Shall We Dance?

Bing Crosby's languid baritone drifted through the University of Omaha field house--"drifting and dreaming, while shadows fall." The brawny, crew-cut young men in T shirts and gym shorts couldn't wait for the shadows. A boulder-built (5 ft. 6 in., 150 Ibs.) wingback named Jerry Hunter sidled up to a hulking (6 ft. 3 in., 220 Ibs.) Negro tackle named Al Brown and asked: "May I have this dance?" Another time, another place, and Hunter might have earned a poke in the teeth. But this was Physical Education 251, and Tackle Brown minded his classroom manners. "Certainly you may," he said. "Thank you." They joined ten other all-male couples on the dance floor.

Say Ouch! A required course for all physical-education majors (a category that includes a healthy sampling of Omaha U. athletes), Phys. Ed. 251 swings out under the critical eye of Dancing Master James E. ("Tom") Brock. A World War II marine and a veteran of the football wars as a three-year center at Notre Dame, 38-year-old Footballer Brock heads the university men's physical education department and doubles as a line coach. "At first these fellows think it's all for the birds," admits Brock, "but dancing pulls them down a peg. They learn that a fast square dance is work. There are maneuvers and muscles used in Arkansas Traveler that you won't use doing a hand-off or making a tackle."

There are other lessons to be learned, too. The class had hardly started last week when Wingback Hunter twisted away from his partner with an expression of considerable pain and asked: "What should you say if the girl steps on your foot?" Another student was apparently faced with the same social problem. "Dammit," came his anguished answer from across the floor, "say 'ouch!'" Sooner or later, every man in the class learns for himself. "One day a guy's a woman, the next a man," explains Brock. Just so his students can tell the difference, he has the "women" wear short yellow vests over their manly chests.

Semper Fidelis. Brock's ball has two main purposes: 1) to teach future physical education instructors how to teach dancing, and 2) to take the clubs out of football players' feet. The course has contributed so much to Omaha's football success (24 victories, four losses and one tie in three years) that Head Coach Lloyd ("Wild Hoss") Cardwell encourages his squad to join.

Tackle Ken Leeper, onetime Marine sergeant, became so enthusiastic that he dieted down from 275 Ibs. to 235 Ibs. and registered for an all-women's course in modern dance. He was accepted, and by mid-semester was elected to Orchesis, the honorary dancing society. Leeper did his own choreography for the Orchesis show, in which he will wear a fluffy tutu (ballet costume) neatly ornamented by a tattooed Marine motto, Semper Fidelis, on his ham-sized left arm. So far, Leeper has managed to keep his head. Says he: "I'd still rather throw a block in football than throw one of the girls in the dance."

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