Those of you who know my grandfather know how much he loved Nebraska football. Well, it turns out that someone is working on documentary about Nebraska football and is collecting people's personal Husker stories via Facebook. My uncle Marlin sent in his story, and it was published on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. He also sent it to me, and I had to share it with you:
I have never lived in
Nebraska, but I inherited rooting for the Cornhuskers from my father.
Though I was raised in Oregon (and have lived in California for 27 years
now), my parents both grew up in Nebraska (Broken Bow), leaving in their early
20′s. Growing up (I was born in ’64), my family never had a television. Whenever
Nebraska played on TV, my uncle would drive down from Washington state and
bring his portable TV. We watched the Cornhuskers! Then every year
on New Years, he would also come down and we’d watch the bowl games. I
think that is why I love college football so much today. It is really the
only sport I pay much attention to.
In 1984, my dad, my uncle and myself drove from Oregon down to Pasadena to
watch Nebraska play UCLA at the Rose Bowl stadium - my first look at the
Huskers “live.” We did the same in 1988, though I was now living in
central California. We try to catch Nebraska as much as we can when they
play on the West Coast. 1998 was a great year, as we got to watch them
play twice, Cal in Berkeley, and then in San Diego for the Holiday Bowl against
Arizona. Also, I was able to take my dad to the 2001 National
Championship game versus Miami in the Rose Bowl.
Though he grew up in Nebraska, my dad had never had the opportunity to attend a
game in Lincoln. My dream was to take him to a game in Lincoln. The
perception from afar is that Nebraska football has been sold out for 40+ years
and seats are just not available. How was I gonna pull this off?
But a number of years ago, my niece graduated from Biola and decided to
do her graduate studies at Baylor, a Big 12 opponent. I had just found my
way into Memorial Stadium! When a game in Lincoln came up on Baylor’s
schedule, I gave my niece my credit card info and told her to get us some
tickets. I think we ended up with about 8 seats. We had a grand
time experiencing the Big Red Wave in Lincoln! One amazing experience on
that trip happened in Phoenix, Arizona. I flew out of Sacramento, and my
sister flew out of Portland, Oregon. We met in Phoenix, and had the same
flight from Phoenix to Omaha. I was amazed that there were no less than
15 or 20 people getting on that plane way out west in Phoenix, headed to
Memorial Stadium for the game! My dad had such a good time that several
months later he told me, “That was fun. We should do that again
sometime!,” comment totally out of character for my dad. So, a couple of
years later, we went back for a game versus Texas A&M. The only
disappointment is that our two experiences at Memorial Stadium both came during
the rather forgettable Bill Callahan era. Nonetheless, the game day in
Memorial Stadium experience is one I will never forget.
I lost my dad 2 1/2
years ago, but I will be forever grateful that I was able to give him the
Husker home game experience. The tradition lives on. In December
2010, I took my wife (married July 2010) on a belated honeymoon to San Diego.
She was less than impressed by the Husker’s performance that day in the
Holiday Bowl, but she was sufficiently impressed by the major college football
game day experience. Just wait ’till I take her to Lincoln someday . . .
I remember our trip to Lincoln fondly and only wish I could have visited Memorial Stadium again with Grandpa, Uncle Monkey, and my own family.
