#20: It was... A Standard Van.

October 8th, 2009 was a day that my co-workers who I shared the joy of having Thursdays off and myself had been looking forward to for almost a year.  Since ESPN had decided that Nebraska would take on the Missouri Tigers on that Thursday in prime time we had been planning.  The tickets were bought, the hotel was reserved, and what we had thought was a pretty nice conversion van had been rented.  It was go time.

We met outside Wal-Mart in Lincoln on a beautiful October morning.  Adam Bahr, Kim Phan, and Dave Caspers joined me first, followed soon by Chris Baker, Seth Jantz, and Andy and Adam Harris.  While we waited on our driver in our van we headed inside and stocked up on supplies.  There was a decent chance for rain in Columbia so we made sure to grab some cheap ponchos while we were inside, and beer... lots and lots of beer.

As we waited outside our knight in shining armor, Chase Nelms, showed up in what wasn't quite the chariot we had been hoping for.  The van had a few years on it, and even more miles.  Oh, and the speakers didn't work.  And there was no CD player.... and it stunk, bad.

Chase jumped out of the drivers seat, threw his aviators on and made the statement that would dominate the entire trip. "Boys, we got the standard van!"  At that point we just kind of knew it was going to be alright.

We hit the road for Missouri around 7am, all of us had a closed beer in our hand as we reached the border to Missouri, and to celebrate the absence of any open container laws in the state, we cracked those cold ones the SECOND we crossed that imaginary line.  Not only were we now free to start drinking a solid 10 hours to kick off, we also saw some ominous clouds.  Immediately after we partook in the delicious drink of the gods, it started raining.  And I'm not talking a little rain here... it...was...raining.  Think Forest Gump Vietnam type rain here.

The standard wheels on the standard van held up and we made it to Columbia without a scratch, we checked into the hotel, and after a slight detour thanks to Adam's need to order a pizza (?) we made it down to tailgate.  Lucky for us we were given a canopy to protect us from the elements!  I opened the bag to start setting it up only to find we had every single piece... except the canopy.  Seth and I left the others in the cold as we drove through traffic to Wal-Mart, snagged the last $125 canopy set they had and raced back.  Once there we were able to set up and start drinking.  Missouri fans became awfully friendly, especially these ones:

Maybe they were just trying to steal our booze, maybe not.  But we did have plenty of pregame fun, but some meat on Seth's grill, and shared some solid ribbing with Tiger fans.

We made our way to the game, taking plenty of insults along the way.  Once inside the realization that our tickets were G.A. and were going to cause us a hassle on the 45' angle hill we were supposed to sit on started to kick in.  We managed to slide down the grass to sit on the big "M" on the hill.  The rain, still pouring down, added to the already awesome atmosphere.

Sometime in the first quarter, one of our beloved Husker players happened to hurt himself.  The absolute spitting image of white trash sitting next to Chase and I decided it would be a solid time to cheer things like "FUCK EM! HOPE HIS LEG IS BROKEN!"  Chase and I nearly physically put him in his place, but we let him dig his own grave as his fans started to turn on him during our conversation.

The game looked ugly going into the fourth quarter, but we all know how Mr. Suh turned this one around.  We quickly pulled our heads out and took a solid lead in the fourth quarter.  I had never seen so many loud, obnoxious, cocky assholes become so quiet in my entire life.  Chris Baker and I spent the last five minutes of the game running around like assholes screaming our heads off, dishing the words back at any Missouri fan unlucky enough to cross our path, and enjoying the victory with strangers in the G.A. section.

On our walk back to the standard van we failed to see any of those frat boys that threw all sorts of verbal garbage at us on the way in... strange.  When we returned to the tailgate I tried to start a little scuffle, but when I turned around I noticed everyone was in the van ready to leave.  I apologized and made my way out of there.

Nebraska may have won, but the rain took two cell phones and our grill.  But it could never take away the awesome memories from that trip, although it sure did make the damn smell of that van worse.  Thanks guys.

#21: The Big12 (And It's Officials) Can Go To Hell

From the second Nebraska announced it's intentions to depart the Big12 and move to the Big10 we, as fans, knew that trouble would await us from the conference, likely in the form of officials taking some liberties in, to put it gently, fucking us in the ass.

To our surprise though the issue with biased officiating seemed to keep it's ugly head away from games involving our beloved Cornhuskers.  That is, until we took our boys down to College Station, TX for a game with the Aggies of Texas A&M.  Nebraska was good this year, real good.  Strait up, no stripes involved, NU would beat A&M 90% of the time, no question in my mind.

But A&M did have the officials on their side, to the tune of 16-2 in the penalty department.  The NU defense was playing good football against one of the better offenses in the Big12.  On the game winning drive, on third and long, NU pressured the A&M quarterback to throw the ball out of bounds. NU would now get the ball to drive for a game winning possession.  Or not.  Watch the following if you have a strong stomach:

The penalty gave A&M a first down a subsequent game winning field goal.

Bullshit.

So, as the rabid fan I am, I decided to give the Big12 a nice backhanded complaint.  I quickly went to Facebook and created the "Wear Red, Be Loud, Wave Yellow" campaign.  We were to make penalty flags and wave them at the next game after every call against Nebraska as a form of appreciation to those in stripes.  The group grew quickly and although a few haters tried to stop people from doing it saying it wasn't the "Nebraska Way" the overall consensus was that this was going to be great.

I made my way to the fabric store a few days before the game and got to work:

The next day I made my way downtown, shocked at how many students I saw with their flags already.  The pregame radio shows were talking up the idea, it was going to work damnit.

When I took my seat at the game I was greeted with more than a handful of students carrying garbage sacks full of flags and handing them out to those around them.  Handshakes were shared and friends were made.

Lucky for us right after the game started Rex Burkhead was hit after calling a fair catch.  The flags went crazy, they were EVERYWHERE.  I felt like a new father, I was beaming.

Unfortunately for us, the penalties that game weren't all that bad, but it still looked great, and even ESPN got into it with the post game report:

The Nebraska student section played off Pelini's complaints about penalties in the A&M game, showing up with yellow flags that they waved en masse whenever it looked like a penalty was or wasn't warranted.

It was fun, I made an impact, and most importantly, Nebraska won the game. Is this the most exciting story I have or will share? Not by any means, but it was fun as hell for me.

Still waiting on some more stories from you guys to share on here...