Had you told Becky Peterson 10 years ago that her youngest son Todd was going to play football for Nebraska, she would have laughed until you had to call the doctor. “He just wasn’t that kind of kid,” Becky says. “He always used to cry when he played sports. I used to get so mad at him. He’d be out on a baseball field crying. And it’s like, ‘Todd, you can’t be doing this. You just can’t.’”

Had you told Ron Peterson 10 months ago that his son was going to be catching touchdowns for the Huskers this fall, he would have asked you how the weather was on the mysterious planet you dropped in from.

Ron had simply hoped his son, a walk on from Grand Island, would make the 105-man roster this year.

“I thought maybe in a year or two, if things worked out, he could make the travel team,” Ron says. “To get where he is right now. … some times I just think someone is going to wake me up and pinch me and say it’s just a dream. It’s just happened so fast.”

In a matter of months, Todd Peterson has risen from a guy hoping to make the team to one of Nebraska’s best offensive threats as a redshirt freshman receiver. He has scored a touchdown each of the last two weeks — against Baylor and Missouri.

It’s all almost too much for Ron, who was attending Husker games with his dad even before Bob Devaney arrived on the scene. His family used to take family vacations to the Husker bowl games in the ’60s.

Now, to have a son playing for Nebraska? 

“I’ve been contacted by so many people who I haven’t heard from in years,” Ron says. “That’s what’s special about the people of Nebraska. They have a special attachment to walk ons because they’re local kids.”

Happy to have Todd, the Nebraska fans perhaps owe their thanks to his older sister Tiffany.

There are four kids in the Peterson family, and the family joke is that Todd would have never been born had it not been for Tiffany.

“She always takes full responsibility for Todd,” Becky says. “The plan was to have three children. Coming home from my parents’ (home) one day, Tiffany said, ‘Can we have another baby?’

“I said that probably wasn’t going to happen and she told me, ‘But we really want another baby. …’ Well, one day we were passing the time in the car singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and when it came time to wish, she said she had wished for a baby brother. It wasn’t two months later we found out we had Todd on the way.”

The Petersons have always been a close family. When Todd saw his two sisters taking a dance class, he volunteered to do what few boys would dare and put on his dancing shoes.

When Todd got his first career touchdown against Baylor with some nifty footwork by the boundary, a local newspaper writer mentioned how it look like the kid was a dancer.

Ron laughed when he read it and quickly sent a reply to the writer: You have no idea how right you are.

“Todd has a different part inside of him,” Becky says. “He’s not afraid to admit that he took dance or that he cried playing sports. I know he’s not afraid because there’s been articles on him where he told those things about himself.”

Looking back on it, it’s not that difficult to see why the tears came. Todd just didn’t want to fail.

Whether it be in school (he finished No. 1 in his graduating class at Grand Island Central Catholic and was recruited by many Ivy League schools) or sports, failure simply could not be tolerated.

“He was a perfectionist,” Ron says. “He wanted to do things right.”

So far, so good. He’s playing for the Huskers and no one’s pinched Ron yet.

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.