PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
New Horizons Former football coach reflects Happy New Year!
January 2026 | Vol. 51 | No. 1
on his life at UNO and Kansas By John Fey hen you look back at Omaha’s rich history of noteworthy athletes, names like Gale Sayers, Bob Gibson, Bob Boozer and Johnny Rodgers stick out. You arguably could include South Omaha native Sandy Buda in the mix, even though he left Nebraska for Kansas before returning to coach the University of Nebraska at Omaha football team. Buda was a teammate of Sayers at Kansas University and as a youngster, got to play catch with Gibson while on the grounds crew of Rosenblatt Stadium. He was a standout in football and baseball at Omaha Creighton Prep. It’s not a stretch to say he was born to be a football player. His father, Carl Buda, was a three-sport star at Omaha South High and eventually became an all-America lineman at Tulsa University. After his final season at Tulsa, Buda was chosen as a member of the 1945 all-star team that played an exhibition game against the Green Bay Packers at Chicago’s historic Sol-
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SANDY BUDA PHOTO dier Field. (The Packers won 19-7 before a sold-out crowd of more than 92,000.) Carl Buda instilled in his son a work-ethic attitude at an early age. The Buda home was close enough for Sandy to walk to Rosenblatt,
where he earned money selling popcorn at baseball games – at just 10 years old. “I earned 2 cents commission on each dime bag of popcorn I sold,” he recalls. “I would work until midnight — often spending my
earnings at the Zesto ice cream shop next to the stadium — and then walk eight blocks to my house.” A few years later, Buda was “promoted” to operate the old scoreboard at Rosenblatt. “My job was to put in place the numbers indicating hits, runs, errors, etc.,” he remembers. “Working inside that small space was not pleasant. The smell was awful, and there was bird poop all over. It wasn’t a romantic place to work.” When it came time to enter high school, Buda told his father he intended to attend Creighton Prep. He remembers the reply he got. “Dad said, ‘If you want to go to Prep, you have to earn the money to pay for it.’ So in addition to working at Rosenblatt Stadium, I delivered fruits and vegetables for MonacoVitale Wholesalers.” Young Sandy made the daily trip to Prep, located near 72nd Street and Western Avenue while still putting in hours at Rosenblatt. He most often got rides from fellow South Omaha friends. --Buda continued on page 9.
To make New Year’s resolutions – or not – is the real question
Creating connections through cooking classes Cooking classes build connections by fostering teamwork, communication, and shared experiences in a relaxed, hands-on environment. Learn more about cooking classes offered at Heirloom Fine Foods on Page 16.
By Andy Bradley most of the 18 seniors interviewed for this story no longer even attempt Contributing Writer Remember the Greek fable of Si- New Year’s resolutions, although syphus? You learned about this poor many of them reported trying — and failing — through the years. fellow in high school. These informal local findings The gods had condemned him mirror national statistics. Only to an eternity of pushing a massive one in five people over 50 make bolder up a steep mountain, only New Year’s resolutions, according to lose control of the rock near the to Driver, a New York marketing summit. The stone would tumble research firm. Forbes reports simito the plain below and the hapless lar information. Persons over age Sisyphus would be forced to start all over again . . . and again . . . and 55 are three times less likely to set New Years goals when compared again . . . with younger adults. In some odd sense, many of us Locally, six of those interviewed engage in an eerily similar ritual. do make resolutions, although one The New Year’s Resolution — our half of those readily recognize, typically futile efforts to commit to almost comically, they will fail new behaviors and activities this in short order; the other half (just time of the year — only to slide three) attempt resolutions in all back to our former comfortable seriousness, although the subject of habits and foibles before the snows their resolution may be unlike most melt. others — rather than focus on As such, having experienced the --Resolutions continued on page 14. futility of these efforts in the past,