Exrugger
A.K.A: Steve Nordeen
Hometown: Omaha, NE. (Omaha Burke 1968)
Current Occupation: Biomedical Research, Professor of Pahtology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Current Residence: Denver, Colorado
Age: 49
E-mail: [email protected]
Favorite Husker: We'll see for 2000. I like guys that play smart and with alot of heart. I love guys that use those characteristics to play at a level above the limitations their innate skills may place on them.
Favorite Husker moment: The national championship Orange Bowl against Miami, when the Big Red OL opened the hole on Schlesinger's game winning TD like Moses parting the Red Sea. The body language of Warren Sapp the instant he realized he'd been had and the quarterback didn't keep the ball on the option. That win told me there is justice to be had in this universe.
Other favorite moments: These are rather personal, but I think will be generally appreciated. My parents often traveled to away games at Kansas and Missouri. In the late 70's, as I recall, they went to an away game at Mizzou. As they were leaving after a Nebraska victory, a Missouri student came running up from behind, snatched my father's red hat from his head, and took off in a sprint. My 50+ father ran down the student, pinned him to the ground, and retrieved the hat and a rather humble apology. My mother is no less avid a fan. My sister, a National Park Ranger, made the mistake of getting married in Great Sand Dunes National Monument on a football Saturday in 1982, the day we played Penn St. and lost on the call where the Penn State TE(?) caught the ball well out of bounds on a fourth down to give PSU a first down deep in NU territory late in the game. They went on to score and hand NU it's only loss while Penn ST. went on to win the NC. After the wedding, everyone gathered at my sisters's house to open gifts. That is, everyone but my parents and I, who were watching the game in the back room. As my sister opened a particularly nice gift, the group of friends around here fell into a moment of hushed silence. Unfortunately, that was the exact moment the catch was ruled in bounds and my disbelieving Husker mom filled the moment of silence with a hundred decibel "Oh Sh*t!"
I have no choice in my football allegiance, I think it's genetic.
What Husker football means to me: Anyone that grows up in Nebraska knows what is it like to be an underdog. Nebraska was settled by poor dirt farmers many of whom probably felt after a few years in the "Great American Desert", that even with their free homestake of 160 acres. They had been swindled, nobody goes to Nebraska for a vacation. Heck, half our counties have fewer people than most people's high school. We play 8 or even 6 man football. We are not noted for beautiful people, scenery, or weather. We've all gotten the "you're from Nebraska? I drove through it once. I didn't think it would ever end." We are , however honest, hard working, straight forward types. Not vaues that win you a lot of air time these days.
Against these odds, Nebraska football has established a winning tradition. Not in any fancy-schmancy way, but in a good old, straightforward I'm-gonna-out-work-you-and-want-it-more-then-you way. We may not always have the best athletes but we often have the best teams. We like guys who put the team first. We don't like hot dogs. We adore loyalty. We are proud to do it on the up-and-up and we take it as a personal affront when the action of some player or fan reflects poorly on the team because it reflects poorly on us personally. Nebraska football is an indelible part of our psyche as Nebraskans. It lets us say that we have succeeded against all odds.
How does this relate to what Nebraska football means to me? I have competed at different sports my entire life (I am one of those few Americans to have played Australian Rules Football). I am generally a pretty laid back guy (except when Beekeeper pushes some of the right buttons in his political forays), and when I am competing in some team sport. I had to develop that aggressive attitude in order to compete. Even though I was a good athlete, I was usually shorter and always lighter then anyone else. As a freshman in high school, the football coach told me to get off the scale when he tapped the weight down to 100lbs., as a soph I was the shortest guy on the j.v. basketball team. I grew late, topping out at 6'3"" at the age of 21 but never heavier then 165-170lbs. To this day, I have so little body fat, that I cannot float in water, just muscle, bone and stubborness. I competed in college (Division III) in cross country but later in graduate school, found a sport that became a passion. I played rugby for 10 years not counting injuries. I made the first level of all-stars representing all of New York except the New York City area and played with and against some U.S. Eagles (the national team). Even my own local club had 2 wingers bigger and faster (both had pro football tryouts) but they didn't want it more nor were they willing to do all the things necessary to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. In the end, I was #1 wing and it was between them for the second winger. Although now long retired from rugby, I still play softball, basketball, and ski. The attitude is unchanged though. One of my softball teams gave me a mug inscribed "the Enforcer." I have paid the price, I know the wrong end of an orthopedist's knife all too well.
At my high school sports banquet one year, the keynote speaker was Bob Devaney. He told a joke about his high school coaching days, in particular one of his lesser teams. He said, that his tailback was his best player even though he was 6'5 and 125lbs., because he was the only guy who could get through the holes his line could create. It got alot of laughs but the unspoken message was that maybe his tailback had more in common with most of us, than the star athletes we dreamed of being. He made the most of what he had in order to succeed. Nebraska football represents that underdog in me and all of us. I want to see the look in the eyes of the bigger, faster, more talented, foe that I have just beaten, even if I have to do it more often now vicariously through Husker football than in my own competitions. Bring on Texas, Bring on FSU. I want them. I can't wait.
