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IU legend George Taliaferro dies at 91
Thursday, October 11, 2018
IDS Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
By Cameron Drummond and Murphy Wheeler sports@idsnews.com
man health would drastically rise. Restricting increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius would require a 45 percent reduction from 2010 levels of global carbon dioxide emissions caused by humans by 2030, and a complete disappearance by about 2050, according to the report. “Limiting warming to 1.5ºC
George Taliaferro, who played for IU football as a halfback, quarterback, punter and defensive back from 1945 to 1948, died Monday at the age of 91. The Gary, Indiana, native was best known for being the first black player to be drafted into the NFL when he was taken in the 13th round of the 1949 draft by the Chicago Bears. "He was a true trailblazer in every sense of the word and an individual of the greatest integrity, whose impact will be forever felt at IU and throughout the Hoosier state," IU President Michael McRobbie said in a press release. During his time with the Hoosiers, Taliaferro was a three-time AllAmerican in 1945, 1947 and 1948 and led IU to its only undefeated Big Ten Conference championship in 1945. He was named IU’s MVP in 1948, was First Team All-Big Ten in 1945 and 1948, and led IU in rushing in 1945 and 1948, in passing in 1948 and in punting in 1945, 1947 and 1948. Taliaferro also had a successful professional career in which he played for the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference and in the NFL for the New York Yanks, Dallas Texans, Baltimore Colts and Philadelphia Eagles. He was a three-time pro-bowler in 1951, 1952 and 1953 and recorded 2,266 rushing yards along with 15 total touchdowns during his time in the league. Despite his many notable accomplishments on the field, Taliaferro will be remembered as a pioneer in breaking down the race barrier in American sports, playing at IU two years before Jackie Robinson became the first black professional baseball player. "Such a classy person," IU Coach Tom Allen said during his Big Ten Football Coaches media teleconference appearance Tuesday. "He just exuded class and grace. To be able to break the barriers he broke through during that time in our country's history was an unbelievable thing." After his playing career, Taliaferro returned to Bloomington and served as a special assistant to thenIU president John Ryan and was put in charge of starting affirmative action programs for the University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from IU in 1951. "As a student-athlete at IU — at a time when segregation was
SEE CLIMATE, PAGE 6
SEE TALIAFERRO, PAGE 6
Your guide to 2018 IU Homecoming inside. LAUREN MCNEELEY | IDS
SCORCHED EARTH Local farmers face challenges as global temperatures rise ILLUSTRATION BY MADELYN POWERS | IDS
By Emily Isaacman eisaacma@iu.edu | @emilyisaacman
Montgomery County farmer Titus Raber is selling half his normal amount of tomatoes this year at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market. Dan Weber, a maple syrup farmer from Terre Haute, Indiana, has stopped handing out samples to save his supply
for loyal regulars. While tariff rates are one of the biggest problems for those who grow commodity crops such as soybeans and field corn, local farmers face a natural challenge: the heat. “As we are experiencing climate change, the challenges of being a farmer in Indiana are greater,” Bloomington Farmers' Market Co-
ordinator Marcia Veldman said. A report published Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change verified the consequences generated by the planet warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius, or degrees Fahrenheit, as soon as 2040. If warming increases by 2 degrees Celsius instead, the report stated, risks to ecosystem and hu-
The night I bombed: IU performers discuss learning from their failures By David Brinson dabrinso@iu.edu
Everyone has had a bad day at some point. Everyone has had a day they deem “the worst day ever.” But what happens when someone has their worst day onstage, under the lights, in front of their friends and strangers? For most of the students, their worst memories happened on high school stages. Senior and media cinema major, Nathaniel Kohlmeier, said his worst performance was in his first high school show, “Charley’s Aunt." The play contained a scene where his character was picked up and thrown onto a table. It didn’t go as planned. “The table, you know, always stayed upright and was fine for most of the run,” Kohlmeier said. “Then, opening night, this dude, a lot bigger than me, picks me up, and I guess he got excited because he chucks me through the table.” The table collapsed underneath him. He said he laid on top of the pieces of the broken table, stunned. “The guy who threw me has fallen on top of me, and he’s like ‘are you OK?’" Kohlmeier said. "And I grab him, and I go ‘we’re not breaking character.'" He said he and his friends pulled themselves up and attempted to recover from the mishap. As they forced their way back into the script, their director scrambled behind them with a new table. “I’m just trying to improvise, so I wave my hand out like this,” Kohlmeier said, flailing his arm. “I just give her an elbow straight to the face. So, now, not only have I broken the set with my body, but also just nailed this amazing woman, our director, in the face. It was trauma-
Monroe County Judge Kenneth Todd resigning after 40 years of service By Sydney Tomlinson sydtomli@iu.edu | @sydpt
ALEX DERYN | IDS
Cast members of the play "Stage Kiss" act in a rehearsal Sept. 13. Rebecca Dwoskin and Nathaniel Kohlmeier are the leads in "Stage Kiss."
tizing.” Connor Starks, a sophomore theater major, recently wrapped up an independent production called “Emergency.” Starks said he was a junior in high school when he did a Cardinal Stage STEM-based educational show for children. He said at one point during the show, the actress he was starring alongside got off-track on her dialogue. Starks tried to go back, to not confuse the children, but she just kept going. Soon, it was impossible to comprehend. “It became a game of catch-up and back track, trying to cover our butts," Starks said. "It was a mess." Starks said he could tell by their faces they had no idea what was even going on, but they had to just keep pretending like we had done our job. Isaac "Zack" Rocklin-Waltch, a sophomore from Boston said he came to IU for the University’s exceptional classics and drama programs.
“The night I bombed … there’s definitely a lot to choose from,” Rocklin-Waltch said. “I’m going to go with in eighth grade when I was Aladdin, in 'Aladdin.' I was the whitest Aladdin. And the weekend of the show, was the weekend that my voice dropped.” Despite the rapid changes in his voice that are part of growing up, he continued to participate in the show hoping for the best. “So, during the opening lines of 'A Whole New World,' my voice just cracked all over the place, and I was like, 'oh god, I can’t let that ever happen again,'" RocklinWaltch said. "And lo and behold, the night right after, on closing night, it happened again." He followed it with an impression of his younger self’s broken singing voice. “It definitely allowed me to learn to laugh at myself, like, we are constantly in a state of growth — literally in that case for me,” he said. “Nothing and no one is going to be perfect. And that is fine.”
The last time Judge Kenneth Todd ran for re-election, in 2014, he was conflicted about the possibility of another six years on the bench. One night he was walking out his office door and turned to look around before switching off the light. He realized he had done that same thing almost every night for 35 years and wasn’t ready to do it for the last time, he said. His term doesn’t end until 2020, but Todd, 73, said he feels like now is his time to go. A few months ago he realized he wasn’t being as patient on the bench as he thinks he should be, he said. Gov. Holcomb will appoint a new judge to finish the rest of Todd’s term. Todd plans to resign Oct. 15, but said he told the governor he would stay on a little longer if necessary. Todd’s wife, Bonnie, has wanted him to retire for years, he said. They plan to retire to Bonnie’s family’s house on Lake Shafer in Monticello, Indiana, with their Labradoodle, Gabe, and two cats, Vincent and Paxton. Leaving Bloomington after 55 years will be bittersweet for many reasons, Todd said. One is the people he’ll leave behind, such fellow Monroe County Judge Marc Kellams, his trusted friend and colleague of almost 40 years. Throughout their friendship, he has always put Kellams as his emergency contact on various forms, Todd said. “He has been a pillar of strength in my life, and someone I knew I
could always count on,” Todd said. Many would say the same of Todd. Colleagues say Todd’s legacy after 40 years on the Monroe County Circuit Court will undoubtedly be the Drug Treatment Court, a court program he led the way in creating in the 1990s. He also helped create the Mental Health Treatment Court, similar to the drug court, in 2014. When Todd first took the bench in 1979, he was struck by how many cases seemed to involve drugs or alcohol, he said. So he wrote a survey that he distributed in his court for two years about the influence of drugs or alcohol on a case. He said his admittedly unscientific data led to the same conclusion as many studies since — that 70 to 80 percent of people in criminal court are there, directly or indirectly, because of alcohol or drugs. The Monroe County Drug Treatment Court officially began in November 1999, and Todd was the presiding judge, on top of his regular caseload, for the first eight years. A drug court provides a structured program to help defendants with alcohol and drug dependency problems. In Monroe County, participants stay in the program for at least two years. If they successfully graduate from the program and remain sober for one year after, their case is dismissed. A 2007 study of five Indiana drug courts found that in Monroe County, drug court participants were 67 percent less likely to re-offend than nonparticipants. SEE JUDGE, PAGE 6