Ned Pauley's stomach was in knots for a couple of reasons.

One, his beloved Huskers, ranked No. 3 in the country, were set to take on the No. 2 Colorado Buffs to cap Homecoming Week 1994.

Two -- more important, of course -- Pauley was planning to pop the question to his girlfriend of 10 months after the game.

Ned and Kelley started dating while working for campus ministries at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln -- he with First Evangelical Free Church, she with Campus Crusade for Christ.

By fall, Ned, then 31, knew 24-year-old Kelley was the one. (Even if she, as a Boulder native, rooted for the Buffs.)

So he arranged for her parents to come to the Nebraska-Colorado game, under the guise it was time for their families to meet.

In reality, he thought an on-the-field proposal with family members nearby would be the perfect way for the couple to get engaged.

The night before the game, Ned asked Kelley's father for permission to propose. The next day, the two men sat together at Memorial Stadium, going over the final details, while Kelley and her mom watched from another section.

The plan: Her dad would suggest the family go onto the field for photos, and then, with cameras ready, Ned would drop to one knee.

To Ned's relief, the Huskers crushed Colorado 24-7 that day.

And Kelley said yes.

"Beautiful ending to a beautiful game," as Ned, now 47 and a consultant at Haberfeld Associates in Lincoln, calls it.

Pauley wasn't the first, or the last, to pop the big question within the walls of Memorial Stadium, home to 300 straight sellouts.

In fact, the NU Athletic Department gets a handful of requests before each home game for personal messages -- including those of the "Will you marry me?" variety -- to be shown on the stadium's towering video boards.

But department policy forbids it, said Shot Kleen, assistant athletic director for HuskerVision.

"There's 85,000 people in the stands and somebody's always got a birthday or anniversary," Kleen said. "I tell them, 'Hold up a sign, try to get a camera person's attention.'"

That leaves enterprising young men like Pauley to dream up their own ideas.

For him, everything went according to plan.

He and Kelley live in Milford now, and have three children, 12, 11 and 8.

And while Kelley's loyalties may still be split between the Huskers and Buffs, she's starting to come around, especially after attending a recent edition of Nebraska's Football 101 clinic.

And, thanks to Ned's connections through his work with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he was able to recruit some Huskers to attend their son's 11th birthday party this year.

"She's becoming more of a Nebraska fan all the time," Ned Pauley said.

The Pauleys get to games when they can.

Saturday, when Nebraska takes on Louisiana-Lafayette in the 300th consecutive sellout at home, Ned Pauley plans to be there with his two sons.

The place is special to him -- and has been for as long as he can remember.

"Even before (proposing there), I've always said, 'There's no place I'd rather be on a Saturday than Memorial Stadium.'"

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.