The Top 5 Husker Moments I've Ever Seen In Person - Spooky's Blog

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The Top 5 Husker Moments I've Ever Seen In Person

Posted on July 29, 2011 at 09:31 PM.

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Having had season tickets for the better part of all 30 years of my life, I've seen almost everything that has happened in Memorial Stadium since 1990, and some stuff outside of Memorial Stadium. Now that we are moving to the Big Ten conference, I'm getting somewhat nostalgic about the past Big 8/Big 12 days. These are the Top 5 moments I've experienced:

1. Nebraska/Oklahoma 2001 - Crouch's Touchdown Reception

I was in the student section at this game, the same corner of the end zone that Crouch finished his touchdown on the reverse pass. This turned out to be the main Heisman moment in his 2001 winning campaign for that trophy. I remember complete elation in the student section. It was pandemonium, students crowd surfing around and falling back down to their seat, everyone jumping up and down in unison. I was lucky to experience this and will probably never experience something like this at a sporting event again.

2. Nebraska/Colorado 2008 - Henery's 57 yard FG to take the lead

While this game wasn't as "nationally important" as the other ones on this list, it was just as important to Husker Nation. This was Pelini's first season, and we looked to be on the precipice of forgetting about the Callahan era. This game was like a touch of magic. Down 31-30 on 3rd down and time running out, Ganz takes the sack back at the 40, and it isn't looking good. Henery, a relative unknown at that point, steps onto the field and absolutely nails a 57 yard FG in the freezing cold night to take the lead, 33-31 with under 2 min left. I was in much better seats this time as an alumni, about 30 rows up on the 50 yard line, and even the old 75 and 80 year old ladies were dancing in the aisles. I've never seen anything like it. Young hugging old, old men crying. It was insane. The Ndamukong Suh INT to ice it was almost anti-climatic. I still believe this game was the turning point in healing a lot of old wounds in the Husker faithful after the previous 4 years.

3. Nebraska/Colorado 1992 - Nebraska destroys Colorado 52-7

Woody Paige of the Denver Post famously said if Colorado lost this game, he would crawl back to Denver on his hands and knees. This game was at the height of the Nebraska/Colorado rivalry. Colorado had just won a national title in '90, Nebraska was still without it's dominant run that would come in the mid-90's, and there was a lot of pent-up frustration. There was something about having a good old fashioned ***-whipping from the opening gun to wipe the smirk that had formed over the last few years off of Colorado's face

4. Nebraska/Oklahoma 1995 - Nebraska blanks Oklahoma 37-0

This was in the middle of Nebraska's record dominance, and some of the worst football ever for Oklahoma, but the win was just great. Surprisingly, after an amazing season, it was not until this moment that I truly knew we were the best team in college football, and would destroy whoever we faced for the national title. That payoff wouldn't come until later, against Florida of course.

5. Nebraska/Missouri 1997 - Matt Davison catches the game winning TD off Shevin Wiggins feet.

This was the first road game I'd ever been to. I was 16, and somehow talked my parents into letting me drive my friends down to Columbia from Lincoln. This game had an eerie feeling to it from the get-go. Nebraska had been kicking Mizzou's *** for years, and this was the first time in memory that they had actually stuck with us in a game (and would become a big challenger in the following years). Mizzou took an early lead, and continued to answer everything Scott Frost (in one of the best performances of his career) could do. I didn't see the actual end of the play (which is why it's only #5 on this list), as Mizzou fans were streaming down to rush the field to celebrate their win that would never come.
That was a rough walk back to the car, as we were accosted by college age kids the entire way. But it was worth it.