Nebraska vs. Ball State
Imagine being surrounded by 83,000 people. You have no room to stretch and you certainly have had your personal bubble invaded into, and have seen more people cheer together then ever before. Welcome to a Nebraska Cornhusker football game, and this is under normal circumstances, over 286 games have been sold out consecutively since 1964. The only reason that the Nebraska Cornhuskers are as popular as they are is because of the ever-devoted fans.
As soon as I saw the monstrous stadium, Memorial Stadium, home to the Huskers I knew that my day was going to be filled with excitement. The stadium is so massive that it took me a good long while to walk around. At every main entrance there is a copper statue representing a past time in football. The front of the stadium, in a way, looks like the Roman Coliseum during the Roman era. My first goal when I arrived was to find my gate. At last I found gate twelve. As I waked up the numerous steps to the entrance doors I could already hear the defining roar of the crowd and the musical lyrics of the band. The band was in their finishing notes of the husker fight song, “There is no Place like Nebraska”, since the huskers had just scored a touchdown, you could hear the fans screaming at the top of their lungs their gladness and surprise at the early touchdown. The stadium was echoing noise, such as a rock concert. As I walked up the causeway of section 33 I got my first glimpse of the “sea of red”. The “sea of red” is quite a sight to see, in my own words it was “breath taking”. Almost every person in the stands was wearing the color red in support of the Husker team. The red shirts that were being worn was one thing that connected all the fans in that moment of time, we had all become friends. Even if by chance the Huskers lost the game the person right next to you, that had endured the entire game with you, wearing that loved color of red is your friend. The two of you have a shared a bond that can be shared only by the dedicated Husker fans.
Over 83,000 people were here to see the same game that I was and although they had had more experience then I have in this subject matter I knew it was just as special to all of them as it was to me. Now it was up to me to find my seat. As I turned around I was met with the voices and faces of thousands of screaming people. Wow what an intimidating moment of my life. As I stared to climb the abundant amount of solid concrete steps, up to row 50 I saw nothing really out of the ordinary except for a few obnoxiously large corn on the cob hats, aka cornheads. I had to do a double take the first time that I noticed them. They are literally a yellow, plastic, corn on the cob lying down on you head. They are even detailed enough to see the abundant amount of kernels on the top. That’s a thing to tell the people back home about. Soon my legs grew tired, from all the stairs but they still looked like they reached to the sky above. I was glad when I reached row 50...ahh now to find my seat, number 16. Okay so, it is in the middle, great, now I have to step over people and duck as they are swinging their mad arms about to show their support for the team. I had this constant motion of saying “sorry” and ducking and dodging and a few “excuse me’s” till I could finally sit down. It reminded me strongly of dodging thousands of people on the streets of New York. Too bad it’s a hard cold bench that reminds me of a harsh welcome to a start of a new day. But the fact that it was uncomfortable did not really phase me because I was at a Nebraska Cornhusker game.
The first thing that came to mind when I sat down was the closeness of all the people around me. I had barley any foot space and could not turn 10 degrees to the right or left. I was literally boxed in by walls of people. I was thankful at that moment that I am not claustrophobic. Although we were outside in a very large stadium it was very cramped seating. Unfortunately every time that something exciting happened the “walls” got closer and I was reminded of those padded rooms that they put crazy people in, for a moment. For the first few minutes all I could do stare in awe at what was right in front of me. The first thing that caught my attention was the field. It was a 100 yards of green turf, greenness that reminded me of winter rye in Arizona. The next thing that caught my attention was the twenty-two football players running around on the field. Of course the most important part of the twenty-two players on the field is the brown ball, that is shaped like “Hey Arnold’s" head that is at times flying through the air.
Soon I finally snapped back to reality when a touchdown was scored. I was waiting to hear the band to play, the ever-loved fight song, but unfortunately Ball State had scored a touchdown, we had a heated score of seven to seven. The crowd went wild. All around me people were cursing and pointing at the field. The man next to me kept screaming “What the hell was that?” “Are you blind!” “Come on guys get it together!” All the while he was saying this his face got brighter and brighter till, I’m sure of it, his face matched to color red of his shirt. All I wanted to do was tell him to breath. While disappointment was being spread about the Husker fans Ball State fans were secretly cheering inside, not wanting themselves to be known around all the Husker fans.
By now the game has started to pick up along with the weather. The breeze that, during the first quarter, chilled me had now turned into full-fledged sun, and it was the kind of sun that I knew would cause me trouble the next day. So I decided to roll up my sleeves and wait to get burned, I could already feel the sun baking away at my skin. As the sun scored my skin Ball State had managed to score a field goal. The score that had once been seven to seven was now ten to seven. Again the fans started to shout out obscenities at the team, “Come on huskers!” “Are your eyes even open?” “Did you really let that happen!” The man behind me even threw something that bounced off a women’s head a few rows down. Immediately I remembered the time in “Dodgeball” when the boy got hit in the face with a wrench.
As the crowd became rowdier I began to notice the cheerleaders, who were dressed in red and white, and Scarlet Dance Team, dressed in red, white and black. These two elements of the game were actually very important on the effect of the game. The cheerleaders were constantly cheering at the crowd, to get up the emotion of the fans, and the Scarlets were dancing along to the music that the band was playing. Every so often they would switch places on the sidelines, it seemed like they did this at the beginning of every quarter. As I looked down to see how much room I could spare to stretch my legs Nebraska scored another touchdown. Each and every Husker fan stood up and chanted to the fight song “Go Big Red” over and over again. Also while the band was playing a man was running across the end zone waving, one of the biggest Nebraska Cornhusker’s flag I have ever seen. He ran across twice, while showing so much enthusiasm I was afraid that he might trip. Every step that he took gave the fans more spirit to believe that the Huskers would win. When the band was done playing the fans started to shout out congratulations to the team, “Way to go guys!” “That’s what I like to see!” “Lets keep it up HUSKERS!” The scoreboard looked better with the yellow lights shinning 14 for Nebraska and 10 for Ball State. As the buzzer went off, signaling the end of the second quarter, the beginning of half time excitement seemed to roll over me. I couldn’t wait to see the Nebraska Cornhusker marching band perform.
As the band got in to their first positions, I got goose bumps. Goose bumps of remembrance of my high school marching band and how much fun it was to watch them take the field and perform all decked out in their. The band was decked out in; red pants with white stripes, and white jackets with red sleeves, their dinkels (shoes) and gloves were white. They made a stunning picture on the field, every line was straight and every person still. As the band began to play and perform disappointment seemed to wash over me. The performance was not giving me as much excitement as I had anticipated. Although at the end of the show when the band spelled out H-U-S-K-E-R-S and played the fight song I saw that it affected the fans. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch and as the last note rang out the fans in red cheered as loud as they could for the band that gives each and everyone a sense of excitement at the games. My attention was then drawn to all the people that were eating. I noticed for the first time that I had not eaten breakfast that day, and I was starving. Of course the people around me were not sharing this pain because they were eating delicious pizza and hotdogs. Even though the food looked like it had been cooked hours upon hours earlier it filled the stadium with a mixed aroma of stadium food. Food that no matter what the score was, was always delicious.
Time just flew by and soon it was down to the last few tense minutes of the game, the score was 41 to 40 Nebraska. Everyone was on edge as Ball State attempted to score a field goal. Everyone in the stadium was standing up on their cramped legs leaning forward in anticipation for the end of the game. Then it happened…the final buzzer went off and we had WON!
The day was a success I had had the experience of a husker game. I heard and felt the deafening roar of the crowd. I smelled the sweet smell of food that was only delicious at games husker games. I saw the love and excitement that husker fans have for their team. I had experienced the heart of Nebraska, while I had become one of the dedicated Cornhusker fans of Nebraska.