You Never Forget Your First...Husker Game - Part 1

I asked for your “first Husker game” stories and did y’all ever come through! We got enough that I decided to break them up into multiple articles. Here’s the first set of stories. Where I could find a story or video about the game, I added it below the submission (in italics).

Anonymous - 1975

My brother Curtis Scored the first two touchdowns. They beat Iowa State 52-0.

Here is a game recap from DataOmaha (Omaha World Herald)

Ashton Evans - Wisconsin at Nebraska 2012 Football

It was a night game. We were down by like 20 at half and came back and won the game. It was even with the alternate all red uniforms. One of the craziest games I’ve ever been to.

Jill’s note: I was at that game. There was an annoying guy in our section who kept yelling “Joel Stave!!” as Wiscy rolled up their lead. The best part of Nebraska coming back (other than actually beating Wisconsin for once) was that guy shutting up.

RudiFan - 1976

Huskers blew out TCU. I remember watching Dave Butterfield take a long punt return to the house. Walking into Memorial Stadium felt like the moment in the Wizard of Oz when it went from black and white to color.

Here’s a Lincoln Journal Star 2016 review of that punt return and the HuskerMax recap that especially hails “pinpoint passing by Vince Ferragamo”.

pianoman18 - 1994

With my dad for my 10th birthday. October 1st vs Wyoming. I remember being in awe of the cathedral that is Memorial Stadium. I also remember being scared shitless that we would lose after falling behind 14-0 in the 1st quarter. It was Brook Berringer’s first start. He did what he had to do to get us the W. Guess what the 18 in my user name is for?

Here is the DataOmaha recap of that game.

Bilbo - 1995

Not much. It was against a no-name team and a massive blowout. We were in south end zone. I was surprised tickets were $50. The crazy part is tickets have not really went up much in price. At least I can say I saw one game from the greatest football team of all time.

Any excuse to post a highlights video of that 1995 team.

Anwar Toussaint Eure - 1994

I was a seventh grader and my band teacher did something special for me. Her parents were huge Husker fans and were lifelong season ticket holders. Unfortunately, her elderly mother died the week of the Kansas game and that left two tickets that would be unused. She knew how much I loved football and how big of a Husker fan I was. As a matter of fact, the day after the Kansas game, I would be playing in my little league championship football game, having what would be over 1400 yards on the season and 27 touchdowns.

She called me to her office after my band class that week and told me that she had two Nebraska football tickets for me, if I would like to go, and handed them to me with tears in her eyes. I will never forget how sad I was for her at that particular time with the death of her mother and I also will never forget the feeling of gratefulness towards her generosity in thinking to just give the tickets to me.

There was one “issue”, if you want to call it such. On the day of the Kansas game, I was already scheduled to fly a Cessna airplane with a trained instructor as part of my aeronautics class. For someone like me at the time, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. But the opportunity to watch my beloved Huskers with my dad for my very first time and LIVE was too much to pass up.

I still remember entering the stadium for the first time, my dad accompanying me, and seeing all the red. It was amazing to me while at the same time, inspiring, knowing I had a championship game to play the next day. Two things I remember most are watching Tommie Frazier play and I also remember Nebraska jumped out to a huge lead at halftime, prompting some Big Red fans behind me to leave the stadium early - which I didn’t understand. LOL We stayed until the final second ticked off of the clock. Oh...and my team won our championship football game the next day, where I ended up scoring two touchdowns, with two other touchdowns being called back on penalties. Not bad what a bit of inspiration can do...from the honor that my music teacher gave me of watching the game.

The DataOmaha recap - apparently Coach Osborne was worried about a possible letdown after wailing on Colorado the week before. If you are bored, you can watch the entire game (embedded below)