Pappillion group wants SP fired

[Redout]

Solich backers demand Steve P flee

BY MATTHEW HANSEN / Lincoln Journal Star This isn't the grassroots fund-raising effort Steve Pederson had in mind.

 

Steve P Must Flee, a group of "20 or so people right now," according to founder Moe Moravec, is angry at the University of Nebraska athletic director for firing former head coach Frank Solich.

 

 

They're angry enough that they want Pederson himself fired, and they're taking that anger to the state's highways and media outlets, one road and newspaper at a time.

 

Moravec and Tim Szynskie, both Papillion business owners, set out west in awhite Ford pickup Friday, hoping to raise money and a ruckus with a homemade sign propped in the truck's bed.

 

"FIRE NU'S AD NOW" reads the sign's first sentence in black stenciled letters, then it offers a phone number to call and a post office box for donations.

 

The corresponding phone sat in Moravec's breast pocket, occasionally ringing with a curious driver or a friend wondering how things were going. He registered the post office box number and opened the bank account last Friday.

 

The group's complaints, when totaled, comprise one side of a seemingly unending argument in Nebraska coffee shops and Internet chat rooms since Pederson fired Solich on Nov. 28.

 

They don't think Pederson treated Solich fairly. (Although the coach did receive a nearly $800,000 buyout.)

 

They don't think a new coach will preserve the Nebraska tradition built by Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne. (Remember, Devaney was from Wyoming.)

 

They don't care to hear about Pederson's success at Pitt. (But Pederson built a new arena and Top 25 basketball and football programs from nearly nothing.)

 

"Basically, all of us are P.O.'d about Solich getting sacked after 7-7 and then 9-3," said Moravec, who says he was there when Solich broke NU's single-game rushing record, rumbling for 204 yards, at Air Force in 1965.

 

Solich's record has been broken repeatedly by NU I-backs, but it still stands for Husker fullbacks.

 

"He's given his life, his heart and soul to Nebraska football,"Moravec said. "And Pederson fired him."

 

Szynskie, meanwhile, is angry because Dick Vitale is.

 

He heard the college basketball analyst bash Pederson's decision on ESPN recently.

 

"I turned to my wife and I said, `Do you know who that is? That's Dick Vitale,'" Szynskie said.

 

It's not the anger but the action that separates the group from many Husker fans statewide.

 

Most confine their grumbling to friends and family. Moravec and Szynskie hope to appear in every newspaper and on every television station in Nebraska. The pair planned to reach Hastings by Friday afternoon and said they would drive as far as Scottsbluff in the next week.

 

Moravec refused to provide specifics on how much money the group had raised, its membership list or how many members had contributed to the fund.

 

"That's none of your damn business," he said.

 

The former Papillion city councilman did say he'd put up $1,000 of his own money in the battle to defeat Pederson. The group has discussed raising enough to buy out the athletic director's remaining contract if he were fired.

 

Moravec also said the group planned to go over the head of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman, Pederson's immediate superior.

 

Perlman was out of the office for the holidays and was unavailable for comment. Pederson has said he won't talk to the media until after he's chosen a new head coach.

 

Various group leaders will call each member of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents in the next several weeks, urging Pederson's removal as athletic director.

 

Two regents contacted Friday said they weren't concerned about anti-Pederson sentiment.

 

Regent Jim McClurg of Lincoln said he had full confidence in both Perlman and Pederson.

 

And Regent Chuck Wilson of Lincoln wishes the state's citizens would talk about something besides Nebraska football.

 

"I don't hire and fire football coaches or athletic directors,"Wilson said. "Anyway, it's a done deal. Let's move on."

 

Moravec is still focused on Solich's firing and thinks he can change the regents' minds.

 

"Perlman said he was the boss,"Moravec said. "Pederson thinks he's the boss.

 

"We'll see who the boss is."

 

There's no question who's leading Steve P Must Flee.

 

It's Moravec, who says he's seen "more Husker football than anyone"and whose son is president for Alaskans for Nebraska.

 

It's Moravec, who says he's twice been named national salesman of the year for different companies and who sprinkles asides about school integration -- he opposed busing in Omaha -- and ROTC -- he made his son join during the height of anti-Vietnam furor -- between soliloquies about Nebraska football history.

 

It's also Moravec who came up with the group's initial fund-raising campaign. He wanted to lead a bus carrying Pederson opponents and a polka band across the state.

 

Those plans have been scrapped for now, but not for a lack of anger or good polka music, he says.

 

Steve PMust Flee has no bus.

 

"We're having some problems with that right now. But we still hope to get (a bus) and make it happen.

 

"Wouldn't that be something?"

 

Reach Matthew Hansen at 473-7245 or mhansen@journalstar.com.

[DaveH]

Thats actually laughable. Some people need a hobby.

[BigRedMachine]

seriously. adopt a freakin highway or somethin you losers. the fact is Frank is actually not even the person you think he is. you are defending him on the premise that he is not a good coach but a good person, however with the recent news about his skanks on the side, he doesnt seem to exactly be that good person either!! get a 2nd job already, start a can drive, do something worthwhile with all your worthless time already!! b/c as soon as we win that next natty champinoship, all these hacks will be distant memories.

here's my donation ya yucks!!