Nebraska Football: 5 Things Every Fan Should Experience on Cornhuskers Game Day

The Nebraska Cornhuskers football team is rich in traditions. These traditions make each game-day experience a memorable one for the 87,000 fans who show up on Saturdays.

Nebraska holds the record for the most consecutive sellouts, now standing at 319 games. Each fan that walks through the turnstiles at Memorial Stadium becomes a part of history.

The Nebraska football program does not have the prestige that it once had, but that does not make the game-day experience less appealing to Huskers Nation.

Here is a list of five things every fan should experience on Cornhusker game day…

Sea of Red

You cannot go to a Cornhuskers game and not notice one thing…. The color red.

Nebraska fans paint Memorial Stadium in a “Sea of Red” every game day. Don’t be the one fan wearing the blue shirt. You will be noticed by 87,000 fans.

If for some reason you forgot your red Cornhuskers shirt, there are plenty of souvenir stands located both inside and outside the stadium so you won’t have to stand out in the crowd.

Tunnel Walk

Make sure you arrive early to the game. The best experience at a Nebraska football game (other than the action on the field) is the tunnel walk before the game.

The tunnel walk began in 1994 and the addition of Husker Vision on the big screens has made the experience even better.

The tunnel walk begins with the players emerging from the locker room, tapping the horseshoe as the walk onto the red carpet. The fans begin to cheer and the players begin to feed off of their energy. The players wait at the entrance to the field as the Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius” begins to play.

The Cornhuskers run onto the field led by Coach Bo Pelini and the 87,000 fans go wild.

Every Nebraska fan must experience at least one tunnel walk in his or her lifetime. 

Red Balloons

Before you enter the stadium, be sure to stop at one of the vendors selling the red Nebraska balloons.

The tradition at Nebraska is to release a red balloon when Nebraska scores its first points of the game. Though the tradition is not as fun as the tunnel walk, it has been around for decades at Memorial Stadium.

There is no exact date to when the first red balloon was released at Memorial Stadium, but the tradition goes back as far as 1963.

Husker Legacy Statue and Tom Osborne Statue

Before fans enter Memorial Stadium, they need to get a picture taken in front of the two statues that represent Nebraska football.

The first is the Huskers Legacy statue which sits on the Northwest corner of Memorial Stadium.

The statue shows six Blackshirts players tackling a player from Kansas State. The statue was created from a picture taken by Richard Voges (athletic department photgrapher) in the October 22, 1995 game between Nebraska and Kansas State.

The other statue is of former Nebraska coach and now athletic director Tom Osborne.

The Tom Osborne statue shows the former coach standing next to quarterback Brook Berringer and is located on the North side of Memorial Stadium. The statue was placed in front of the stadium in 2006 in association with the opening of the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex.

Nebraska Football Experience Room

Before the game begins, be sure to check out the Nebraska Football Experience room located on the North side of Memorial Stadium.

The Nebraska Football Experience room showcases the three Heisman trophies won by Johnny Rodgers (1972), Mike Rozier (1983) and Eric Crouch (2001).

The room also features a huge television screen that shows highlights of each of the Heisman Trophy winner’s careers at Nebraska.

Don’t forget to go to the West side of the stadium to see the trophy room for the Cornhuskers. This is where Nebraska displays the five national championship trophies and numerous other trophies. The room also has game jerseys worn by many of the great Cornhuskers players.

There are other traditions at Nebraska that are fun for fans to experience. One of them is when the fans all stand and clap for the visiting team no matter if the Cornhuskers win or lose.

Going to a Nebraska game is an experience that every college football fan should do, no matter if they cheer for the Cornhuskers or not.

Like the Nebraska fight songs says, “There is no place like Nebraska…."

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