HiPlains Bookshelf - Huskerville

Even for an admitted college football junkie like myself, this bowl season sans-Nebraska has been significantly less interesting. There hasn't been that one day, be it a late December night or a more traditional post-New Year's slot, that's possessed any sort of anticipation. Without knowing that Nebraska would have their chance to stack up sooner or later the rest of the bowls became merely games, contests to be viewed at your convenience rather than out of interest.

Thus it was somewhat surprising that my 2007 Husker highlight of the year emerged from that same Holiday fog...on HBO.

A few days ago I sat down to watch the Hatton-Mayweather fight, drawn in by the British Invasion of Hatton supporters that Las Vegas had experienced the week leading up to the fight. In his opening comments to the telecast, longtime HBO boxing commentator Jim Lampley said the following regarding the fervent support of the Hatton backers (emphasis mine): "Hatton's ability, like the Nebraska football team, to travel his audience across a long distance has added an air of excitement all week."

The fact that this is my highlight is certainly a reflection of the disappointing year for the Cornhuskers (which started for me exactly one year ago in the Cotton Bowl), but it's also a reflection of what I find most interesting about being a Nebraska fan: cultural relevance. To describe what he and countless other media members had seen all week in Vegas, Lampley chose the Nebraska fans as the most fitting comparison, as a parallel that would resonate with the fans of boxing, and sports in general, who were tuning in for the biggest fight of the year.

It felt good to be recognized in that manner. It was a moment of relevance in a season seemingly devoid of such moments. Losing, after all, isn't altogether unbearable. Irrelevance is.

Luckily, I won't have to wait nearly as long to find my Husker highlight of '08. In fact, I think I've already found it in Roger C. Aden's Huskerville: A Story of Nebraska Football, Fans, and the Power of Place. In the author's own words this book is "...a Nebraskan explaining just why...there is no place like Nebraska."

In my own words it's the type of sports book that comes along all too infrequently. It's very easy to put together a coffee table book of great moments for a given team or to trot out another athlete biography co-written with the newspaper columnist of the day, but books that actually examine the culture of sport and ask questions and seek answers are few and far between. Two of my favorites books to take that approach recently have been Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer and To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever and, not surprisingly, both are quoted frequently in Aden's book, but they're about Alabama football and North Carolina basketball respectively. Now we Nebraskans have just such a book of our own.

Aden, a Scottsbluff native and professor of communication studies at Ohio University, set out in 1998 to begin answering some of the bigger questions surrounding Nebraska football: Why does it mean so much to the state? Is there a connection between our state's history and our team's history? Are Nebraskan unique in their love for their team?

These are all questions that have fascinated me since moving out five years ago and they're also all impossible to answer empirically. Aden doesn't attempt to do that, but he does provide a ton of evidence and offer the reader, like himself, the opportunity to form their own opinion based on those findings. The book is made up largely of personal interviews and correspondence questionnaires with Nebraska fans throughout the country including Jon of Corn Nation (who tipped me to the book) and Darren Carlson from his pre-Big Red Network days. Readers familiar with HuskerPedia or any of the various message boards will probably recognize quite a few more names. Collectively, it's an academic approach but never at the expense of entertainment.

Sure, after reading page after page of Nebraskans' views of themselves you should probably ask yourself "don't Tennessee or Penn State or Notre Dame fans feel many of these exact same things?" Of course they do, but that's no the point. Huskerville is more of a personal journey than a defense of individuality. Conveniently, once you read the book and undertake your own personal journey you'll be much better equipped to defend your individuality. Voila!

So what's my estimation of Husker Nation, excuse me Huskerville, after reading the book? Nebraskans love Cornhusker football because it represents the clearest, most concise and most recognizable summation of the values they hold dear as natives of the state.

Make sense? It didn't to me either a few days ago and this was a question I asked myself constantly. Now I feel much more confident in not only my answer but also the notion that the same connection isn't experienced just anywhere.

If Huskerville had been written about Indiana basketball or Florida State football I would have read it, liked it and ended up ultimately envious that it wasn't my team that was being explored.

Thanks to Aden we no longer have to feel that way. Nebraska fans the world over should be proud that this book is about, and by, them.

Happy New Year, everyone.