How Riley invented the Blackshirts' skull & crossbones logo

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The Unforgettable Origins of Nebraska's Blackshirts Logo
By Brandon Vogel   August 23, 2018  

<snip>  When Tim Riley got to the front row, he asked the fans sitting there if they’d take the black bundle of cloth and flip it over the railing. This wasn’t an uncommon request at the time. Back then the north and south end zone walls were papered with signs and banners, Georgians for Nebraska, Alaskans, Californians. It made the stadium on 10th and Vine feel if not global at least continental.

But this sign was different. Its message wasn’t exactly one of support, but more of intimidation. When Florida State kicked off to start the game, it did so staring directly at a big black banner with a menacing skull in a Huskers helmet atop two crossed bones.  LINK
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Not *that* Riley.   Tim Riley, damnit!   :lol:

 
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Also from this article:  How Jason Peter had a hand in the origin of throwing the bones:  

Jason Peter and the rest of the first team were taking a break during a mid-week practice in 1996. He watched as Matt Hunting, a junior walk-on linebacker from Cozad, Neb., made a play on defense and threw his arms up in an X.

“What the f--- is that,” Peter asked as Hunting ran off the field.  “The bones,” he says.

“I told him that I was taking it! I told him ‘that’s us, that’s the Blackshirts’ and that if I didn’t take it, it’s gonna be stuck here on the practice field and nobody will ever see it,” Peter recalled this month via email. “He didn’t care, he was happy that I wanted to use it.”
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:throwdabones1:

 
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If the guy was into graphics in 1985, I'd bet dollars to donuts he was a Macintosh user.

I'd further bet that his design idea was spurred less by mouse poison and more by Apple's flying a pirate flag over their headquarters in the mid-80s, which all Apple users/fans were well aware of. (Yep, I was one of them. Blown AWAY by both the Macintosh SuperBowl commercial of 1984 and the one I got to mess with at a local office supply store. I didn't get one until 1988.)

applepirate.jpg


Because that is basically what he created: a flag that was draped over the front of the section.

 
I always like to think of throwing the bones as a likeness to refs throwing up the cross sticks sign. I ref, and when the offense is behind the sticks(>10 yards) we hold up the bones. So making a great play on defense(tfl, sack, etc) could mean the offense is behind the sticks.

 
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