...the First Game Day of the Cornhuskers Football Season.
You had better believe that people around here were approaching Game Day with considerable enthusiasm. First, it's been a whole 9 months since the last Husker game. (No, make that 10. No bowl game last year...) Second, it's a brand new head coach. Bo Pelini. Actually he's not brand brand new, he was head coach for one game right after Frank Solich was fired in 2003. And it was a bowl game too. But then everybody knew it was just a temporary gig. Now he's the permanent guy. (Well, as permanent as these jobs are in college football.)
This town is nuts about Bo, especially since he is not the old guy. Bill Calla-something. I even forget now. This place is always nuts about football, but it is especially nuts about Bo. In fact you may even buy custom rocks showing your support for Bo. I can't seem to find an online picture of it, but there are posters around depicting Bo in a comic book superhero pose.
So you might say that a lot of the state's emotional energy invested in Bo.
For game day I decided to go to the local tavern, Fox's Sports Bar, and have a drink. I got there early and boy was I glad. Even 30 minutes before game time the place was packed. And this isn't a downtown bar either. Those places fill up by 9 AM. This place is way on the outskirts of town. At first I shared a table with this couple and then some spots opened up at the bar and we all moved there. We talked football a little bit, and then the bartender offered me, for the occasion...
...a Big Red Schooner of beer.
Why of course I jumped at the opportunity! Who doesn't want to drink a red beer, especially when you know it's not supposed to be red? Well behold, the Big Red Schooner!
This vessel holds approximately half a pitcher of beer. And I had two of them. (But during the course of the whole game.) However I requested that the second schooner not be red. For I had assumed that to make a Big Red Schooner of beer, the bartender would add red food coloring to the beer, like they do on St. Patrick's Day to make green beer. Well, no. You see, the substance that gives a Big Red Schooner its red color is...tomato juice. And I'm just not going to have another half-pitcher of tomato-juice-flavored beer.
And that was my experience on Opening Game Day 2008. I hope to actually go to a game, maybe in a few weeks' time.
Oh, and the Huskers won.
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