Columbia / Missouri (Husker Game)

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Article Published: Monday, October 13, 2003

big 12 football

'Red army' invades Faurot Field on wrong night

 

By Bill Briggs

Denver Post Sports Writer

 

COLUMBIA, Mo. - I've been absorbed by the horde.

 

Just outside Missouri's Faurot Field - in the heart of enemy football territory - several top generals of Cornhusker Nation closed their grills, circled their crimson- colored RVs and offered me their secret initiation ritual. I can only reveal that the ceremony involved two milking machines, four hogs and an awkward hug from Tom Osborne.

 

But it was worth the pain. I now am a full-blooded member of the "red army," - that Saturday convoy of Huskers backers who clog college towns from Boulder to Austin - and who sometimes saturate visiting stadiums in a sea of red. My lowly rank in the "corngregation": kernel. My assignment: serve Jammal Lord.

 

"Glad to have you, man," said Chas Gaddis, a Missouri junior from Omaha who suffered a week of taunts for wearing his Nebraska colors on the Columbia campus. "Remember, you always represent for the Huskers, no matter where you go."

 

That was the first of five Huskers tenets I learned as a red army grunt. During week No. 5 of The Denver Post's Big 12 tour, I also got a taste of the cold shoulder the "cob mob" sometimes receives at away games. Each Saturday, I wear the visiting team's garb to a Big 12 game to test the home fans' hospitality.

 

In Missouri, the red army is treated more gently than in Norman, Okla., (where some fans were sprayed with beer) or in Boulder (where some were pelted with snowballs and obscenities), according to Huskers fans. But they exactly don't roll out the red carpet, either. (Actually, Nebraska brings its own.)

 

On Saturday night, the Missouri fans gave the Nebraskans a sneering respect. Overall, they were tolerated but not welcomed, teased but not mocked. Losing has everything to do with that. Entering the game, the Tigers had dropped 24 straight to the Huskers. If anyone in the student section was alive to see that last Missouri win, they need to spend more time studying and less time trying to build the perfect beer bong.

 

Missouri also lacks the deep football traditions of other Big 12 schools - no live farm animals racing around the field after touchdowns, no mascots with shotguns. But like most colleges, they get mighty revved up for the Huskers.

 

"Are these games always this intense?" I asked Dawn, the Missouri fan next to me who tried incredibly hard not to make eye contact with a guy in red.

 

"No. We really dislike Nebraska," she said. "That attitude ..."

 

"Attitude? You mean because the Huskers always win?"

 

"See," Dawn said, "that's what I'm talking about."

 

Indeed, a few Missouri fans clenched their teeth and referred to me as "friend," the way some women call other women "ma'am" yet actually mean another word. But it never got nasty. Not with almost one-sixth of the stadium teeming with Huskers rooters.

 

Although the conference allotted 4,000 tickets for visiting Nebraska fans, Missouri officials expected 10,000 Huskers to blend with the capacity crowd of 68,349. There were sweeping pockets of red in all corners of the upper levels and the southwest stands.

 

Among them were Bob and Colleen Billings of Omaha, retirees who haven't missed a Nebraska road game since 1994. Their home answering machine identifies the Billings as "Big Red fans" and their dog is named "Lady Husker." They drove five hours to Columbia in a motor home.

 

"We're just nuts, but we enjoy doing it," Bob Billings said.

 

Some 2,000 websites are devoted to the Huskers. Wedding plans are affected by the games. That passion is rooted in the state's sweeping sparseness, many fans said. The football team is the only game around, the one event that rallies the masses and gets them moving, thousands at a time.

 

At the 2002 Rose Bowl, a California newspaper carried the headline: "Our beaches are being stormed by Omaha." Two years earlier, at a Notre Dame game in South Bend, Ind., Huskers fans snatched up nearly 30,000 tickets and drenched the stadium in red. Last season, when Nebraska traveled to Happy Valley for a game, one Penn State backer urged Nittany Lions faithful not to sell their tickets to Nebraska fans. He called it "Operation Visine - to get the red out."

 

It didn't stop Bob and Colleen Billings from buying two tickets and driving more than 1,000 miles east.

 

"You love it, you do it," Bob said.

 

But they usually do it with class. That was one of the five tenets Huskers insiders taught me:

 

1. Be polite. "You keep your mouth where it's supposed to be and you don't have problems," Bob Billings said. Huskers fans are considered some of the best sports in the Big 12.

 

2. Hate Oklahoma. Despite their niceness, this is the rule because of an old, bitter football rivalry, according to John Potter, a Nebraska junior who wore a giant corncob hat and red face paint to the Missouri game.

 

3. When you hear another Huskers fan chant, you must join in - any time, any place, Gaddis said.

 

4. If you don't live in Nebraska, you never admit to that, said Vicki Ragole of Omaha. For example, if you live in Colorado, you tell people you "live in western Nebraska," she said.

 

5. Spread the seed. Wear Nebraska red to games far and wide, especially into hostile country. In Florida, which has a few decent college football teams, Bob Billings has converted some of his winter Sunshine State neighbors into Huskers rooters, convincing several to don the red.

 

But the Missouri game tested the first rule of Huskerdom as the Tigers upset Nebraska 41-24 with a fourth-quarter points explosion and a satchel of trick plays.

 

As Missouri students merrily toted pieces of the goalpost through the jammed streets of Columbia, the Nebraskans packed up their tents and grills and prepared for a long night's drive home.

 

Missouri report card

TAILGATING: B+, This has to be one of the largest pregame parties in the Big 12 with soirees stretched out for nearly a mile down a hill near the stadium. Fans are allowed to stroll the area openly with beers. But it lacks the intimacy of more compact tailgating scenes. (3.5 points out of 4.0 possible)

 

STUDENT SUPPORT: B, A sea of black shirts - except for the front row of guys who wore only body paint on a night of drizzle. They often chanted M-I-Z to the rest of the stadium's Z-O-U. Wild and loud. (3.0)

 

GAME-DAY ATMOSPHERE: C, Take away Nebraska, and you get the feeling the passion would be cranked down several notches. Not many unique rituals. Still, the place was Tiger-striped from head to toe -- women wore tiger ears, cars were affixed with tiger tails. But can they do something about the stadium gridlock? Narrow walkways inside cause massive human traffic jams. (2.0)

 

TRASH-TALKING: C, At the game, it rarely got beyond jawing between rival students. On the Internet, it was better. One Nebraska fan e-mailed a picture of the famous Notre Dame game when the Huskers' rooters swamped the Irish's stadium in red. A Mizzou fan fired back: "Now step away from mommy's computer and hurry along or you'll be late for your day shift at Mickey D's." (2.0)

 

FEAR FACTOR: A, A few drunken Missouri students screamed and slurred at Nebraskans as they walked to the game, but it never got serious. (4.0)

 

GOOD WINNERS/POOR LOSERS: A, Missouri fans were so caught up in the winning, most Huskers backers slipped out without notice. (4.0)

 

GPA: 3.08

 

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