Painful bowl season for Husker fans
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
It used to be something that just always was, as expected as that ball dropping in Times Square.
To outsiders, New Year’s could mean Dick Clark or mixed drinks or resolutions to shed 15 pounds. But to Nebraskans, the day was always about football as much as anything.
New Year’s meant a Husker bowl game with red-shirted loyalists clogging grocery aisles in last-minute preparations. It meant parties in living rooms across the state — five people sitting on a couch meant for three, screaming at a television, occasionally praying and sometimes cursing.
And other times there were tears, as on Jan. 2, 1984, when Nebraska ran the option with Jeff Smith on fourth-and-8 in those final seconds and NBC announcer Don Criqui screamed: “LOOK AT THIS PLAY! TOUCHDOWN, NEBRASKA!”
That brought Nebraska to within 31-30, and that’s how it would stay, an attempt for two netting zero and making it one of those nights where everyone just sat around the leftover chili and asked, “What if?”
“We were stunned,” says Kevin Horn, now in Alliance, then in Cozad. “Absolutely stunned.”
Yes, there were those nights of missed opportunities, but surely those displeasures only made the five championships more worthwhile to the faithful.
And even when things did go wrong, the supporters took solace that at least their Huskers were out there on the stage. How many other programs could say they were always around on New Year’s, playing in the biggest of big games in college football?
Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Rose Bowl; the Orange Bowl if all went as planned. Nebraska saw all of those destinations during a streak of 35 straight bowl appearances from 1969 to 2003.
More than half of those games were played on New Year’s Day, and as Horn says: “The whole country was focused on Nebraska. You really had something to thump your chest about.”
The streak of bowl appearances was never going to end, and then it did, dazed expressions looking on. Twice in four years now, Nebraska has done what two decades ago would have been crazy talk, not even becoming bowl eligible.
It’s just one less football game to be played, and to that, plenty would say, “What’s the big deal?” But this is a place where people have never pretended that football wasn’t something important to them, and so there is a void among many in this bowl season without Nebraska.
Sure, there is also a sense of hope. A new coach always brings that, and Nebraska has one. Bo Pelini, many Husker backers say, will have the University of Nebraska back in those big games again.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe not. While waiting for the answer, Husker fans are entertaining themselves.
Horn’s New Year’s Eve plans? Watching a replay of the 1971 Orange Bowl, a Nebraska winner.
He bought a copy of the game — a 17-12 NU triumph over LSU — on eBay for about $15. Money well-spent, in his estimation.
The first bowl game Horn remembers was the 1969 Sun Bowl. He was 10 at the time, and it’s a good game to recall for him, because Nebraska ripped the Georgia Bulldogs 45-6. Little did anyone know then that Nebraska’s bowl fun was just getting started.
“It isn’t as tough this year as 2004,” the 48-year-old says of NU staying home for the holidays. “That was the first time in my life I remember the Huskers not going to a bowl game.”
Down in Bedford, Texas, lifelong Husker fan Cheryl Sudman calls this bowl season “a real downer.”
“It feels just WRONG to not have our beloved Huskers included in the festivities of the New Year,” the 58-year-old wrote in an e-mail. “Oh sure, my husband, the football freak, has watched all 1,389 games but it isn’t the same.
“I find myself sequestered in my bedroom watching reruns of ‘Law & Order’ rather than face the big screen with no chants of GO BIG RED to be heard. We have hope though. We think Dr. Tom and Bo coming back are the best things that have happened since the Internet!!!”
Put her on the list of fans ready to run through a wall for Bo Pelini. There are others.
When asked how he was “coping” with Nebraska not being in a bowl game, Husker fan Tad McDowell II replied: “What do you mean coping? Didn’t we just beat Michigan State in the Alamo Bowl 17-3? Don’t worry. Steve will hire Bo Pelini and all will be well.”
Meanwhile, there are others spending this bowl season taking the Huskers to make-believe bowl games.
How do you do that? Simple. Buy a PlayStation or Xbox.
“Sony is benefiting from the poor Husker season this year,” writes James Mullen. “I purchased a PS3 and game to get my mind off the horrifying turn of events. I said I wasn’t going to spend that much money on a gaming system (before the season), but I soon changed my mind.”
When real life lets you down, grab a controller.
Last week, Kevin Kugler and Mike’L Severe, hosts of the radio show “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” on 1620AM The Zone, put together a fake bowl game for their audience.
The game pitted Nebraska against Notre Dame, another proud program that fell on its face in 2007.
Fans were invited to DJ’s Dugout in Omaha to watch the game, simulated on a PlayStation 2.
Kugler was skeptical about how many people would show up to watch a video game. Severe kept telling him the event would be big. It was.
About 550 people showed up, most wearing red. Herbie Husker was there. Fans screamed for touchdowns and did “Ruuuuuuud” chants when Bo Ruud made a tackle. Some came from as far as Scottsbluff, one of them telling Kugler and Severe that Nebraska had better win or “I’m kicking your butts.”
A back room had to be opened up. More waitresses had to be called in for work.
“It was a unique thing,” Kugler says. “It could never happen again. You couldn’t do it next year if Nebraska didn’t make a bowl. You could never have the same sort of passion.”
Call it sad. Call it a desperate fan base. Call it a Husker victory.
Nebraska rallied from a 28-10 deficit. Larry Asante intercepted a pass and ran it back. A game-winning field goal followed for a 34-31 Nebraska win.
After a year like this, it would have to do.
Hey, Kugler says, “Husker fans are hungry for football, even for fake football.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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