Husker fans featured on ticket enjoy brief fame
When Brian Rastede opened his package of football season tickets, he saw something shocking: himself.
A photo of Rastede and three of his family members cheering on the Huskers before the USC game last year was featured on the ticket to Saturday’s bout against San Jose State.
The group hammed it up for the cameras at ESPN’s College Game Day pre-game show at the USC game. They even saw their picture appear on the jumbo screens at the stadium. But this kind of fame — they never imagined it.
Rastede quickly snapped a photo of the ticket with his phone and sent it via text message to his brother-in-law Chris Jensen, Chris’s son, Colby, both of Pierce, and Chris’s brother, Jonathan, of Elk Point, S.D.
“We knew immediately — we gotta go to this game,” Rastede of Hoskins said.
Besides the 5-hour carpool drive to Lincoln, not wholly uncommon for diehard Husker fans, the group rearranged their work schedules and feverishly scrounged up extra tickets for yesterday’s game so they could attend as a group.
“I’ve been telling people it’s like the law — if you’re on the ticket — you’ve got to go,” Chris Jansen said. “The university honored us by putting our picture on the ticket, we felt like we needed to come and support the team in return.”
They even reprised the look seen on the tickets, wearing the same hats. Several people recognized them before the game had even begun Saturday.
“We want to enjoy our 15 minutes of fame,”Jonathan Jansen said. “We’re having fun with it.”
Chris said the group felt particularly honored to see their picture on a ticket emblazoned with the word “LOYALTY.”
“Being from Nebraska, Husker fever is ingrained in us,” he said. “We’ve always supported the team.”
Always, he said. Through his two deployments overseas in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, several interludes living in other states and even through controversial coaching upsets within the team.
“When I was in Saudi Arabia, my family would send me newspapers so I could follow the team,” he said.
For Saturday, the group agreed they wanted to enjoy their bit of fame and the love of the Huskers and family that the photo represented to them.
“The first ticket was Bo Pelini and the second one is us?” Rastede said, musing. “We feel special. It’s one in a million, like winning the lottery.”
Reach Lisa Munger at lmunger@journalstar.com or 473-7107.
A photo of Rastede and three of his family members cheering on the Huskers before the USC game last year was featured on the ticket to Saturday’s bout against San Jose State.
The group hammed it up for the cameras at ESPN’s College Game Day pre-game show at the USC game. They even saw their picture appear on the jumbo screens at the stadium. But this kind of fame — they never imagined it.
Rastede quickly snapped a photo of the ticket with his phone and sent it via text message to his brother-in-law Chris Jensen, Chris’s son, Colby, both of Pierce, and Chris’s brother, Jonathan, of Elk Point, S.D.
“We knew immediately — we gotta go to this game,” Rastede of Hoskins said.
Besides the 5-hour carpool drive to Lincoln, not wholly uncommon for diehard Husker fans, the group rearranged their work schedules and feverishly scrounged up extra tickets for yesterday’s game so they could attend as a group.
“I’ve been telling people it’s like the law — if you’re on the ticket — you’ve got to go,” Chris Jansen said. “The university honored us by putting our picture on the ticket, we felt like we needed to come and support the team in return.”
They even reprised the look seen on the tickets, wearing the same hats. Several people recognized them before the game had even begun Saturday.
“We want to enjoy our 15 minutes of fame,”Jonathan Jansen said. “We’re having fun with it.”
Chris said the group felt particularly honored to see their picture on a ticket emblazoned with the word “LOYALTY.”
“Being from Nebraska, Husker fever is ingrained in us,” he said. “We’ve always supported the team.”
Always, he said. Through his two deployments overseas in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, several interludes living in other states and even through controversial coaching upsets within the team.
“When I was in Saudi Arabia, my family would send me newspapers so I could follow the team,” he said.
For Saturday, the group agreed they wanted to enjoy their bit of fame and the love of the Huskers and family that the photo represented to them.
“The first ticket was Bo Pelini and the second one is us?” Rastede said, musing. “We feel special. It’s one in a million, like winning the lottery.”
Reach Lisa Munger at lmunger@journalstar.com or 473-7107.
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