McCOOK — The man who owns the store is wearing his red Husker polo on a Tuesday, which could happen on any Tuesday, but definitely must on this Tuesday.
This is the Tuesday that the head football coach at Nebraska comes to McCook, right after Mike Riley had brunch and conversation with fans in Alliance.
It is 233 miles from Lincoln to McCook, and it is 397 miles from Lincoln to Alliance. Greater distances don't lessen fandom.
As you drive away from the Lincoln/Omaha bubble and head west, you'll talk to fans in places like Cambridge and McCook who swear they haven't seen a dip in passion for Nebraska football even if it is going on Year 18 without a conference championship.
If it has dwindled, Bob Elder, the man in the red polo who owns "The Sports Shoppe" in McCook, sure hasn't picked up on it.
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"I like Coach Riley. Just to be honest with you, I like his demeanor," Elder said about an hour before he'd shake the coach's hand.
"He looks like, and I want to tell him this today, he looks like he's enjoying it on the sidelines. He doesn't look like he ages, even though he's up there in years, I know. But he doesn't look like he ages like a lot of coaches look they're aging on the sidelines."
That's a nice thing, but there's more, as Elder knows well. He believes Nebraska football is going the right way. Like many, he cites the recruiting first.
They're definitely paying attention to Husker recruiting out in McCook. When Riley asks a crowd of about 75 fans who meet him at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds event building (a "No Horse Trailers" parking sign just outside) if they follow recruiting, most every hand goes up. Even the hands of a few kids, who Riley jokes he'll sign permission slips for if they're missing class.
"I don't see interest diminished," Elder said. "I see people with opinions, because everybody's got their own opinion, right? But I see them as still loving Nebraska football. We send a bunch of fans from our area that travel to watch it, so I don't see the passion gone at all."
Last week, Nebraska athletic director Shawn Eichorst and Riley were the headliners on an eight-town tour that took them to such places as Alliance, McCook, Grand Island, Fremont and Nebraska City.
There have been similar tours in previous years, and the town stops are purposefully changed each year to give different fans a chance to meet the coach. A year ago, Riley walked into towns such as York, Kearney, Columbus, North Platte, Gering, Valentine, Lexington and Beatrice during an outreach tour.
Diane Mendenhall, NU's associate athletic director for development and ticket operations, was among those on the Husker staff who traveled out west with Riley this week.
What's become obvious to her is Riley doesn't see these trips as some burden. He embraces them. You see the history major in him, she said.
Before stops in each town, Riley often asks questions to those in the Husker caravan about each place, trying to learn whatever he can about it.
On his tour last year, Riley noted his appreciation in learning about the Niobrara River near Valentine. "I like the history of rivers, so I pay attention to that," he said then.
No rivers came up while Riley was speaking in McCook. But he did tell the people the biggest reason he enjoyed the weeklong adventure.
"It's always fun to come out and meet people," he said. "You get to work for a place where you get to go out and share what you do with people that care. And that's the first thing, when people ask me the very first thing I noticed about Nebraska, it's that people care."
NU's coach also seems to enjoy that there is no Nebraska State or Nebraska Tech or West Nebraska competing for attention.
A state rivalry is something Riley was used to when he was at Oregon State, with the big, bad Ducks just 47 miles up the road.
He didn't see anyone wearing another team's color in McCook, a place where red and white are also the main colors representing the high school.
"We are all in this together because this is our place, our state, our school," Riley told the crowd. "You all own it. We love representing you. We want to represent you at the highest level."
Among those listening to him was Carl Yonkers, who has been a Husker season-ticket holder for more than 30 years. He knows his Nebraska football well. He was a grounds superintendent for the university for 25 years, and even worked the grounds in .
He remembers seeing the great Bobby Reynolds go down with a separated shoulder at Camp Curtis. He's been to Miami and Tempe, Arizona, for bowl games. He's been to road games all over the place. He travels 200-plus miles for the home games. He sat in Memorial Stadium during the Tom Osborne era for a Nebraska game against Kansas State in which a storm turned him into a literal snowman.
If you want someone who represents that caring Riley was speaking of, you could start here.
"There's winners and losers, and my feeling in all the years that I've been a Cornhuskers fan, if you're being a good fan, you're never a loser," said Yonkers, who lives about 35 miles from McCook in the small town of Maywood. "There's been years that things didn't turn out as good as you'd like it, just like it happened to Tom down there in the Orange Bowl. ...
"A true Nebraska fan, he's good all the time. Even in losses, you're a good fan. I have to say that I think 75 to 80 percent of the people are that."
Yonkers likes Riley. He also knows Husker success under the head coach is dependent on more than just him.
"His biggest thing is going to be if he can get the coaches around him to do the job that has to be done," Yonkers said. "That's the thing with Tom. Tom was an altogether different individual. He was a good thinker, he was smart. He knew what was going on all the time. But he had good people around him all the time, and they were very loyal to him and they come through."
Riley, though, is the face of it all. And seeing that face in McCook is a very big deal, Elder thinks.
"Maybe out here you can't financially make what you can back in the eastern part of the state, but I think it's huge," he said. "Because our hearts are just as big as the people who put the money into it. I feel like it's huge out here."
Likewise, Riley's visit earlier that day to Alliance caused "pure excitement," according to Susan Unziker, the executive director of the Alliance Chamber of Commerce. About 215 fans showed up by the estimation of those who helped with the event.
At one point it was asked how many in the crowd have Husker season tickets. "Quite a few raised their hands," Unziker said.
Talk about caring. That's a six-hour drive one way, people.