Basketball record-holders celebrate accomplishments

    Cathy (Weir) Renk made a whirlwind 760-mile trek from Peru, Illinois last week to watch Mallie McNair play basketball.
    McNair broke Renk’s 41-year-old Chase County girls’ career scoring record last month.
    “I wouldn’t have been happy with myself had I not made the effort,” Renk said. “Mallie’s such a great kid. She’s so humble and I love that. She just has that God-given gift of athleticism.”
    People have asked her if it’s hard to give up holding the record.
    “Not one bit,” is Renk’s response. “Records are meant to be broken.”
    Renk is happy for Mallie and the McNair family.
    “It means even more since our families have been close friends for so long,” she said.
    Renk’s parents, Bill and Nancy Weir, and McNair’s great grandparents, Bill and Jean McNair, were best of friends. That close family tie has continued more than 60 years.
    Renk also loves the fact that McNair is following in her footsteps after high school  and going to the University of Nebraska-Kearney (known as Kearney State College in her day).
    “Now you can go break records there,” Renk told McNair.
    When Renk graduated from college in 1984, she held all the shooting records at Kearney. She still holds field goal records for both the Lady Longhorns and UNK Lopers.
    She was inducted into the UNK Hall of Fame in 1997.

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