We first encountered Husker sombrero guy after the Chattanooga game when our guy Dennis Hubbard sent us this photo:
 |
No idea who he is, nor why he's dressed like that at a Husker football game other than he has one damned big red sombrero, armed to the teeth with corn and looking rather cynical about what's going on in front of him.
Then we saw him again during the Fresno State broadcast, same look, as if he's looking for something that he ain't found yet.
 |
When I reviewed the Fresno State game the mystery grew - a panning shot through the crowd revealed that he's armed with a cob and apparently unafraid to use it.
 |
The photo puzzled me until I realized that I'd seen him someplace before..... many years ago... in a different land.
 |
After all this time he appears unchanged. It was a mystery as to whether he was fighting for good or evil then, or whether he was just out for himself. The mystery remains, as has his unchanged features.
Is he bad? Is his real name Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (known as "The Rat")? A man wanted in 14 counties of Nebraska for crimes of murder, armed robbery of citizens, state banks and post offices, the theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison, perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children, inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion, receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, passing counterfeit money, and using marked cards and loaded dice?
Or is he good - a protector of Nebraska football, someone who stands for justice and has arrived this year to make sure that Big Ten referees do not penalize us as the Big 12 referees did last season?
Or is he just plain ugly?