Over the years, I have traveled to many college football games. I have taken in at least 10 different venues. Possibly 11 if I really did go to a TCU game with Scooty and Fandango, but I could be dreaming this. I have gotten to experience all of the ranges of emotions - blowout wins, blowout losses, skin of your teeth wins, and skin of your teeth losses. I have also gotten to experience the the opposing fans reactions. Most reactions were not kind ones, and unfortunately some could produce enough adrenaline to make you want to fight the Miami football team. This last weekend proved to be the exact opposite.
I had the opportunity to go watch the Texas vs. Nebraska football game in Nebraska. To let you know how special that is, I need to explain first that the game set the school record for attendance. This is a school full of history and records when it comes to football. I was there for their 280th consecutive sellout. For the non-math minded, this dates back to 1962. Over 40 years of sellouts, and this was the most attended of all time. The second item of importance is that they let me in. The school alots the absolute minimum to visiting schools, and when you consider that something like 80,000 of the 85,000 seats are season ticket holders it makes it hard to find one on the open market. It is a good thing I didn't have to because mine was a gift.
Earlier I said this last weekend proved to be the exact opposite, and this is where the wooden nickels come in. The Nebraska fans were the nicest, most respectful, classiest fans I have ever seen. On Friday night we went to eat in the old warehouse district of Omaha. We settled into a restaurant called Upstream Brewing Company. While my other Texas friend and I (decked out in our burnt orange) enjoyed our micorbrews (the Dundee 90 was awesome) with our Nebraska hosts, the manager of the brewery came up and handed us four wooden nickels. The manager wanted to buy our round of beers to welcome us to the area. Of course he was somewhat playful about it saying that these free beers would help ease the pain of a loss the next day, but there
was also a feeling of really being welcomed.
Finally, after the game while standing in the student union waiting for my nose and toes to thaw I had a couple of people approach us and tell us thanks for such a good game. Like I did anything to make it such a good game. ... Well, I guess I can say that I helped by not being an ass and following the classy example of sportmanship that Nebraska fans put forth. It is good to know that sportsmanship still exists.
Oh, and for those of you that don't know, it was a dramatic win by Texas. They won the game with a field goal kicked by a walk on kicker who had never even played in a game with 23 seconds left. An awesome game to be at, and many thanks to Nebraska and its fans.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Wooden Nickles
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3 comments:
Even though I lived in KC for eight years, I never went to Nebraska. I did however see many a Nebraskan driver on the road. With few exceptions they were rude and surly, and overall crappy drivers.
Maybe they were deported by all the nice people up there.
A good finish to a frustrating game. Like I've said before, I consider fumbles dumb luck. The more I see Texas play this year, the less upset I get about the polls--their new seventh position on the current BCS ranking is probably accurate.
Nice to hear you got treated well in Lincoln. I can't imagine having sell-out crowds for that many years. Are they actually into the game, or is it a social thing like North Carolina?
ESPN had the same comment about Nebraska - Tim Keown made the following comment in his column, "I went to the Texas-Nebraska game Saturday and came away with this: Any doubt that the folks in Lincoln are the best, most well-meaning fans in the country was dispelled immediately after the game, when a brutally tough loss was followed by an 85,000-strong chant of "Go Big Red."
Good to hear that sportsmanship can still be recognized.
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