A Vision for the Game and More

Nebraska Stories

Air Date: 04/07/2022

A Vision for the Game Mark Wetzel of Omaha is a nationally-recognized hitting coach, working for more than four decades with young baseball and softball players from Nebraska and across the country. He’s also legally blind. Mark uses his peripheral vision to see an outline of the hitter, and from that, can usually help improve their swing. He calls his sight problems a “gift,” and has helped thousands become better hitters. Bringing Them Home Scientists at a Department of Defense lab at Offutt Air Force Base identify the remains of nearly 400 previously-missing sailors and marines from the USS Oklahoma, which was sunk during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Rodeo A visual essay exploring the riding, roping of the National High School Finals Rodeo, the largest rodeo in the world. The competition features athletes from across the United States and several countries. A Marginal Romance Notes written between young lovers in the margins of a 150-year old book provide valuable insight into the courtship of Othman and Elizabeth Abbott. The Abbotts were two of Nebraska's early leaders and the parents of social welfare leaders Edith and Grace Abbott. The book was gifted to the Stuhr Museum where it sat for many years on a back shelf waiting to be rediscovered. A Pellet of Poison This story explores the brief intertwining of two remarkable women: the very first Native American doctor and a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. In 1915, Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte, the first Native American doctor and the daughter of a powerful Omaha chief, lay dying of cancer in her home on the Omaha Indian Reservation. Picotte’s family reached out to the famous Madame Curie for a possible cure. Curie responded by sending a special package from France to Picotte’s home.