1 week Ago By LUKE MULLIN Lincoln Journal Star
It wasn’t the kind of spring Saturday the city of Lincoln had grown accustomed to. For decades, Nebraska football’s Red-White spring scrimmage had simulated a fall gameday, complete with tailgating and massive crowds. Things were different this year.
As young fans played catch with a football and the smell of freshly grilled hamburgers filled the air, the sidewalks outside Memorial Stadium had never been so empty and the stadium gates so quiet on a day the Huskers were set to take the field in any capacity. Rather than Nebraska football’s spring scrimmage, which was contained in a portion of the day’s Husker Games, the highest-profile event of the day was Nebraska’s equipment sale. Fans had lined up in large numbers to get into the Hawks Championship Center early in the morning, and many were long gone by the day’s football action rolled around.
Those who found items at the sale walked out with plastic shopping bags of their purchases, while others filled up trash bags. Two fans wheeled out a pair of chairs, rolling a Pepsi-branded drinks container between them down the sidewalk. “How much did you pay for those?” inquired a group of late-arriving bargain hunters, who learned $20 was the price.
“I wonder if there’s any left,” they said, walking toward the action. While a ticket to the Husker Games also guaranteed entry to the equipment sale, many in attendance had shown up solely to hunt for Nebraska-branded apparel. That included Jake Howe, whose drive from Seward netted him a pair of shoes and multiple baseball jerseys which he’s looking forward to wearing at future Nebraska games.
“Some people were taking their time and being thoughtful of what they were grabbing, but you also saw a handful of people just loading up boxes and stuff like that,” Howe said. “You could’ve spent all day in there if you truly wanted to.” JP Stuhr, who made the short drive from Eagle, nearly did.
One of Stuhr’s standout purchases was an alternate helmet from Nebraska’s 2018 game against Illinois, a helmet with a throwback look akin to an old leather helmet. It was the perfect find for a fan who has an NCAA license to produce custom-made helmets. “I remember them wearing those in a game, and I enjoy the alternate looks of their helmets and jerseys,” Stuhr said.
Stuhr also bought multiple volleyball jerseys and a John Cook bobblehead for his wife, a former Husker volleyball player in the 1990s. Outside of the areas around the Hawks Championship Center and Memorial Stadium, though, it was a quiet morning and afternoon on campus. Parking lots usually full of tailgaters were quiet, and at the UNL student union, fewer than a dozen people sat outside.
Unlike the typical sounds of a gameday — loud conversations and music blasting from speakers — the only noise was the calming rush of the Broyhill Fountain and its waters as spotlights from Memorial Stadium broke through the trees. The Chick-fil-A in the union, which had placed signs outside reminding fans that it was open, was one of the top draws on campus. So was Lolo’s burger truck on the east side of the stadium, where fans milled about before the gates opened.
That included Chris and Jessi Nelson and their children, Gabby (13) and Bre (7), who drove up from Omaha to attend their 10th spring game in a row. Bre wasn’t necessarily excited about the football scrimmage — but she was ready to see Husker volleyball team in action as the Nelson family did the football-volleyball double on Saturday. “I grew up in Kansas and my dad’s from Kearney, so we’d always come up here whenever we could get the chance to go to a game,” Chris said.
“When I became a dad and moved up here, it was just something I wanted to keep going to.” With fewer fans in attendance Saturday than in years past, the atmosphere around Nebraska’s spring scrimmage was also different. There was minimal fanfare and no police escort for the two Nebraska team buses which rolled down 10th Street around 11 a.
m. Players not appearing in the game rode their scooters to the stadium, passing many fans on their way as they zoomed across campus. And with only a few hundred fans inside the stadium for the women’s flag football which began the afternoon’s action, things remained busy outside.
Quarterback Dylan Raiola’s arrival at the team facility brought about a litany of photo requests, including many from young fans who sported No. 15 jerseys proudly. Unlike a traditional spring game, though, those fans didn’t get to see their quarterback suit up.
That is with the exception of the women’s flag football game between Nebraska and Midland, in which Raiola briefly entered the contest. With Raiola and Nebraska’s other stars not part of the scrimmage, it was a much different spring Saturday than any Bob and Loretta Avery had been to before. “We come every year — we’ve been coming for probably 30 to 35 years — and we weren’t going to go,” Bob Avery said.
“When they said there was going to be actual football, that’s when we decided to go.” The couple don’t usually go to games in the fall, instead opting to just attend the spring game because they feel it’s a “bargain.” For those who’ve seen the tradition of Nebraska’s Spring Game over the years like the Averys, Saturday was both a reminder of the past and a reality check of what the future of college football holds.
“Nothing lasts forever,” Bob Avery said. “It’s disappointing, but it could come back; things change.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!.
