Husker Power

Black Friday has never been a thing I've celebrated by shopping. I do love a good deal, but I'm not a huge fan of crowds, and I LOVE to sleep.

However, the day after Thanksgiving is celebrated in these parts by watching the annual NU vs CO football game. That is, until next year, when NU will move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten...what will we do?!

To send them off right, Katie, Laura, my brother Mike, and I took a trip down to Lincoln to watch the game in person and cheer our Huskers onto victory.

We lucked into some free tickets (thanks, Katie S.!!!) and ended up with some wickedly awesome seats!

Since there is no alcohol sold or allowed in the stadium, we stopped off for a beer before the game.

Nice beer selection for such a grubby bar!

Then we were off to Memorial Stadium like it was our job.

Although I almost always watch Husker football when it's on TV, I have only been to a game once. But it's not like you can just walk up to the window and buy a ticket. In fact, last Friday was the 311th consecutive sell-out. Which is kind of crazy when you think about the fact that Memorial Stadium holds over 85,000 people.

Lots of people don't know much about Omaha, but it is NOT a small town. According to the 2009 census, Omaha ranks as the 40th largest city in the country, with nearly half a million residents. (If you go by metropolitan area we drop to 59, just slightly lower than Honolulu and Albuquerque.) However, Lincoln is about half the size of Omaha, and the rest of the cities in Nebraska are smaller yet. In fact, Memorial Stadium on game day holds more people than the 3rd largest city in Nebraska. By a lot.

source1 source2

Our seats were really incredible...

Balloons are released after the first Husker score. It looks so cool, but I can't help but worry about the environment and the birdies a little bit...

At half time, we met up with some friends at their tailgate. Some of the braver folks partook in oyster shooters. :/

We kept a good lead all of the second half, which means the crowd had a lot of fun.

And then we got a little surprise at the end of the game...fireworks!

One more Big 12 championship game! GOOOOOO BIIIIIIG REEEEEED!!! GO BIG RED!