[Husker] My Info

[Knox, Chuck]

I guess it's my turn...:)  I was surprised to see my name in the
original list of Dick's -- from Iowa.  40 years old.  Been on the list
10+ years, I think.  The things I remember from the early years are the
practice reports from John Killmar, Greg Mays diagramming and explaining
various plays to us, and every year before the season Doug Horwich would
post a very detailed, position-by-position analysis of the team.  I of
course remember Mike's play-by-play being typed in, and would often read
through it even after being at the game or listening to it.

I was born in Grand Island, and lived there through 1979, moving to
Lexington just before the big tornado storm in 1980.  How vivid are my
memories of fall Saturday's, playing Nerf football in the street with
the Husker game on the radio.  My family made the trip to Dallas for the
1974 Cotton Bowl against Texas.  My mother knitted all of us matching
red mittens.  At half time my parents let me go get some popcorn (who
would let their kid do that in this day and age???).  I got lost coming
back.  My dad walked around the outside of the stadium looking for me,
and my mom went up and down aisles.  Turns out I was just one section
over -- oops!  Missed most of the third quarter.  The cool part of the
trip was we stayed in the same hotel as the Huskers -- I cleaned up on
the autographs!

Do you remember the "Blue Streak Sports" section in the Work Herald??
Man, the color photos on Sunday mornings, with little labels pasted on
each pic telling you who each player was...

A good friend of mine took a small group of us to a Kansas State game in
October of 1979 for his birthday.  He had connections -- we got to go in
the locker room after the game and get autographs on our program.  I met
Junior Miller, I.M. Hipp (what a name -- I used to have an I.M. Hipp
T-shirt), Rick Berns (always my favorite Husker -- I told him so!), Tom
Osborne, and Bob Devaney.  I still have this.  We went out on the field
briefly after the game and tossed a football, until we got kicked off.

My wife was born and raised in Missouri, and always hated the Huskers.
I took her to the ISU game in Lincoln in 1993.  She was converted!  We
went to the Orange Bowl win versus Miami, Fiesta Bowl wins over
Tennessee and Florida, the sea of Red at Notre Dame, and the miracle in
Missouri in 1997.  That catch happened right in front of us -- I didn't
figure out until we stopped on our way home that Wiggins didn't actually
catch the ball, but kicked it up for Davison.  Duh!

I now have a 3 year old and another boy on the way.  My son's first
outfit when he was born, which he is wearing in his baby pictures, is a
red Husker one.  He runs around the house with my old Nerf, yelling "I'm
the Huskers!".  I am planning on taking him to Memorial Stadium for the
first time for the spring game.  I would love to come to a list
gathering -- I never made the original gatherings at Mike's, but I
remembered he had Valentino's pizza there -- maybe Runzas as well?

This has been fun!  It's harder to get mad at people when you feel like
you know them, and they aren't some anonymous name on your computer
screen!

Chuck Knox
Pella, IA