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Butch Furse
It’s no secret the Betterhalf is possibly one of the top female Husker football fans. A week ago her Husker loyalty took a challenge after the Cornhusker’s loss to Illinois. She was asked if her Husker loyalty was fading. That was a silly question! It was even sillier because I was the one who asked that question.
As a regular season ticket holder for years she might have suffered a short-time dent in her armor from that opening-season loss. But, the first game loss or even the University COVID mask request didn’t stop her and her grandson from heading to Lincoln this past Saturday for the Husker home opener. She was undaunted and predicting a win.
Where was I? I stayed home – just me and the dogs. My staying home was not caused by the first-game loss. The old family room couch and TV touched my comfort zone as opposed to a busy interstate, stadium parking, a small school opponent and being squeezed in by 90,000 fans. Besides, sometimes there’s a different viewpoint between the two of us when it comes to this year’s football season. Earlier I had predicted a six-win season (seven wins at best) for the Huskers and she still thinks seven wins, or more. Personally, I hope for her sake, and mine, that she’s correct.
Most important, I hope the Husker football team this season generates and carries the same enthusiasm as the Betterhalf. After all, she’s an old high school cheerleader who still hates to lose.
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Dick Butkus once said, “When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anybody deliberately . . . unless it was, you know, important like a league game or something.”
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A club of eccentric young men had for one of their rules that on Tuesday evenings any man who asked in the club room a question which he was unable to answer himself should pay a fine of $5. One evening Tomkinson asked: “Why doesn’t a ground squirrel leave any dirt around the top of his hole when he digs it?”
After some deliberation he was called upon to answer his own question. “That’s easy,” he said. “The squirrel starts at the bottom and digs up.
“All very nice,” suggested a member, but how does he get to the bottom?”
“That’s your question,” answered Tomkinson.
RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register
