Going Retro To Celebrate Nebraska's 300th Consecutive Sell Out - Looking At Life At the University of Nebraska Over The Years

You have to admit the fact that Nebraska celebrating our 300th consecutive sell out is pretty cool, even if the opponent is coming to town for a revenge game. Nebraska has a level of fan support unequaled in any sport - can anyone else top 47 years of straight sell outs? 

I'm sure there will be some articles coming up in the regular media talking about 1962, the year the sell-out streak started, the hit songs, major events happening around the world, celebrities of the day - things like that. 

I'm sure we'll put up some of our own.

However, if you really to get an idea of what campus life was like in 1962, the University of Nebraska Libraries have put every yearbook online for you to peruse. I mean every yearbook, from 1883-84 to the last that was published in 2001 (skipping the years 1973-1998). It's pretty interesting.... well, I guess it's interesting if you're into history like I am. 

Still, going back even to 1965, it's amusing looking at how much different life was then. A much different world, full of smiling guys and gals who were a heckuva lot skinnier than we are now. 

Here's a hint. If you want to look for anything about the football team, start at the first page of a yearbook, then skip a few pages forward until you get to the table of contents. Find the page that says "athletics", put that number in the page field and hit "Go".

Some examples: 

- The 1965 loss in the Cotton Bowl to Arkansas, along with evidence of huge fan support even then. 

- I have no idea of what's happening here, I assume the construction of a paper-farting homecoming float. 

- In 1967, news about the third stadium expansion since Bob Devaney's arrival, and the beat down by Alabama that season. 

- Sadness in the 1969 season. 

- In 1971 they  didn't mess around, with school spirit and display at the beginning of the yearbook. 

I'm sure you can find some favorites of your own 

In honor of that era, I'll try to spend the rest of the week using the word "swell" a lot more than usual (as in "Gee, that's swell", not as in "Sorry about bouncing that beer bottle off yer head. I hope it doesn't swell.") I thought about spending the week smacking Mrs. CN on the butt more often but that didn't last so long.