This, the last week of the publishing for the fall semester of 1996, takes on new meaning for me.

I look forward to the spring semester and welcome it with open arms.

There will be many new faces at the head of each desk. For one, I will now be the head sports editor, and shall continue to bring you columns with my genuinely funny outlook at the sporting world, while showing a limited amount of journalism.

But before I go on about the new changes at my desk, I would like to take the time to say goodbye to some very cool people that have made the Daily one of the best jobs you could ask for as a college student.

Opinion’s Tim Davis, the only man alive who has the physical need to argue with every living organism on this planet, will be packing it up in December and heading for New York to pursue a career in acting.

Davis is one heck of a guy who always had to give his two cents on sporting issues as well as addressing every single little problem in the universe in his weekly columns. How much effect he had on actual sporting stories is unknown, but we do know that he made all of us laugh out loud at least once every day. Of course, there were also many times we would have liked to beat his ass. Either way, he is a wonderful character that will go far.

To Mr. Davis, good luck in New York. It’s been a lot of fun. If you see him on campus, make sure you stop and talk to the freak. Tell him goodbye and good luck.

The next to step down is your very own sports editor Christopher Clair. And it’s a good thing too. If he hadn’t, I would still be playing second fiddle to his person.

Although Clair is not graduating in December, he is stepping down to concentrate on finishing out his ISU career this May.

Clair, the only remaining Cure fan left in the world, is another one of those characters that I wish everyone on campus had the opportunity to hang out with. He gave his readers a weekly insight to his sporting personality, but it wasn’t enough. Clair is simply the stereotype of “one of the guys.”

Always an ear to listen, always a smoke to give and always ready to share a beer and bitch about the world.

It was also the first time I felt as though the sports editor (Clair) and the assistant sports editor (myself) worked like a team. It was as if I was Paul Bunyan, and he was Babe, my Blue Ox.

If you see him on campus, tell him you liked my columns better than his.

And as for my newly acquired position, things are going to be “far out, man.” I got this great plan to get a sponsorship from the Plank Road Brewery. Those funds would be used to have a sports section in full color on every page. Of course, Icehouse beer logos would speckle the pages like spots on a dalmatian. But wouldn’t it be great? I can see it now, in big letters. Icehouse and ISU, the winning combination?

Actually, I’m just playing. None of that will happen. Instead I’ll concentrate on making the sports page as interesting as possible, while maintaining the consistency of any newspaper in the country.

We’ll see, and we’ll talk later. P.S. Hook ’em Horns! You didn’t think I wouldn’t mention the Husker loss, did you?

Chad Calek is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Persia. He is the assistant sports editor at the Daily.