Celebrating loyalty

300! It’s a good number that denotes a perfect game in bowling. It also represents an elite number for Major League Baseball pitchers as 24 in the history of the game have topped the 300 mark in career wins.

However, Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., is not about bowling or baseball. It is a venue where fans will sell out the stadium for 300th consecutive game when The Nebraska Cornhuskers host the University of Louisiana-Lafeyette Ragin’-Cajuns.

While the Husker football program appears to be on its way back under second-year head coach Bo Pelini, many streaks have ended since 2001: Consecutive nine-win seasons (33), consecutive winning seasons (40), consecutive seasons of reaching a bowl game (33), consecutive wins over Kansas (36), Iowa State (12), Missouri (27) and Oklahoma State (41). The one streak, however, that has remained intact is the home sellout streak.

Yes, Nebraskans do “stick together in all kinds of weather” as the fight song goes.

I can just hear the elitists, notably on the West and East Coasts right now, “Well, what else is there to do in Nebraska besides eat corn and watch football?” Not that I would typecast everyone on either coast to be elitist but you get the idea.

I have one think to say to those people that espouse such a belief: “You don’t get it. You never have. You never will.” I don’t know if it is because they choose not to get it or are too stupid to get it. Part of the premise stems from the fact that there are no professional sports teams in Nebraska. Pretty weak argument in my mind.

To the state of Nebraska, the Huskers are their NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL team rolled into one — they wouldn’t want it any other way.

Sorry to break this to you but Nebraska has golf courses and movie theaters, just like everywhere else – and yes, that includes California. I ought to know that there are a percentage of those who believe that because I am a UNL grad from 1997 that has lived in Napa, CA, for 31 out of the 37 years I have been alive.

That’s what makes college football in Mid-America refreshing. There is nothing these folks would rather do. They enjoy the simple pleasures. True, they might not have beaches or a bustling night life, but to them, simpler is better. To take it a step further, a prime rib dinner at Misty’s means more than elegant dining.