Stealing LandLord's idea: Share your best Nebraska Game Day story

[Ulty]

1999, Texas A&M: I was in the Marching Band at the time, and during the band's little parade from the Music Building to the stadium prior to each game, it was a normal thing for the person on the outside of each row to touch a particular street sign that we passed along the way. Somewhere along the line, it became a tradition for me to actually punch the sign. Being a thin piece of aluminum, if you punched the edge of the sign just right, it made a really loud bang, and the onlookers would often cheer in approval every week when I did it. So anyhoo, on the way to the stadium for the A&M game in '99, I wound up for the punch like normal, but instead of blasting the edge of the sign, I landed right in the middle of it, where the heavy wooden post supported it. I still got the usual cheer from the band fans as we marched by but FUUUUUUUUUK....

 

Had to keep marching and playing so I couldn't look at the damage until we got to the stadium. Standing in the tunnel before pregame, I looked down at my right hand, and it was starting to swell, and throbbing with extreme pain. I could barely move my fingers, let alone play the keys on my trumpet. The hand is broken. Should I go to the First Aid station? Well, I was the first person out of tunnel in my corner of the stadium and led a whole line onto the field, so I sucked it up and marched my spot in the pregame show, in too much pain to actually play the instrument, though.

 

When I finally got to the stands, I peeled my glove off to reveal a purplish hand that kind of looked like one of those rubber medical gloves when you blow it up like a balloon. My friends are like, yeah dude, that doesn't look good, you need to go to the First Aid station. Well, it turns out that our halftime show that week had me front and center near the 50 at the front of several formations (I wasn't a bigshot or anything, it just turns out in the marching drill for that week that I was a critical spot), and I didn't want a medic or anyone to pull me from the show just because my fcking hand was broke and I couldn't play. So I marched the halftime show anyway, and got the hand looked at afterward.

 

I had broken the little bone in the hand that runs from the wrist to the pinky and smashed in the pinky knuckle. To this day, when I make a fist with my right hand, the knuckles slope down at the pinky.

[JJ Husker]

 

JJ, we've got some common memories. I think we set a record for rushing and/or total yards in that NMSU game. Didn't make the trip to Auburn but I remember the hype about how Auburn was back and this was their test, and they failed miserably. Bo was a freshman and they had some other good backs so he wasn't the whole show yet. He had 829 yards for the season. Same experience with the nice Tennessee fans at that Orange Bowl. I thought the ND experience was all it was cracked up to be.

 

My game story is the 82 OU game. This was the bouncearooskie game, Gill was on target all game, and I was down on the sidelines when Strasberger picked off the pass to seal the win and even took a few steps on the field when I saw Osborne waving to get everyone back, so I did. Stormed the field after the game, and got knocked down in a surge as the goal post fell, with one of the uprights on my hip. I thought I was going to make the news as a fatality in a football riot, but people around saw I was in trouble and managed to lift that section up while one or two people pulled me out under the shoulders. They very seriously may have saved my life.

 

OU games were the best memories when I was in school, especially winning 3 straight while the jinx was still on everyone's minds. I went down to the field in 80 when Sooner magic bit us, watched the Mauer Miracle on TV, and stood in the cold rain in Norman in 83 from the stands of the end zone that OU was trying to reach in the final seconds. We beat the ice/snow storm home and avoided being stuck in Kansas or Oklahoma like many were.

 

Yes we do have some common memories indeed. Your 82 OU game story reminded me....Being a perpetually broke college student, I sold my student ticket to that 82 OU game and went home to watch it on TV with my family. Hey, I got to see all the other home games in person for the $42 total or whatever the measley student ticket cost was then, and sold that 1 game for $100, essentially making $58 and still seeing every game. Anyway, when I get back to Lincoln after Thanksgiving weekend, I go to my rack room in the fraternity, and in my bed is one of the curved main center pole chunks of the goal post. Some fraternity brothers informed me that they had carried it out of the stadium, marched down 'O' or 'Q' street, and brought it right into the frat house. I was very irratated with myself, after the fact, that I gave up my ticket for what likely would've been my best home game memory.

[Omaha-Husker]

I haven't been to many great games, mostly blowouts one way or the other, but I enjoy this one.

 

'08 Missouri - Yes when Nebraska got their ass kicked 52-17. But it was a B-Day gift from my at the time girlfriend, I just remember pissing her off by telling her to move faster walking to the game. Me saying, rather assertively, "I am not missing the Tunnel Walk" Her response "Why it's not even part of the game" Me shooting back "I don't expect a horn fan to understand!" Haha, she wasn't very happy the first quarter.

 

Sneaking into the Iowa game last season was pretty good too. Had student tickets, but I don't go there anymore and really didn't want to pay the difference to validate it. So me and a buddy just kind of walked up and one of the ticket takers was letting a group of 6 people in so we just kind of blended into the group and walked in.

[Foppa]

Not really a 'go to the game' experience, or even really my own at that, but one of my favorite memories was the 1993 Orange Bowl vs. Florida St. I was back in my small home town for the holidays and watched the game with friends at my neighbor's house, there was about 15 of us. So we watch the kickoff TD 'phantom block in the back' that was called back, as well as the FSU called TD when it was clearly fumbled before he crossed the goal line. The game is over on the missed kick and my buddy gets up and says, "That's it.." The weather is crap, it's cold and icy with sleet coming down. He gets into his 2WD truck and drives off. We all figure he went home. About an hour later the rest of us decide to go downtown to the only bar. It is packed and everyone is, of course, complaining about the game. A bit later we hear a horn honking and a guy comes into the bar and yells, "You've gotta see this!"

 

We all go outside and there is my buddy driving slowly down the street in his truck. We find out later he drove 23 miles on a slippery highway to go to Wal-Mart to buy art supplies. And apparently Wal-Mart was pretty dead at the time, and they were moving things around, and my buddy asked if he could have the female mannequin that they were taking down, and the sales associate actually let him have it. So his truck has home-made 'F--- FSU' signs all over it, and he had rigged up a noose hanging over the bed of the truck with the female mannequin with black and white stripes painted over it.

 

The local cops finally stopped him and gave him a noise warning ticket, and I'll never forget watching the deputy covering his mouth trying to keep from laughing as he walked back to his car.

[cornhuskers4ever]

Another great memory I have is my first ever Husker game I went to with my brother in 1995 when Nebraska played Washington State. Out of the blue, my brother asks me, "want to go to the game?" We don't have tickets, but he explains we can maybe scalp some. anyhow, we get some cash out of an atm, can't remember how much, and head to Lincoln. I think we paid at most $50 each for one of the sidelines. We didn't get in before the tunnel walk, but the game was amazing. Washington State scores a rushing TD, and Memorial Staduim is stunned. I had a radio to get the KFAB play by play, and they explain the fans need to rally the team. At some point, Kent Pavelka says that this is one of the loudest he has ever heard it In Memorial Stadium. 2 Frazier TD's were in our endzone. At one point in the game, Ahman Green is running the ball and a wall of defenders try to tackle him down, I think every defender on the field is trying to bring him down, but he has his momentum going, he is pushed out of bounds and refuses to go down. He pulls apart from the defenders, and throws a fist into the air. Memorial Stadium went wild.

[FourthDegree]

I'll add a couple more, both include outcomes that definately sucked...

 

2006 Texas comes to Lincoln....it's a great day for football, and I'm with my dad and cousin for the game. we have great seats for home games so i'm a little spoiled..which is why I make the 6 hour trip to Lincoln as often as I can. Anyway, if you were at this game you understand what i'm about to say. For about 5 minutes in this game I was literally almost choked up at the scene I was witnessing...the Huskers were on the upset trail, the crowd is as vocal as i've seen in a long time and then the snow begins to falll...it was not a normal snow...it was almost magical...it was honestly one of the most breathtaking football scenes i've ever witnessed...

 

 

This is my fav. Those 5mins when the snow started falling was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen in my life football or no. It sucked that it ended the way it did but such is life. Simply an unforgettable experience.

 

My second fav has to be 1992 Kansas, my first game with my old man. Takes me to the south stadium where the locker room used to be, sets my skinny 6 year old frame on his shoulders and we watch as the players exit the locker room and make their way to the field not but 10 ft. away from us. In my head i'm thinking "These guys are huge! Kansas is screwed" An experience I hope to pass on to my kids someday.

[Cy the Cyclone]

1981...Charlie McBride handed me back my helmet after Jimmy Williams knocked it off my head and then kicked it to the sidelines while i was attempting to stop him with my famous "grab his jersey with both hands while kicking at his feet in a feeble attempt to trip him while looking like you are actually attempting to block" block....Jimmy Williams had no sense of humor.

[DelK]

It was the game at Memorial Stadium, Saturday, September 22, 1962

that began the surge to national prominence. I was a newbie teaching

assistant living on a pittance, $240 per month, and debated VERY hard

about either spending scarce and precious dollars on student tickets

for games or scalping them.

In years just prior we had beaten some teams we shouldn't but often

had embarrassing losses to poor teams. Few new friends and

acquaintances at the University expressed much hope for a good team

but had some optimism for the future. Coach had done well at Wyoming

and most thought the team might be competitive in a few years when

there were better players.

Expectations weren't high for my first university football game in

Nebraska—except the new coach had promised to never punt on third down

and called USD a good, tough team. I spent the money against my

better judgment.

“Awesome” didn't come close. Bob Devaney, Thunder Thornton, Bob

Brown, John Faiman and all amazed, fascinated, energized and boggled

the collective minds of me, the student body, fans, faculty and staff

with a 53-0 whipping of USD. The celebrating in the stands was

electrifying! We were all hoarse from the yelling and hollering and

our feet were sore from the stomping. It was one hell of a

beginning!! The grinning could be found all across campus the next

week and months.

One game didn't make a season or a coaching career. Most expected

this was an “up” in an up and down season and we'd have a drubbing at

the hands of Michigan and losses to Iowa State to live down. HAH!!

One definition of soul-satisfying is to be able to say with a very

sly, wry smile, “They play a little football in Nebraska.”