Adi Kunalic and his coworkers show up for another day at the office.*
I apologize for my infrequent posting as of late--we hosted family for the past week or so, and life is just now getting back to normal. I promise to return to substantive posting in the very near future.
In the meantime, a young Bosniak who came to America as a young boy in 1992 has found success in one of the most veritible and thoroughly American institutions our great land has to offer--college football. What's more, he has done so at my alma mater, home of the only football team I really care about (longtime readers of this blog might be aware that I'm something of soccer fanatic as well).
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Adi Kunalic, placekicker for the once-mighty/now-rebuilding University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. Young Adi has been quite successful at this important, highly specialized position, and the Husker faithful have taken notice. Here's a blog post including a typical reaction from early in the season.
Early plaudits like that quickly became the norm as the season progressed; young Adi now has his own fan group on Facebook, and a new tradition has developed at Memorial Stadium--thousands of Nebraska fans now hold up a shoe whenever Adi is lining up to kick.
Not bad for a sophomore kicker. We Husker fans are glad to have him, and while this may not be the most profound or informative post I've ever put up on this website, a little feel-good news now and then can't hurt. The circumstances that drove the Kunalic family to flee Bosnia for America could not have been more grim; at least their new home seems to have welcomed them.
*That's Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska--where the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers hold the NCAA record for most consecutive sellouts. I can't get the picture centered properly--the original picture is quite impressive, but the template cuts off part of the right side, making it seem crowded and off-centered.
3 comments:
You're amazing Kirk. I knew absolutely nothing about this guy until I read it on your blog. :)
Awesome story :) I just clicked on his page on huskers.com and saw that they write his name is pronounced "ah-dee kun-ALEK" - that really made me laugh XD
They also write that he "moved to Germany" in 1992, which I found odd. There's a huge difference between "moving" and "fleeing".
Glad I found your blog :)
Amila,
I'm very glad you found my blog as well--because that means I found your blog! Thank you so much for leaving a comment.
I presume that the article writer was trying to be as neutral and controversy-free by saying "moving" rather than "driven by force" or some other more accurate description.
Your blog looks really good, and I look forward to catching up on the previous posts--at least the ones in English.
By the way--my ancestry is partly Danish. My last name--Johnson--was Anglicized/Americanized when my Great-Grandfather arrived at Ellis Island from Falster Island, Denmark in the 19th Century. Our last name is really "Janssen" or something like that; I'm not sure if anyone in our family bothered to record the exact spelling. But for all I know, you might be friends with a distant cousin of mine!
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