The pin in the shifter was off center. I had to jam it into 1st and second sometimes. I took the shifter off and noticed it would go to the reverse side fine, but would barely move over to the 1st side at all. I took it apart: there are two hemispherical plastic pieces the shifter sits on with a pin through both and through the shaft in the middle. The pin was over to one side too far. This is off a 96 SS. The shifter off the '94 z28 was a lot different, you couldn't take that one apart, and instead of coil springs to hold the shaft in the middle, it's a bent metal plate spring.
As far as I know the '96 shifter is stock. There is no Hurst or any other stamp on it anywhere. Which makes me wonder how the pin got off center. Apparently Chevy changed the shifter design dramatically between '94 and '96, and also apparently someone at the factory messed up the assembly.
Problem now documented onto camaroz28.com.

 

NICE!!!!! I wonder if other people having shifting problems and blaming it on the clutch should look at this first.

 

Yea, it's a funny problem. The kind of thing you would never think of, and the kind of thing you would never find anything on with a search.