Yes, Christian Summers really did a celebratory fist pump while watching a replay of the TV broadcast of the 1982 Nebraska-Oklahoma football game.
That’s the kind of emotion that can come from a Nebraska football game, even many years later.
“I’m watching and (Scott Strasburger) gets the interception (with 26 seconds left in the game) and I’m like, ‘Yes,’†Summers said of the game, which the Huskers won 28-24. “Then I’m like, ‘Oh, wait, this game was 37 years ago. I shouldn’t be watching it as intensely as I was.'â€
With no spring football for the Huskers this year, and a limited offering of live sports the past fourth months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some Husker fans turned to classic games on VHS, DVD or YouTube to get their sports fix.
Summers took a deep dive into Husker football history, watching 42 vintage games. Summers, 41, is a Lincoln Northeast and UNL graduate. He teaches social studies at Park Middle School in Lincoln and is an assistant football coach at Lincoln Southwest.
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What Summers called his "Husker Rewatch: Game of the Day" started during spring break in March after he had minor surgery and was laid up for a few days. He began watching some highlights from old Husker football games. Then he took it further and started watching full games.
He watched games in the morning, before he got busy with online teaching and virtual office hours.
“I wanted something on in the background while I worked and one of the things YouTube suggested was the 1993 (season) Orange Bowl with Nebraska and Florida State,†Summers said. “I was like, ‘Man, I don’t remember much about that game,’ and I decided to watch it. And after I finished watching that game, the next suggestion was Nebraska-Kansas State in 1994. Then I was trying to remember all that went into the Eric Crouch game against Oklahoma in 2001, so I watched that game on Friday. And the next thing you know, I was like, ‘I think I’ll watch old Husker games in the background and give my thoughts, whether people like them or not.'â€
Summers watched one game per day on the weekdays from March 25 to May 21. He was surprised by how many games he could find on YouTube.
“It kind of passed the time and killed a couple of hours,†Summers said. “And right now Nebraska football is struggling a little, and we know Coach (Scott) Frost is working to get us back, but it was just kind of fun to relive how good Nebraska was back in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. You forget how many good players Nebraska had, and how many big games they played in. That was four decades of special football.â€
Sometimes after he watched a game he’d call his dad, Richard, and talk about the plays and players that his dad remembers from watching the games live.
“I’d go on a walk around the neighborhood and stretch my legs, so I’d call him up and be like, ‘Oh, I watched the Game of the Century,’ or ‘I watched ’91 Colorado when they tied,’†Summers said.
After he watched a game, Summers would post some of his observations about the game on his Twitter account. He’d share observations, like the simplicity of the TV broadcasts in the ’70s, the greatness of the fullback dive play or how Bob Devaney had done the color commentary for the Nebraska-Minnesota game in 1983. He also posted videos of some of the best plays.
The games he watched spanned from 1971 to 2014. He watched 10 games against Oklahoma and six against Colorado.
Several of his favorite games to watch were against Oklahoma, with the 1978 game against the Sooners topping his list of best games.
“Just that style of football, kind of smash-mouth and nothing fancy,†Summers said of the Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry. “And just seeing the crowd. I can’t imagine Nebraska fans rushing the field today, or how they would rush the field today based on how the field is, but that was kind of just second nature. If you beat Oklahoma, you rush the field and tear down the goal posts.â€
Summers is hoping he’ll be back in the classroom this fall, but he enjoyed his Husker rewatch.
“As a kid who grew up in Nebraska in the ’80s and ’90s, it was just kind of nice to relive kind of the guys that I grew up idolizing and just watching them again,†Summers said. “Guys like Irving Fryar, Ken Clark, Keith Jones, Steve Taylor, Dana Brinson. It was nice to have a trip down memory lane as we were stuck in kind of an unknown period, and many people were working from home. It was a nice two-hour break from what was going on.â€