"Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game; In the deed the glory” These are the noble words inscribed on the southwest side of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. No such words were inscribed on the walls of Vitty’s Sports Bar and Grill last Saturday in Lewisville, TX but the red-clad patrons enjoying the hospitality of owners Robert and Gayle Vittitoe watched the game in good spirits and with the same intensity normally reserved for game day at the aforesaid stadium.
Although the marching band was unable to make the trip to Texas, Robert made sure to play “Hail Varsity!” on the juke box after the Huskers scored their one and only touchdown of the day. An even more pleasant surprise was that the song was followed by the passing around of a tray filled with “Hot Damn” shots. I didn’t think to ask exactly what was in each little white cup, but the liquid was a satisfyingly appropriate shade of red and we all downed them on cue to celebrate the score. Robert and Gayle are originally from Blair, NE and they obviously know how to make sure everyone enjoys a Husker game. Best of all, we were seated for the entire game and no-one stood up in front of us!
I’m thinking that the Hot Damn tradition needs to be implemented in Lincoln, although I haven’t yet figured out how to get those trays up into the stands quickly after a touchdown and then pass them along the row without an epidemic of red liquid spilling down the back of people's necks. But just in case the logistics of this Hot Damn idea can’t be worked out, I do have another proposal that is sure to create some buzz. The Texas Aggies’ tradition is for each man to kiss his date when a touchdown is scored, but my idea is that each man at Memorial Stadium should kiss someone else’s date instead. What a great way to meet new people and start animated conversations among the crowd! Especially if you kiss the date of a fan from the other team!
Before we talk about the Big Red game against the Illini, here is some good news from Nebraska. The Beatrice Orangemen won their game last Friday 20-13, overcoming three turnovers and extending their record to 5-1. Better still, no-one is questioning the sanity of the Beatrice coaches.
I could do no better to sum up the feeling in the stadium in Champaign, at Nebraska watch sites all over the world, and in living rooms across America, than the impassioned shout from one of the fans at Vitty’s that interrupted the stunned silence that followed right after Nebraska’s quarterback threw an incomplete pass with 55 seconds left in the game: “And you stopped the clock too, you moron!” This was to be the turning point of the game, but for some reason the man’s emotional eruption at that moment struck me as being funny. Maybe it was the Hot Damn that did it, but it could also have been nervous laughter as I thought the Huskers could not possibly lose from their current position (or could they?)
After another incomplete pass on fourth down, the Illini regained possession of the ball and marched down the field to score the game-winning touchdown while we were all left looking at one another and wondering how defeat had been so quickly snatched from the jaws of victory. As one particularly disappointed gentleman said in passing to Robert as he left “Where’s the bonfire so we can throw our shirts into it?”
The unexpected defeat must have affected my wife too, because the first words out of her mouth when she woke up Sunday morning were “I still can’t believe Nebraska lost that game”. But she was not the only one in the house who had suffered from watching the ignominious defeat.
Before we left home to drive to watch the game on Saturday we left the TV turned on to provide company for Lily, our "miniature husker hound”. She was wearing her white Nebraska scarf at the time, since this was an away game. (For home games she wears her red scarf, of course.) Given that she is such a fan, we thought it only fair to turn the TV to the Big Ten channel so that she could watch her Huskers in action. I guess she must have watched the game all the way to the sad ending because when we awoke on Sunday morning we found she had chewed her scarf off. It is indeed a sad state of affairs when even man’s best friend is abandoning ship.