The first game I watched as a Nebraska Cornhusker fan—my parents are NU grads, my grandmother was a NU grad, various aunts, uncles, and cousins (and second cousins, etc.) are NU grads. And my great-grandfather received his Law degree from NU. So it kind of runs in the family. My youngest son almost went to NU. They gave him a good offer, a really good offer. He turned it down, but he’s a big Husker fan. In fact, he and I will be flying out for a game in Lincoln this fall—was against the Colorado Buffaloes. I was in fourth grade and was just getting into football. (I was a baseball fan long before taking up football. Dad was at work, but Mom sat down and watched the game with me, explaining what was what and who was who and why we were so much better than the other team (if I’m not mistaken, Colorado finished third that year, maybe fourth. I’ll get to that again later.)
(That was a long introductory paragraph. Sorry.)
So we (we being NU, of course) held off a determined Buffalo team, 24-7. Or maybe it was 21-7. Somewhere in there, anyway. The win kept us in first place in the national polls, first in the Big Eight conference, and ready for a showdown with Oklahoma. The game was in Norman, OK. Going into the game, it was crazy. NU and OU were spectacular teams. One of them was #1 in offense, and one was #1 in defense. I didn’t remember which way it was.
But the #2 teams in offense and defense were these same two teams. Okay, so NU and OU were #1 in just abouteverything. Chuck Fairbanks was coach at OU. Bob Devaney, with assistant Tom Osborne in the wings, coached the Huskers that day. And if you’ve read this far into this article, you already know that the game was called “Game of the Century.” The game was magnificent. solid on both sides of the line, with both offense and defense of each team doing some spectacular things. Perhaps the most impressive play was Johnny Rodgers’ amazing 74-yard punt return for touchdown. That was fairly early in the game and it sort of set the tone. We watched the game on television at my cousins’ home in Fremont, Nebraska. Well, we watched the TV, but we listened to the radio and Lyle Bremser’s broadcast of the game on KFAB Radio, your Cornhusker radio station. We won the game, 31-30.
Then it was off to the Orange Bowl. For the game, Dad went out and bought our first colored television set. That really made the game fun to watch! We played against the Alabama Crimson Tide, coached by Bear Bryant. The analysts were all saying that ‘Bama would trounce the Huskers since Bryant had much more experience in championship games than did Devaney. So, going into the game, NU was #1, Alabama was #2, followed by OU at #3 and (I think) CU at #4, though that might not be right. Anyway, we trounced the Tide, 38-6. Johnny Rodgers had another punt return … I think he ran for three touchdowns, had the punt return, and he threw a TD pass to Frosty Anderson (if I remember correctly.)
That was our second national championship in two years (we had beaten LSU in the championship game the previous year). We had a dry spell for about twenty years after that. We had good seasons but just couldn’t bring the trophy home. We ALMOST did in 1983-4 when we played Miami in the Orange Bowl and lost when our two-point attempt at the end failed. We lost 31-30 (I think). I was there in the marching band … it was a tough loss.
That’s enough for now. I’ll be glad to share more about those early years later. Cheers.
I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention. You either know this or you don’t. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up and say that it’s well-known that the dream of every young American boy is to grow up to be a great major league baseball player. You might be either a great hitter or a great pitcher — certainly not both.
The informal rules have changed and an epiphany has happened right before our very eyes. There is one player in the majors right now who has changed the fabric of how we view the game. He is oustanding as a hitter and outstanding as a pitcher. In fact, he’s possibly the best overall hitter in the majors at this moment. He’s leading the majors with 26 homers as of today. He’s also leading in RBIs (runs batted in ).
Shohei Ohtani hails from Japan. The Angels signed him (I think) in 2017. He came in and starred for a while, but then he got injured and had Tommy John surgery, forcing him to sit out a year. Then Covid happened. So it wasn’t until 2021 that he really blossomed into both a superb pitcher and batter. He won MVP in 2021. In 2022 he had another stellar season, finishing second in MVP voting. And in 2023, he’s on track for another MVP if he keeps going the way he’s going.
As a hitter, he hits the ball HARD … that ball may end up in orbit one of these days. His form is perfect — he gets his full body strength into the swing and his arms zoom through the swing.
At www.mlb.com you’ll usually see an article or two on his latest heroics. Pretty amazing.
As a pitcher, he’s fast (102 mph) but has a large variety of pitches in his arsenal, including a slider that’s next to impossible to get any wood on it at all. His sense of arm motion and fingertip ball control is such that he’s been known to see a pitch one night — a pitch that baffles him and causes him to strike — and then he’ll figure it out and be throwing that same pitch by the next game.
Anyway, what I really intended to write about was the JOY that Shohei brings to the game. The guy smiles. He works hard, yes. He’s busting his buns out there on the field. But he’s enjoying the game.
Not since Hank Aaron have I rooted for a player so cheerfully. I was the happiest fan on the planet when Hank hit his 715th in 1974.
In many ways, Ohtani reminds me of Hank. He’s not trying to get the most money or the acclaIm and all the fame. He wants to play ball. He does want to play on a good team — the Angels are good right now, playing above .500 ball and only 6 games back from the top spot at the moment. With Mike Trout and some other up-and-coming hitters in the lineup, they’ll be winning more games than not. (example: They beat Colorado 25-1 a couple of nights ago).
I don’t know anything about Shohei’s disposition, but he seems like a genuinely good guy. He’s the new face of American baseball. That’s awesome.
So I had a dream the other night and it all led back to a scandal in Lincoln, Nebraska — home of the Cornhuskers — where the NU fan base was infiltrated by a devious Oklahoma resident. His goal was to bring down the Husker Dynasty. (As an aside, I checked the data and from 1961 through 1999, Nebraska had more wins than any other team in college football. That includes championship seasons in ’70, ’71, ’94, ’95, and ’97. I like to tell people that during the first five years of my older son’s life, the Huskers were 60 – 3. Not bad.)
You’ll hear more about the Huskers over upcoming months. The first game of the season is against the Minnesota gophers, in Minneapolis on Aug 31 (like in 2 months 10 days). We toyed with the idea of going to the game. My folks could drive up from La Crescent, and Michelle’s got a brother and sister-in-law who live in Minneapolis. Game ticket prices were too high, though, for an out-of-town game.
Oh, but back to the dream. Yes, a plot was afoot. Several Oklahoma folks (Sooners) infiltrated the Husker Fan base and convinced us (Huskers) that we should drop more games so that the fans would be even more excited when we do win. Sounds complicated and not a little obtuse.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a winning season. It occurs to me that some good has come out of it … I can now relate to other fans and say, “Now I know what Iowa State fans must have felt their whole lives.” (just kidding)
A couple of us (me and somebody) will be going to Lincoln for a couple of home games this fall. That will be fun. Lincoln is lovely in the fall. It’s roughly 20 hours of driving, one way. Likely to take the slightly longer route, going over to Kansas City and eating at Jack Stack’s (best barbecue in the country) before heading up and over to Lincoln. We’ll see.
New coach, new QB, new team. It’s been dismal the past few years (where few is equal to about 20). It’s time for the Red Sea to rise.
“Day by day (day by day!)… we get better and better (we get better and better) … till we’re a team that can’t be beat … (can’t be beat) … won’t be beat … (won’t be beat!)”
My wife and I visit with our grandkids as often as possible, and we’ve been doing some traveling (including Alaska four or five times in the past couple of years). We love Alaska and would move there in a heartbeat if it weren’t so far from our kids and grandkids (except for the ones that live here, of course). Every where you turn, there’s another photo op, a postcard of real life.
Just north of Anchorage … May, 2023
Rock-hopping in AlaskaCamping in Indiana on the way to RAGBRAI 2019Brothers and Placid Quake: Born to Be Wild, not in Alaska
I Laid an Egg on Aunt Ruth’s Head (humorous grammar/usage stories)
Aunt Ruth: Queen of English and Her Reign of Error (more humorous usage stories)
Off Balance (Joel’s faith journey through Parkinson’s Disease)
Spoonful of Dirt (first in a series of Johnny Stevens adventures. Johnny was Joel’s great-grandfather, and much of this is about growing up in Iowa and Nebraska. Historical fiction, family safe. This book is about the family’s last year in Iowa.
Tracks in the Snow: Johnny’s family moves by covered wagon in a trip taking twenty-three days from eastern Iowa to western Nebraska. The trip was fraught with adventure.
Saving Arapahoe (coming soon!): The town is under threat of an Indian (Lakota Sioux). Pa (Johnny’s dad, my great-great grandfather was one of three men who organized an infantry of 120 men and boys). Again, full of adventure … I tried very hard to give the Indians and white men equal treatment. There was good and bad on both sides.
You will find more descriptions at Gennesaret Press (Gennesaret is used in the Bible, and it’s another name for the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus walked on the water and calmed the storm.)
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!
So … this isn’t really my first post, but it’s true that I don’t really know what I’m doing. I posted articles year ago, back before I discovered I didn’t have enough time. It takes a lot of time raising a family, you know. Now I’ve got grandkids, and that keeps me busy too. Besides, writing is a hobby, not a living (thank goodness, or I’d have starved years ago).
I like to write because it’s something I can still do (effectively), I’m good at it (okay, maybe too much braggadocio (sp?), but I’m confident at it), and I know people care about what I have to say. Ouch! I strained my shoulder patting myself on the back. Enough of this.
This blog will be mostly about English grammar and word usage, but we’ll see how it goes. If Nebraska football does well this fall, you may be hearing more about us (Uh, I mean “them.”)
