Veteran football tickets

[kramer]

There's been a push for fans to give up there football tickets so a veteran can have them, but there have only been like 20 tickets so far, and the Nebraska bookstore donated 100 of them...only problem they need 1,700 to fill all the list. Anyone given them up?? This is for the KST game

[huskerguy]

No, if I wanted to give tickets to a vet or someone from the army I would give them to s family member I know.

[Huskerfan66]

Awesome idea, but I just can't bear giving up my spot in the Sea of Red-I am sure a lot of others feel this way too...

[Eric the Red]

Awesome idea, but I just can't bear giving up my spot in the Sea of Red-I am sure a lot of others feel this way too...

That's the way I feel. Isn't there something else we can do

[Blackshirt]

There's been a push for fans to give up there football tickets so a veteran can have them, but there have only been like 20 tickets so far, and the Nebraska bookstore donated 100 of them...only problem they need 1,700 to fill all the list.  Anyone given them up??  This is for the KST game

They went about this totally wrong. Like someone said, good concept but horrible execution. From what I understand they had NO pre-reqs for people qualifying other than being a "war veteran". So you have guys from the great Bangledesh war of 1962 who never saw the slightest blink of action competing for these tickets against poor souls who have been in Desert Nowhere for the past 18 mos and are on leave for an hour & a half. Not to mention Im guessing a few of these "unfortunate" vets who are now in their 60's & making 6 figure salaries & decent Military pensions could possibly afford to spring $75 for a tic? Wheres madonna and the make-a-wish foundation when you need her.

[NamelessHusker]

Good idea like mentioned but very dumb at the same time. They actually want people to give up their tickets so someone else can go? Whoever came up with this idea needs to go back to business school , or at least attend it because they are clueless

[hskrfannnwk]

I know if I had tickets I wouldn't be willing to just give them up! (call me GREEDY!)

[NU fan in Denver]

apparently you not the only one.

 

Pud's father decided to sell them rather than donate them.

 

Journal Star

 

"* SOLD … FROM PEDERSON’S DAD: Yes, it’s true. The father of Steve Pederson, Nebraska’s embattled athletic director, has sold two tickets to the Nebraska-Kansas State game. “It’s no story,” said Sen. Don Pederson of North Platte. “It’s no big deal. I had two tickets in a different location in the stadium, so I sold my other two I had for this game to a colleague for face value ($130). I will be wearing red and cheering for Nebraska as loud as ever.”"

[junior4949]

I for one do think being a war veteran is a little more important than my participation at the KState game. However, I don't have tickets so I can't donate them. There's a lot of things that have happened from conception of the idea until now. I highly doubt when the promoters set this thing up they thought this would be the game to decide whether or not we make a bowl game.

 

I don't disagree with anyone not willing to give their seats up because of the importance of the game. If I had tickets, I'd probably donate them to a veteran privately rather than through the program. I guess I'd kind of like to have a say in who my tickets went to, plus I have a lot of friends and family that are vets. I'd rather see them go than a complete stranger. Maybe there has been more of this going on than through the promotion.

[Benard]

apparently you not the only one.

 

Pud's father decided to sell them rather than donate them.

 

Journal Star

 

"* SOLD … FROM PEDERSON’S DAD: Yes, it’s true. The father of Steve Pederson, Nebraska’s embattled athletic director, has sold two tickets to the Nebraska-Kansas State game. “It’s no story,” said Sen. Don Pederson of North Platte. “It’s no big deal. I had two tickets in a different location in the stadium, so I sold my other two I had for this game to a colleague for face value ($130). I will be wearing red and cheering for Nebraska as loud as ever.”"

go figure on a pederson being greedy.

[kramer]

Former Husker shows support for veterans

 

By Beverly J. Lydick/Tribune Staff

 

Former Nebraska All-American Freeman White forfeited his tickets to this Saturday’s game in Lincoln.

 

Not because he’s tired of watching the Huskers — although he feels strongly about the current program — but because he wants as many military veterans as possible sitting in Memorial Stadium.

 

White, a Detroit native and member of former head coach Bob Devaney’s first class of recruits, played split end for the Cornhuskers from 1962-65, during some of the Vietnam War years.

 

Thousands of soldiers, most the same ages as White and his teammates, went overseas. Some returned to face, at worst, ridicule, at best, disregard.

 

“I remember what happened to the veterans of Vietnam,” White said this week from his home in Kansas City, Mo. “I do not want to see that happen again.”

 

As a sign of respect and a token of appreciation, White and his wife, Sallye Benecke, donated their tickets for the game against Kansas State to the Tickets for Veterans campaign sponsored by the Nebraska Book Store.

 

 

 

In September, the Lincoln business asked fans to donate their Nov. 12 game tickets, then invited military veterans to sign up for a chance to win one or two.

 

As of Tuesday, 1,189 veterans — including many who served in Vietnam, the Desert Storm campaign and Iraq — had signed up to win one of 165 donated tickets.

 

“I think that is horrendous,” White said of the imbalance. “We can always go to games. But some of these (veterans) are going back (to Iraq.) Their time could end at any time.”

 

Members of White’s extended family are currently serving in the military.

 

“I’m against this war,” he said. “But I want to show my appreciation and I want to show my respect for their dedication.”

 

White, a 1965 All-American, knows something about dedication.

 

In 1965, his senior year, the Cornhuskers posted a 10-0 regular season, won the Big Eight championship and were ranked third by UPI prior to a 39-28 loss to Alabama in the Orange Bowl. The Associated Press ultimately ranked the Huskers fifth.

 

During the Colorado game that year, White and Husker quarterback Fred Duda combined for a record-setting 95-yard touchdown pass. Forty years later, the record still stands.

 

White’s father got to see him play just once.

 

“My father came out my senior year on Parent’s Day,” White said. “My mom never did get to see me play (in college.)”

 

White credits his parents for the work ethic which helped him succeed on and off the field.

 

“I was 17 and in school and the only job I could have was an early morning paper route,” he said. “Dad would get me and my brother up at four in the morning to do our route.”

 

During four years of high school, White said he only missed one-half day of classes.

 

“I was getting letters from colleges,” he said, a fact that impressed other students and boosted White’s ego to the point of obnoxious.

 

He got mouthy, he said, and “for being a smart butt, I got suspended for half a day.”

 

White still has opinions, especially about NU Athletic Director Steve Pederson, Husker head coach Bill Callahan and the current state of Nebraska football.

 

He said he’ll “never forgive” Pederson for the way he went about firing former head coach Frank Solich, White’s NU teammate.

 

Pederson fired Solich in 2003 after a 9-3 season and prior to the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio.

 

“My loyalties are with Frankie,” White said. “When you play for Nebraska, you’re family — and you don’t treat family like that.”

 

He also considers Callahan’s attitude counterproductive to Nebraska’s program.

 

“How can you, as a head coach, go on national TV and say, ‘I don’t have the personnel to do what I want.’ Any coach worth his salt will not bring in a system that his players can’t handle. He’ll make his system adjust to his players.”

 

Despite his annoyance with the program’s administrators, White has faith in the team.

 

“I know what they’re going through,” he said. “They’re still kids.”

 

Following his NU career, White played four seasons with the New York Giants and one in Canada before returning to work for the State of Missouri as a youth counselor.

 

His son attended NU and his daughter, Penn State.

 

White jokingly said he only resumed speaking to his daughter after she started giving him grandchildren.

 

“I had to do it for the grannies,” he said, laughing.