In an informal survey of visiting fans at Spartan Stadium last year — for a column I never completed — I learned Nebraska’s fans to be the nicest in the Big Ten, unanimously. Ohio State’s, just as consistently, were considered to be the worst.
The Buckeyes, by the way, are 187-35-1 at home in the last 33 years, a few wins behind the Huskers, so relative cruelty has brought their fans nothing.
The year 1980 is significant because it’s when a way of life became an identity for Nebraska fans, beginning with an open letter from Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, published in the Lincoln and Omaha newspapers, shortly after the Seminoles were cheered as they left the field, following an 18-14 Florida State win.
Dated, Oct. 8, 1980, it read, in part:
“I have never seen people with more class than I saw at Nebraska last week. … I actually had the feeling that when we upset the Nebraska team, that instead of hate and spite, the Nebraska fans thanked us for coming to Lincoln and putting on a good show. This is nearly unheard of in today’s society.”
Or today’s. Except at Nebraska.
