Helium Shortage Puts Touchdown Balloons on Hiatus
One of Nebraska's top five football traditions[/b] will be altered for the 2012 season opener and then go on indefinite hiatus until and unless a global helium shortage is solved. The odds of that happening any time soon appear rather prohibitive, so Husker fans who love watching Big Red balloons go up, up and away after Nebraska's first touchdown every home game will have to be understandably patient, if not appreciatively creative when the air temporarily comes out of a tradition that dates back to Memorial Stadium games in the 1940s.
The release of red helium-filled balloons will get at least one final curtain call before it goes on hiatus - in Nebraska's season-opener against Southern Miss on Saturday, Sept. 1. But instead of expecting 4,000 to 5,000 balloons celebrating that first touchdown, expect 2,000 to 2,500 balloons, giving Nebraska fans one last traditional touchdown release. That way, Big Red fans can take pictures with both their cameras and their minds while media and staff photographers commemorate the occasion with photos that just might define an historical footnote.
