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Need for Speed: Shuttle bus driver Lives Life in the fast Lane
Marisa Grey | Staff Reporter

He zooms down a desolate stretch of roadway on a black 1100cc Kawasaki ninja bike.  In the distance, thunder rumbles; lightning strikes.
Lurking under the black helmet is Sam David Young, an MSU bus driver, who still clings to the days when he raced motorcycles and cars professionally. 
For the past four years, he has been transporting athletes to games and students to campus.  A friend and former mechanic told Young about the available driving. Today, his Wichita Falls apartment is filled with memorabilia that goes back 41 years. A black helmet, dented and scratched, symbolizes those days.
“You become addicted to adrenaline,” he remarked as his eyes twinkled with the memory racing against the best in his field.  A fresh face out of the navy in 1965 Young joined up with his brother, Steven Young, who let him race his first car.  He had a good night and from then on he was hooked.
That same year they saved money to build a race car and he began racing professionally.  The brothers initially built and drove their own stock, sprint and super-modified cars and eventually began driving cars for others. They raced in Wichita Falls, Lawton, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, Amarillo, Kansas City and Spring Field, Missouri.
Cars proved not to be his only love.  In 1967 a friend invited Young to a local motorcycle race track. “I never had so much fun in my life,” he recalled. He went out and bought two motorcycles.

A photo album packed with pictures and newspaper clippings of Young’s racing history over seven states is soon brought out. He points to a blur in a Bowie paper dated Aug. 1 1968 - one of his many victories.
The album pages slowly turn.  A red number 41 bike and a racer clad in a red leather suit almost pops out.  Back then it had cost $500 for the leather to make that suit which he wore to the Daytona International Speedway in 1969.
That year, he was the 11th fastest qualifier out of 390 bikes.  Although he did well in the preliminaries, he failed to win the finals, because his engine blew up. In 1970 he returned to Daytona and again blew an engine.  Young laughingly admits he was “real good at making them go fast, but not at lasting.”
A smile spreads across his face. It was also the time Eddie Hill, owner of Eddie Hill Fun Cycles and former motorcycle racer, accompanied him to Daytona and paid for the room they stayed in. Hill had to sleep on the floor after about 20 persons moved in.
Young’s racing days screeched to a halt in 1978.  Married and a father, Young decided to give up life on the racing circuit. But the need for speed quickly caught up with him and soon he was back behind the wheel again. This time not in the stock cars he used to build or motorcycles, but in trucks: a familiar territory to him.
Today, he’s content to leave the 150-miles-per-hour driving to others.  He keeps buses at the speed limit.  When he gets the urge to defy the laws of gravity, he  mounts his bike and tears down the back roads of Wichita Falls.


'Jerusalem Women Speak' returns to MSU on October 17
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

The Speakers and Issues Series is presenting the first speaker of the semester, or more correctly, the first three speakers. “Jerusalem Women Speak” will be returning to MSU after three years.
The Speakers and Issues Series set out four years ago, to bring speakers to the university that could speak on behalf of intellectual issues and sew their cultural knowledge into those who are interested in listening. Although, they do not have a set topic, lately the Middle East has been a popular issues and culture presented and grappled with.
“As it happened we’ve have had a lot of Middle East-oriented presentations, because, that’s a very topical issue,” professor, Dr. Charles Olson explained. “That topic also deals with a culture that’s different from western culture; these presentations are a type of cultural exchange that people seem to want at this time. People want to learn more about Arab cultures”
This enlightening presentation consists of three women of different backgrounds and different faiths -Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (Muslim) – who share not only one Holy City, but one vision as well; A vision of peace.
These three women have seen the media-spectacle of the Israeli-Palestinian up close and personally, as a matter of fact, this conflict is the reality of their lives. They will host a candid panel discussion followed by a question and answer session.
“Quote from Olson”
This revealing, and often shocking production will be presented to MSU by the Texas Committee on U.S.- Arab Relations. It will take place in the Shawnee Theatre in the Clark Student Center at 7pm on Oct. 17, admission is free.


Wellness Classes Offer Students Healthy Opportunities
Cassie Daley | Staff Reporter

It is common knowledge, that being healthy is a balance of many factors. One of those factors, which many people agonize over is, exercise; in the right setting however, exercise can be a fun and enjoyable experience.
MSU began offering wellness classes with the onset of spinning classes in 2003, as a part of the Recycle Texas program. Back then MSU only offered a handful of spinning and cycling classes, at various times open to anyone on campus.
Student Services saw a need to bring more wellness classes to campus, so they work hand-in-hand with the Wellness Director, Kathy Wells to make this happen. They started slow and small, but there’s no doubt about it, the popularity of these classes has grown astoundingly, each year, they’ve gotten more popular.
“I think there’s an increased awareness of health and fitness, in that students realize the importance of being physically active. I also think we are offering enough variety of different styles of classes that more students are interested in coming,” said Wells. “We have something that addresses cardio-respiratory health, we have those spinning classes. We have core conditioning and the body sculpting which is both strength and cardio-training.”
The menu of wellness classes has expanded to include: spinning, core training, body sculpting, circuit training and pilates/yoga classes. Of course there is always the Wellness Center, for those who want to work out on their own, but these classes offer students a chance to reap the benefits of working out in a group setting.
“Group fitness classes usually increase the participant’s enjoyment, they usually work a little bit harder because they have an instructor to push them a little bit harder and they enjoy the interaction with the other people,” Wells said. “Some people just flat out aren’t going to exercise by themselves.”
Not only does a group setting tend to enhance enjoyment, but it also creates a more competitive atmosphere.
“I think the group settings are more beneficial because you get that competitive edge to push more,” instructor Randy Canivel said, “you get to meet other people, and help each other out.”
Wells said that as of right now the spinning classes and core conditioning classes seem to be the most popular, and pilates classes have also maintained a steady turnout. She is happy to see the growth of any of these classes among college students because maintaining a physically active lifestyle is not only important, but often overlooked.
“A lot of people, their sole motivation for exercise is to lose weight it would be nice it mentally we could separate the two pictures. Losing weight is most successfully done through restricting your portion sizes or restricting the number of calories you take into your body,” Wells explained. “Exercise’s best benefits are the cardio-respiratory the improvement in how you feel, your mood. A lot of people say, ‘I exercised today so I can eat whatever I want,’ it’s a balancing act.”
Wells emphasized the importance of exercising regardless of one’s weight. Exercising carries several other benefits besides simply weight-loss.
“A lot of people don’t really know what their future health has in store for them because of genetics but we do know that exercise does help retard some chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, some types of cancers,” Wells said.
Wells views exercise the way most view brushing their teeth, sleeping or eating, “you have to make time to exercise it’s just as important as anything else in maintaining your health.”
Wellness classes are offered Monday through Friday and spinning and pilates classes are also held on Sundays; schedules of the fitness classes are available in the Wellness Center at the information desk. Weather or not weight is in issue, there is something offered for almost everyone, you just have to be willing to try.
“The classes are growing,” Canivel said. “People have an opportunity to have a good time and along with that, you’re getting a good workout.”