Where I Come From: How I Became A Husker Fan

members to your xbox friend’s list by searching for their gamertag. Mine is Dominic Mako. BTW, don’t buy last year’s NCAA game. It sucked. I posted my “story” in the other post, so I’ll just repost it here:

I started as a football fan by watching the New York Giants when I lived in New York during the mid-1980’s. Good times, indeed. I moved to Nebraska in 1988 and started casually watching the 1989 college football season, though I can’t say I recall all that much. I think what started me as a lifelong Husker fan was watching Kenny Walker in 1990. I’ve been half deaf since birth, so seeing a really talented deaf player made me take notice and actually start to root for the team’s success. As many fans may recall, Walker also received a very unique applause from the crowd during his final home game, which still gives me chills. Who wouldn’t be a Husker fan after that?!

I grew up in Wisconsin a diehard Packer/Badger fan (still am), and moved to Nebraska with my family in the late ’90s as a teenager. I was appalled at the level of devotion of Husker fans – to me, it went beyond passionate fandom into outright psychosis. (It still frightens me a bit.)

My dad jumped on the Husker bandwagon immediately, which I found a horrifying sellout. The football fans in this new state were strange and disturbing, and I didn’t like them. I rooted hard against the Huskers – to me as a moody 14-year-old, they represented everything thing that was wrong with this backwards state I had been forced to move to.

Over the Solich era, that hatred softened into indifference as I (theoretically) matured a bit and started to feel a bit sorry for the Huskers as they declined. Then I went to college out of state and became “the guy from Nebraska” – suddenly, the Huskers automatically became part of my identity, whether I liked it or not.

I spent a semester at UNL my senior year, and that was the tipping point. I had come to identify myself as a Nebraskan over the previous couple of years, and now UNL was my school. I couldn’t not cheer for the Huskers.

So I actually became a Husker fan during the Callahan era. This idea that most Husker fans have of the team owning a conference title and a place in the national title hunt each year as a birthright is absolutely bizarre to me. In my mind, the Huskers are far from a juggernaut; they’re a plucky, scrappy underdog that has almost every geographic and demographic factor working against them. They also mean more to their state than just about any team this side of the Ess-Eee-See, which has actually become more of an endearing factor for me than anything. Well, most of the time.

It’s on the Marquette SB Nation blog. And I do know the Hoppin Cop & 7-Up Guy. Almost included the 7-Up Guy in my memories of the Utah game in1989,

http://www.anonymouseagle.com/2010/7/5/1553178/where-i-come-from-how-i-became-a

I am about as close to the mythical “Cornhusker” as they come. I was born and raised on a farm in northeastern NE and dreamed of playing for the Huskers as long as I can remember. My first Husker memory is getting shipped off to my grandparents one weekend so my folks could go to a game – I think it was in ’78 or ’79.

What really got me going was the 1983 season. I was 9 and totally addicted to the Triplets. It was the first year I really watched games, including that awful Orange Bowl (after which I literally cried myself to sleep). After that year, every Saturday in the fall revolved around watching the game on TV or listening to it in the tractor cab while we harvested bushel after bushel of corn and soybeans.

My first Husker game was the 1986 night game against Florida State. We had great seats, even though it rained and we wore trashbags because we forgot our raincoats at home. Steve Taylor lit up the Seminoles that night – it was awesome.

While I was a decent offensive lineman and wanted to try to walk on, I stopped growing at 5’11", just too short to play on the line and too slow to play anywhere else. After considering a few other schools, eventually I enrolled at UN-L in 1992 and joined the Cornhusker Marching Band instead. I had a great perspective on four years of nearly absolute dominance: the last game I attended in a CMB uniform was the ’96 Fiesta Bowl. Talk about fortunate timing!

I’ve since lived in Minnesota and Iowa, and found much to love sportswise in my adopted homes, but nothing comes between me and my Huskers. I love being a Nebraskan at heart, and hope to return to Lincoln someday. Go Big Red!

I was born and grew up in Nebraska which meant I officially had my “Husker Fandom Card” issued to me at an early age. However, I wasn’t a typical boy in that I didn’t really like football all that much. I mean I’d play sandlot ball with friends…but watching football on the TV?? Blech!! (I know I’m assamed at my past self) The first games I remember going to (vs. Pacific in ’94 and various others in my youth) I looked at it as an event…like going to the zoo or water park but never as an actual fan of the team.

However, the ’95 season changed that. After the ’94 title I became intrigued with the aspects of the game and started watching every Saturday (if on the basic networks). It all came together for me at the ’95 Fiesta bowl when after winning the local news came on and broadcasted the massive celebrations on 72nd and Dodge in Omaha. After seeing what power and pride that this program displayed that night I became hooked. I started to actively watch games each year after that and even bought posters so I could write in the scores to capture what happened for each game.

This went on through high school until I enrolled at UNL in ’01 and my fandom got turned up another notch. Games in the student section were amazing and one of the things I miss most about school. I graduated in ’06 and even though through that strech we may have not been the Huskers of the past I lived and died with our team and had a wonderful time supporting the Cornhuskers.

It didn’t take hold of me until 2002 even though I was born and raised in Nebraska (Papillion, represent!). My first game, I was eight years old, was the 92 Iowa State upset. I remember walking on the field and wondering why everyone else was down there as well. When I was a kid, I really didn’t care about football or the Huskers at all. It just seemed I couldn’t do what I wanted since my dad watched the games on Saturday. My next memory was of the 94 Orange Bowl. I was really sick that night and my dad kept on yelling as Nebraska won the game with Schlesinger getting two touchdowns. I remember being really mad because I wanted to sleep. I look back now and wish I was able to watch it but, oh well.
I joined the Army in 03 and thats when I was really “bitten by the bug” as my dad puts it. I remember thinking while I was in basic, Fort Knox, I had to represent were I was from. Nebraska really isn’t known more much else other than football and I was quite proud of that fact. I really love it here and I’m very proud of anything Nebraska related. My first duty station was at Fort Hood, Texas (1st Cav), smack dab in the middle of Longhorn Country. I really had to represent then. I missed the 03 season since I was in basic and was excited for the 04 season, until I learned I was going to Iraq. Nebraska had their first losing season since the 60’s so I blamed it on my deployment. My next deployment was in 07 and again another losing season. By that point I figured I better get out so that way they don’t have another one! I blame both those season on the fact that I wasn’t there to support them in person. I joined the Kansas Gaurd in 08, got out in 10, and currently going to Metro where I can get enough credit’s to transfer to NU (I didn’t try in high school and it came back to bite me).
Sorry this is long winded, but I wanted to share it all that cultivated into me being a Nebraska fan. When people ask me what team do I like or watch, I don’t say the Cornhuskers, I say Nebraska. I’m proud of both my state, and my football team. Go Big Red! First Team!