contacted by somebody, I considered it, but …”
Home is where the heart. That’s why he’s here to stay.
Follow John at https://www.facebook.com/john.knicely.
Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories 