"You'll have to go around the corner" said the voice on the phone. My wife and I were searching for the Thunder Alley Grill in Oklahoma City and after driving fruitlessly around the parking lot of a large strip mall for about 10 minutes I finally gave up and called the number listed for the establishment. The Oklahoma Cornhusker Club was about to meet to watch the game against Minnesota, and we wanted to be there for the kick-off. After following the advice to drive around to the back of the mall we found several of the tell-tale red vehicles that are often characteristic of a gathering of the Husker faithful parked near a blue awning over a door. Judging from our surrounds, it looked like the door might lead into a large storage space. Instead we found the door led us into a cozy lounge area with a well-stocked bar on one side, and television screens large and small arrayed around the walls of the room.
Several red-shirted fans had walked in before us and more continued to arrive as the time for the start of the game grew closer. None of us knew what to expect from the match-up with Minnesota with its 4-2 record in contrast to Nebraska's 2-4 tally. However a casual observer would never have noticed any signs of doubt displayed by the loyal Oklahoma Cornhuskers even after the Golden Gophers scored a touchdown on their first possession of the game. The Huskers quickly replied and then seemingly from nowhere a red-shirted man ran around the entire room with a large Nebraska flag, stopped in front of the giant video screen, and then waved the flag with a yell of "Go Big Red!' that was lustily returned by the crowd. The only thing missing was the band playing the fight song, but this gap in the celebratory ritual was filled later in the game after another touchdown when a pair of 50ish men played "Dear Old Nebraska U" on their phone while singing along. I congratulated them on their team spirit and told them of my plan at the next home game, where I intend to see who joins me from the crowd while I sing along at top of my voice as the band celebrates a Husker touchdown. I'm not quite sure what the meaning was of the blank look they gave me when they heard this idea - perhaps they were just upset that they hadn't hatched this brilliant plot themselves, or maybe it was that they were carefully studying my face to make sure they would recognize me in the crowd and make sure to sit elsewhere.
The organizers of the Oklahoma Cornhuskers did a great job of setting up the day's activities which included a raffle draw at the end of each quarter, but it wasn't just OKC-based Nebraskans who attended the event. There were several people from the Scottsbluff area (although not the poor soul who got lost on his way to Beatrice last week. I hope he found his way back to Gage County in time for the game Friday night. Unfortunately a 25-yard field goal by with 19 seconds left in the game gave Norris a 31-29 win over Beatrice), There was also a young lady, originally from Omaha, who was visiting from her home in Kansas City.
The flag-bearer turned out to be one of the organizers of the group, and during the course of the game he made a point of having a couple of the younger members of the crowd help him on the all-important post-touchdown flag routine. The ages of the audience ranged from around 8 to 80, but all were united in their Husker spirit regardless of the generation gaps we hear so much about in the media.
Corey the flag-bearer has lived in Oklahoma City for a long time, having attended graduate school there. I was tickled to hear him tell the story of a visit home to Grand Island during which he put an OU sticker on the back window of his mother's car as a prank. Well it seems that a few weeks later his mother called him, using the kind of language that mothers generally tell their children not to use. Apparently she had been at the mall that day and thought that someone had stolen her car, because she couldn't find it anywhere in the parking lot. She kept coming back to a car that looked like hers but of course could not be her car because it had an OU sticker on it. After about 15 minutes she figured out what had happened and started burning up the phone lines to her son.
Meanwhile the Huskers burned up the field in Minnesota, scoring 6 touchdowns to match their highest score of the year and win the game 48-25. The fans at Thunder Alley were very happy with the result and so was Coach Riley, on whose face I was glad to see a broad smile in contrast to the concerned and worried expressions that I had seen him wear at several of the post-game press conferences in Lincoln. With only two penalties on the day and a balanced performance from the Big Red offense, it seemed that I was not the only one who turned an important corner on Saturday.