[Husker] PSU Transfers

[Scott Stewart]

That story is in Al. It is a Birmingham focused paper and is known as "Al"
as in the Mascot from Alabama. What it says is accurate with what I have
heard, but the most important paragraph is the last where they said their
prognosis has not changed.

The trees have had leaves the past two years, but the leaves come out on
fewer and fewer of the limbs. That is what was predicted initially, that
it interrupts photosynthesis, and so the tree dies slowly branch by branch.
They have had multiple people come and look at them and make
recommendations. Updike put enough poison in the ground that he killed all
the vegetation within 100 yards of the trees. They initially thought he had
tainted the water table.

They have spent a lot of money trying to save them, and to be fair to
Alabama University, significant money came from their fans. This was not
about Alabama fans, this was one nut job (who wasn't even from Alabama, nor
did he go there). They have removed much of the ground around the trees and
replaced it, and did the "sugar flush" to try to force the poison out.
However, they found traces of the poison in the leaves right after they
found out about the poisoning, suggesting it had affected the entire trees.

The sad thing is the trees were estimated to be 150 years old. They cannot
transplant or plant new trees because the ground is tainted. They measured
the level of poison at 1000 times the lethal dose. They are now talking
about having "steel" trees designed to replace them. That would be really
sad.

I recall going to an OU vs. NU game as a kid. We almost never got tickets,
but somehow my dad scored them. It was the "hook and lateral" game. We were
outside the student union and the OU band came by playing. I boo'ed them
(because it was OU). My father and several other fans taught me a lesson
that day that competition is more than a game and that you treat your
guests with respect. I will never forget that. It is sad that it is
forgotten by others over a game.

Scott

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 5:12 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at tssi.com> wrote:

> > I thought one of the trees was looking good to survive -- has that
> changed?
>
> I remember seeing this story in March, I haven't seen any updates since
> then:
>
>
> http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/toomers_corner_oaks_showing_en.html
>
> We had family friends who were the ultimate in 'mixed marriages', he was
> the
> Auburn punter, she was the head cheerleader at 'Bama, and their engagement
> announcement back in the late 70's was the lead-in to their annual game
> on ABC.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>