Randy York’s
N-Sider
Forty-four
years ago, Jim Croce recorded the song Time in a
Bottle, but Nebraska has a better idea to celebrate 50 consecutive years of
sellout football crowds at Memorial Stadium ... Time Capsules, and the
best thing about them relate to a question we asked
ourselves: Why just look back? That, in turn, triggered the only theme that
makes sense to us: Let’s plan the next 50 years!
We’ve had 200 scarlet-and-cream time capsules made, and
we plan to stuff every one of them with meaningful memories, mementos and
memorabilia that describe and define our half-century journey that became an
ongoing, unremitting, unrelenting quest to fill every seat in what soon will be
a 92,000 capacity stadium.
Our university and athletic department are preparing
those time capsules to celebrate Nebraska’s 50 Years of Consecutive Sellouts at
Saturday night’s nationally televised home game against Michigan. Our 1962 to
2012 accomplishment covers 323 consecutive home-game sellouts. Your
recollections from those games – and predictions for future historic sellouts –
must be received by Monday, Nov. 12, to qualify for placement in a vault
that will be buried near the East Stadium later this year.
Seeking Your 50-Year Flashbacks, Predictions
Your 50-year flashbacks and your next 50-year predictions
won’t be opened until the fall of 2062. That vault, however, would not be
complete without Big Red fans submitting their own magic moments from the past
50 years and making their own golden predictions for the next 50 years of
consecutive sellouts that will create the opportunity for a Centennial
Celebration in the year 2062.
Nebraskans not only are very proud of our past, but also
very confident about our future. We only have 1.82 million people in this
state, yet over the past 50 years, we’ve sent 24,048,577 fans through
those hallowed gates.
There’s a reason why Memorial Stadium archways say:
“Through these gates pass the greatest fans in college football.” Who else puts
a metaphorical Sold Out sign on its ticket office window every game for
half a century?
Vision for 2062: 100 Consecutive Sellout
Years
How did we do it? You tell us, so we can put it in a time
capsule. But, at the same time, let’s do something bigger and even better.
Let’s allow the greatest generation to celebrate and honor its 50-year
accomplishment, and, at the same time, let’s encourage the next generation to
take us beyond where we are, so they can commemorate 100 consecutive years of
sellouts in 2062.
Yes, it’s time to dream big and think big, to go
confidently and imaginatively, to follow one path yet create another, to catch
some new trade winds, to explore and to sail beyond where we’ve already been,
to make the improbable probable and the impossible possible and to believe it,
then achieve it.
How can that happen? Let The N-Sider boil down the
three most important ways:
1) Access
and print a 2062 Husker Time Capsule Kids
Sheet or pick one up Saturday at the Husker Nation Pavilion beginning
at 4 p.m. before Nebraska hosts Michigan for the first time ever at Memorial
Stadium. The Kids Sheet is a great tool for teachers and parents to help
their students and children celebrate 50 consecutive years of Nebraska football
sellouts. The activity sheet includes opportunities to predict the future of
Nebraska football in seven sub-categories: 1) Concessions; 2)
Mascots; 3) Ticket prices; 4) Uniforms; 5) Logos; 6)
National championships; and 7) Seating capacity. Kids who participate in
the Time Capsule experience also get the chance to answer the proverbial
question: What do you want to be when you grow up?
2) Big Red fans of all ages
will have the opportunity to submit photos, letters, stories, notes, quotes and
anecdotes via old-fashioned mail. Use every windmill in your mind, put your
best thoughts on paper and mail to: Nebraska Athletic Marketing; Attention:
2062 Time Capsule; One Memorial Stadium; Lincoln, NE, 6855-0153. Our Marketing
staff will sort, collect and curate every submission so we can place the most
inspirational into time capsules. Open your hearts and minds on everything from
your first Husker experience to your most memorable one, but don’t forget to
offer up your hopes and thoughts for the future. Let your imagination run
rampant. Remember, predictions placed in this vault will survive tornados,
floods, even earthquakes.
3) We haven’t forgotten our
IY-Generation Big Red fans. We know our more tech savvy fans will be compelled
to use Twitter, and we will collect and curate your tweets on Twitter. Please
use our new hash tag – #Huskers2062
. The same rules apply. We encourage tweeters to take your own snapshot of 2012,
so you can honor the past 50 years and predict the future for the next 50
years. Tweets should focus on memories and experiences. We’ll collect and
curate the best, so they can find a place inside a fan time capsule. Given the
emergence of technology and the capability to apply that technology, who thinks
Twitter and/or Facebook will still be around 10 years from now, let alone 50
years from now? This is the place to showcase your vision and creativity.
What Goes in Capsules? What Gets Left Out?
Frankly, I’m looking forward to see how many programs,
game notes, posters, schedule cards, jerseys, alternate jerseys, gloves, polo
shirts, coins and merchandise get in line to become a priority. Who will be the
judge and/or jury that will decide what goes in and what gets left out? I don’t
want any part of that, but I will support all of it.
Just make sure that the kids out there today appreciate
what we’ve already done, so they can take ownership of what must continue in
the future. That means the target audience may be eighth grade and under, but
to honor the late, great Lyell Bremser, participation should not preclude any
man, woman or child who has a good idea or something meaningful to contribute.
We all know how difficult it is to sell out one game, let
alone 323 and counting. We will never take that streak for granted because our
unprecedented achievement is a daily, weekly, monthly and annual reminder that
our fans are second to no other fan base out there. Every fall Saturday,
there’s a pilgrimage to Memorial Stadium. We’ve all seen the gates open,
watched the tunnel walked and heard the crowd roar. Now it’s up to our youth to
carry on our tradition and to make the next 50 years as fast, fun and
fashionable as we’ve made the last 50 years.
Empowering Next Generation to Do Its Part
Yes, we’ve been able to shape the past, and now we’re
passing the torch so our youth can sculpt the future. To be sure, it takes
love, respect, passion and stick-to-it-iveness. Unlike so many other fan bases,
Big Red loyalists don’t believe in the “We’re with you, win or tie” mantra. We
support, we act and we stand for what our fight song says – We all stick
together in all kinds of weather. We all know the way we were, but that’s
not what’s important right now. We’re looking ahead more than we’re looking
back. We know it’s the only way we can truly empower and inspire the next
generation to plan the next 50 years and then execute that half-century like we
did.
Just make sure you leave Memorial Stadium in 2062 the way
we’re leaving it in 2012 ... SOLD OUT!!!
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