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2009 Aug 03
FANS: What's Your Favorite Husker Item?
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Derek Rau got his favorite Husker item the night before the Nebraska Cornhuskers won their most recent national championship.
Rau, then 17, was in Miami for the 1998 Orange Bowl and staying at the same hotel as the NU football team. While their parents were partying in the lobby with other Husker fans, Rau and his brothers were peeking through the window of the hotel’s game room watching players like Ahman Green shoot pool when one of them motioned for the brothers to come in.
“We were just admiring the players,” said Rau, a former Marine and currently a security guard from Omaha. “They said we could come in and I was like huh-uh, no way.”
When Rau and his brothers got inside, everyone in the room came up and signed the Husker jersey Rau’s brother was wearing. That jersey would become Rau’s favorite Husker item, not just because he cared about the autographs, which he did, but also because of the story behind the signatures.
That’s the same way with most Husker fans and their favorite piece of Big Red memorabilia. The item isn’t just cherished for what it is, it’s cherished because it reminds them of the story when their favorite NU icons became real humans before their eyes.
That’s why Stan Schleifer, a administrator at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a Husker fan from Bennington, and several members of his family have a picture of a sweaty Tom Osborne with Schleifer’s son hanging from their fire place mantles.
It was 1987 and Schleifer and his son were visiting Nebraska and they went up to the practice field to watch the Huskers run through plays. Afterward, Osborne was running around the track and eventually, he stopped and walked over to Schleifer and asked if he could do anything for them.
“How about a picture with you and my son?” Schleifer asked him.
“Not too many people would have stopped,” Schleifer said more than twenty years later.
Why is the sweaty picture of the former coach so cherished?
“It wasn’t the idea of having it as much as it was the story of how we got it,” Schleifer said.
Blake Jackson, an 8-year-old from Omaha, got his favorite Husker item at the end of last year’s Virginia Tech game. He and brothers were looking at the players near the end of the game with another group of kids, all of whom were asking the players to throw them their gloves.
Jackson said his brothers weren’t saying anything, which is why, he thinks, Marlon Lucky made sure the group left with a pair of gloves. He said they saw Lucky look at them and then walk over to Lester Ward and tell him something before Ward walked over and handed the brothers his gloves.
The used gloves are now sitting on Jackson’s dresser and remind him it takes more than a loss for Husker players to avoid recognizing their fans.
So what's your favorite Husker Item? BLCleveland from Husker Locker said he has n old Nebraska T-Shirt that he cherishes, let us know what your favorite item is, and be sure to describe how you got because, more often than not, that’s the whole story.
Leave us a comment down below!
And don't forget to visit Best of Big Red for more cool gifts and great Husker items!
Join today and get Husker updates every day throughout the fall!
Rau, then 17, was in Miami for the 1998 Orange Bowl and staying at the same hotel as the NU football team. While their parents were partying in the lobby with other Husker fans, Rau and his brothers were peeking through the window of the hotel’s game room watching players like Ahman Green shoot pool when one of them motioned for the brothers to come in.
“We were just admiring the players,” said Rau, a former Marine and currently a security guard from Omaha. “They said we could come in and I was like huh-uh, no way.”
When Rau and his brothers got inside, everyone in the room came up and signed the Husker jersey Rau’s brother was wearing. That jersey would become Rau’s favorite Husker item, not just because he cared about the autographs, which he did, but also because of the story behind the signatures.
That’s the same way with most Husker fans and their favorite piece of Big Red memorabilia. The item isn’t just cherished for what it is, it’s cherished because it reminds them of the story when their favorite NU icons became real humans before their eyes.
That’s why Stan Schleifer, a administrator at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a Husker fan from Bennington, and several members of his family have a picture of a sweaty Tom Osborne with Schleifer’s son hanging from their fire place mantles.
It was 1987 and Schleifer and his son were visiting Nebraska and they went up to the practice field to watch the Huskers run through plays. Afterward, Osborne was running around the track and eventually, he stopped and walked over to Schleifer and asked if he could do anything for them.
“How about a picture with you and my son?” Schleifer asked him.
“Not too many people would have stopped,” Schleifer said more than twenty years later.
Why is the sweaty picture of the former coach so cherished?
“It wasn’t the idea of having it as much as it was the story of how we got it,” Schleifer said.
Blake Jackson, an 8-year-old from Omaha, got his favorite Husker item at the end of last year’s Virginia Tech game. He and brothers were looking at the players near the end of the game with another group of kids, all of whom were asking the players to throw them their gloves.
Jackson said his brothers weren’t saying anything, which is why, he thinks, Marlon Lucky made sure the group left with a pair of gloves. He said they saw Lucky look at them and then walk over to Lester Ward and tell him something before Ward walked over and handed the brothers his gloves.
The used gloves are now sitting on Jackson’s dresser and remind him it takes more than a loss for Husker players to avoid recognizing their fans.
So what's your favorite Husker Item? BLCleveland from Husker Locker said he has n old Nebraska T-Shirt that he cherishes, let us know what your favorite item is, and be sure to describe how you got because, more often than not, that’s the whole story.
Leave us a comment down below!
And don't forget to visit Best of Big Red for more cool gifts and great Husker items!
Join today and get Husker updates every day throughout the fall!
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Tags: fans, husker item, ahman green, tom osborne, marlon lucky, lester ward
Home > HuskerLocker’s Locker > Blog > FANS: What's Your Favorite Husker Item?
Mine is a slice of one of the goal posts torn down on October 31, 1959. One of the biggest wins ever for NU and Bill Jennings. NU 25 OU 21 ending Bud Wilkinson's long conference winning streak. It serves now as a paper weight with the date and score on one side and fealt on the other. Heavy metal filled with concrete.
– Aug 5, 2009
My big red N flag. No sentimental value, I just love flying it in front of my house on gamedays in Denver. With everyone from Okie State, LSU, Minnesota, K-State and of course CU fans in my 'hood, I gotta represent the Corn. My wife makes fun of me every Saturday when the first thing I do, after getting dressed of course, is step outside and get my flag up.
– Aug 3, 2009
A Big Red rod and reel. Man does she look pretty against a glassy lake.
– Aug 3, 2009
Great story!
My item is a 1983 signed Scoring Explosion poster of Gill, Rozier and Fryar...signed in the year the poster came out. We framed it, and it now sits above my desk in my office. I don't keep much Husker memorabilia, but I keep that!
– Aug 3, 2009