I Remember when it was The Game

I’m watching the NASCAR race on ESPN, and the NCAA football scroll says that tonight is the Nebraska/Oklahoma football game.

I grew up on the Kansas/Nebraska border, on the Kansas side. We got more teevee from Nebraska-based stations than from Kansas ones, back in the day. So, it’s natural that I bleed a bit of Cornhusker Red from time to time. Except during basketball season, of course. I’ve often said that living close to a state line was the best of all possible worlds; I could be a Cornhusker during football season, and a Jayhawk come roundball time¹.

Then, the Big 8² championship and the accompanying Bowl Bid, went to the winner of this game. And both Nebraska and Oklahoma won their share. I still remember the Game of the Century, in 1971. Thanksgiving Day, it was. My parents and Carl and Clara Herman traded hosting Thanksgiving dinners. In ’71, it was Carl and Clara’s turn. They lived in the country. By country, I mean not the suburbs. I mean on a real farm, where dirt and gravel roads went to the two-lane US-36 highway. We went to church that morning, and then to Carl and Clara’s place to eat. Even on Thanksgiving Day, in the Midwest Universe, you eat at noon sharp. And we did. After we ate, Dad, Carl, and I repaired to the living room, to watch the huge #1 vs #2 gridiron spectacle. This being 1971, rural dwellers had no cable and no satellite for TV reception. A rooftop antenna and sheer hope met your need for TV. This year, neither cooperated, and Carl looked at Dad, Dad looked back at Carl and said “You wanna’ go to our place and watch the game on cable?”. The three of us thanked Clara and Mom for a delicious feast, piled into Carl’s Ford pickup, and barrelled down those dirt roads into Norton, and fired up the folks’ TV just in time for the kickoff. And what a game it was, made all the better, at least to me, by a 35-31 Nebraska victory that day.

I loved this little memory lane stroll. Both teams’ fortunes have waxed and waned over the years. This year, it looks like a mortal lock for the Sooners. For all the great memories of games past, and for my love of Nebraska, I’ll watch tonight, remember the past victories, and maybe break into a chorus of:

There is no place like Nebraska
Dear old Nebraska U.
Where the girls are the fairest,
The boys are the squarest,
Of any old place that you knew.
There is no place like Nebraska,
Where they’re all true blue,
We’ll all stick together in all kinds of weather,
For dear old Nebraska U.
GO HUSKERS!

Until basketball season, that is.

-k-

Nebraska, Cornhuskers, NCAA, Oklahoma, Sooners