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Lil' Red
Superman had it easy; he didn’t have to answer questions.
He could become Clark Kent, and no one knew he was. But when Lil’ Red deflates, he becomes me. It seems like everyone knows my secret — and they ask the same question:
“Is it hot in there?”
After the 200th time this question was asked, I decided to start varying my answer. My favorite three are:
- Yes, on a hot day, it’s especially hot in there, or,
- No, but when it’s hot out, it’s pretty warm in there, or,
- The worst was the parade in Miami; it was 72 degrees at night!
Being Lil’ Red is the best year I’ve had in college. The people I got to meet and things I experienced are more than some people get to do in a lifetime.
Let me take you through the year.
The summer started my year as Lil’ Red. The mascots work closely with the yell squad by traveling, sharing money and a budget with them. The mascots are different, though. We have our own routine, agenda and goals for the year.
As a part of the yell squad, we help them with philanthropic (or money- making) events. These events vary — parades, visits to children’s hospitals or the opening of a car dealership in Lincoln. Sponsors of these events pay for our appearance there, thus providing us with travel money for the year. The traveling money for the bowl game is earned over the course of 200 events during the year.
The sacred part of the year in Nebraska is when the boys in red — the pride of all Nebraska — take the field: the football season. That is when my job got busy. School started, the events actually increased and the Huskers needed our support.
The plane for New York (Kickoff Classic) left the first Thursday of school. I got to go. I’d never flown before leaving for New York, and the ride was awesome.
Excitement just starting
Our flight was late leaving — and late arriving. The first morning, we left for the Statue of Liberty, a sight that is beyond words. We saw David Letterman’s studio, went to a comedy club on Times Square and danced with the Beach Boys in concert.
None of that was better than the game.
The Meadowlands wasn’t a packed house, but there were enough people there to make me nervous. The temperature was 100 degrees on the field and about 115 inside the costume. We drank tons of water and cooled down frequently. As Lil’ Red, I’m allowed on the field only before the game and during half-time, so I get to be outside of costume to watch the game.
The feeling of being allowed on the sidelines during a game is amazing. I get to see the game better than most people do. I can smell the turf, see the sweat and blood and hear the hits as they happen. It’s a feeling of happiness and closeness to the game that only players go a step beyond by actually playing.
We shut out West Virginia 31-0 and seemed unbeatable under the leadership of Tommie Frazier. (Little did I know what the future held.)
I didn’t go to the Texas Tech game, our first night game. We won. That’s all that mattered.
The home stand was different to prepare for. We played UCLA first. Our first home game was on television and in front of 76,000 people. Then we played Pacific, Wyoming and started the Big Eight with Oklahoma State.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we were the mascots for the national champions?” I said to Chris Brown, my roommate, who is Herbie Husker. “That would be awesome. Our first year as mascots and we win the national championship,” I said.
The homestand
First we would have to make it through the homestead.
Our day started at the stadium at 9 in the morning. The Yell Squad had to inflate all those red balloons released after the first touchdown. Then we did a couple of promotions for people and got back to the stadium to sell our calendars for travel money.
Then we got dressed and took the field.
UCLA was nationally ranked and a tough opponent for the Huskers. The crowd needed to be into the game early, and it was our responsibility to get them there.
The feeling of being on the field is indescribable. All the fans see you, and you see all of them. You have to impress 76,000 people and then search for a TV camera to see if you are funny enough to make the TV news highlights or maybe Sportscenter (on ESPN).
I ran until my legs felt like Jell-O, and jumped until I could barely stand. For a breather, I stopped to shake hands and play around with the recruits watching the game. They got to stand on the field during the warm-ups and band pre-game performance. My space was limited to the end zone while the band played. That was a perfect opportunity to meet the opposing cheerleaders.
I waddled over, and most of the time, the cheerleaders went nuts. The idea and costume of something like Lil’ Red isn’t that widespread, so that might have been the first time they had ever seen anything like it. We posed for some pictures, maybe a little mock fight with the opposing mascot, and I waddled away again.
The tunnel was forming, and soon the Huskers would take the field. I moved swiftly to the 50 yard line for the last of the pre-game prep before kickoff.
Until then, the home stand preparations for each game were much the same. The Pacific game was different.
Before the teams came out, the captains took the field for the coin toss. During my usual pre-game on the 50, I was jumping with my back to the Pacific sideline.
Watch the captains
I forgot about the captains.
I did a 180-degree jump and almost fell as I brushed the captains coming out for the coin toss. The linebacker I hit and the referee walking with him weren’t happy. From then on, I jumped on the 45-yard line to avoid confusion and not upset referees.
We won all four home games, and moved on. We lost Frazier and found a hero named Brook (Berringer). Wyoming was the biggest scare, but our new hero led us to victory.
Our next two games were on the road, Kansas State and Missouri.
K-State supposedly had our number as Berringer, the new hero, also fell to injury. We had a Turmanator (Matt Turman), though, and won those games.
We would need more than that to beat No. 2 Colorado. They had some big wins and looked unstoppable.
However, we were playing in Memorial Stadium.
The game was on TV and moved from the regular kickoff to an earlier time. That meant our day started even earlier. We reported at the stadium at 8 a.m. and started the balloons. Everyone was nervous, and we knew our best chance of losing, so far, was today. Our morning appearances were cut short because of the early kickoff, and I was upset.
The Lil’ Red costume broke at an appearance with less than two hours to go before pre-game. The biggest game of the season, and my costume was broken.
That is the biggest fear being a mascot. Your responsibility to your team runs deep, and if you let it down, you’ve not fulfilled your responsibility.
I worked feverishly with the maintenance men at the stadium to fix Lil’ Red. We got her ready to go, but I had to be careful; it wasn’t fixed for good.
Mr. Swan, I presume
As I walked my stuff across the field, I met a man on the 50-yard line. I introduced myself but already knew who I was talking to.
“Hi, I’m Lynn Swan.”
I was talking to Lynn Swan, professional football Hall of Fame receiver, sideline commentator — and an idol of mine.
“Lynn, what do you think of the game today?” I asked.
“Well, we have two really good teams, and I think it’s going to come down to a field goal either way,” he said.
“I hope it comes out to a field goal for us,” I said.
Pre-game was ready to roll. Nebraska went into the locker room, and Colorado stayed on the field to finish warming up. We had from the 50-yard line to the south end zone to mess around.
Herbie and I had a stuffed buffalo with a target taped on its rear. The joke was I was going to try to kick a field goal while Herbie held the buffalo. We didn’t think about Chip, the buffalo mascot for Colorado.
As I went to kick the buffalo, Chip came out of nowhere to block the kick. He fell into my legs, and I fell on top of him. Then he fell on top of Herbie. A comical dog pile on the 10-yard line.
As we got up, I realized my costume was deflating. I could hear the crowd moan as they saw Lil’ Red deflate to look like a fallen balloon. I worked feverishly inside to get the motor to start again. It scared me but finally started back up. As the head regained its height, the crowd went nuts, and Lil’ Red tore after Chip to get some revenge. This resulted in another dog pile. Lil’ Red stayed inflated, and we regained the buffalo doll to kick around again.
The Huskers did some kicking that day, too. Lynn Swan was wrong. The Big Red crushed Colorado and was looking for the national title.
We finished the regular season undefeated with the only real test coming from Oklahoma, though Iowa State was kind of a scare.
It was time to pack for the bowl game. The national title hopes of the Huskers were realized as we headed for the Orange Bowl.
The time we had in Miami was fantastic. We had tons of fun, caught some beautiful sunshine and worried about the game. We had a number of pep rallies and the parade on New Year’s Eve.
The pep rallies went fine, except Lil’ Red broke again. This time, I was by myself to get it fixed before the parade. I got it working, but I had to be careful. I was worried about the jarring it would take as we walked the streets of Miami during the parade. The parade was on TV, though, and I wasn’t going to miss it!
TV time was marked with white chalk on the ground so you knew when you were being taped. As we started, I could see the white street and knew we were on TV.
Lil’ Red was working.
As TV time expired, the ground became black. Lil’ Red couldn’t take the stress and fizzled out. That’s OK. People in Nebraska got to see me, at least. Lil’ Red couldn’t be on the field at the game, anyway. (The NCAA actually has rules against two mascots being on the field.)
Nebraska 24, Miami 17
The game was incredible. The thing I noticed different from the home games was the smell of a grass field as I got close to the stadium.
I was lucky enough to get on the field with seven minutes left in the game to see the winning touchdown from field level.
As I looked into the stands, I could see the Miami fans sit down and put their heads in their hands as their lead dropped away and disappeared into a lead for the Huskers.
The Miami fans left their stadium quickly and quietly. The Nebraska fans weren’t as quick to leave. We had waited too long and worked too hard for this.
The celebration lasted until they turned the lights out on us. The celebrations will last until football season starts again and we try to defend.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we were the mascots for the national champions twice?”
Why your mascot sucks – University of Nebraska
Aww shucks—it’s Nebraska week. Before we get to Herbie and Lil’ Red, let’s watch Daniel Tosh burn Nebraska to the ground.
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Origins
Nebraska was known as the Old Gold Knights during its inaugural football season in 1890. The school later changed its name to the Bugeaters, but then quickly decided to rebrand to separate itself and settled on the Cornhuskers and the color scheme of scarlet and cream.
However, the Cornhuskers name did not separate them too much, as it was a casual reference to the University of Iowa. Luckily for Nebraska, the name never caught on in Iowa.
C’mon Nebraska, keep your eyes on your own test…
About 56 years later, still having no mascot, the school decided to introduce one and settled on Corncob Man.
Truly a creative bunch at Nebraska—first they steal their name, then they come up with the most basic name for their mascot. Why not name him Francisco?
Anyway, Corncob Man was, as you likely guessed, a corncob that looked like a man. With tassels as a hat, a green shirt and overalls, he was designed to look like a corn stalk.
Sadly, Corncob Man’s tenure as Nebraska’s mascot was short-lived when the school decided that it needed a better representation of a Nebraskan. So they decided to go with a 10-foot-tall costumed person, dressed in a plaid shirt, jean-bib overalls and a straw bucket for a hat.
The new mascot’s name? Huskie the Husker. Again, very creative.
My guess is that Huskie was that large so that the twisters couldn’t take him away.
Huskie roamed the sidelined at Nebraska games until 1970, when the school’s ticket manager acquired the rights to an illustration of a cartoon by Bill Goggin, of a Husker fan called Mr. Big Red.
Mr. Big Red, aka Harry Husker, like his predecessors did not last long, as the mascot’s massive fiber glass head was too large.
How large was it?
So large, it couldn’t even fit on the team bus, measuring 5-feet, 8-inches and weighing 70 pounds.
The school introduced Herbie Husker in 1974, but it still hung onto Mr. Big Red until 1988, a 14-year span where the school used both mascots.
Herbie’s debuted on-field debut in 1974 during the Cotton Bowl.
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