Raising a Husker: Adam Ickes
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
There are cities that have more Starbucks than the northern Nebraska town of Page has people. Asked for an estimate of how many folks live in her town, Shari Ickes thinks for just a second then says 157.
One-fifty-seven. Now, just imagine how proud a small town like that would be if a local boy did something stupendous at the big U.
Last year, for example... You should’ve been in Page that day Adam Ickes picked up a blocked punt against Missouri and ran it 16 yards for a touchdown.
Well, the people of Page were just tickled about that. They threw a big ol’ bonfire party in his honor. They smoked hot dogs and couldn’t wipe the smiles off their faces all because their man Adam scored six for the Huskers.
Scoring a touchdown for Nebraska? That’s almost as good as turtledove hunting with the boys.
“Oh, gosh, (Adam) and his buddies would go turtledove hunting as soon as the season opener,” Shari says. “They’d shoot ’til dark.“
Adam started toting around a BB gun when he was about 4. Hunting and driving tractors. Those were his big hobbies.
And, oh yeah, he also never missed a chance to eat.
Now, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound senior linebacker for the Huskers, Adam has been on the bigger side since the doctor cut the cord.
When he was born, he came out two pounds bigger than his three older siblings did. When he went to his first day of school, he was a head taller than all the other kids.
But just because he had a little size doesn’t mean he didn’t take it on the chin from his older brother Matt in backyard basketball.
Matt had four years on Adam, yet they’d go at it in basketball for hours a day.
“I think Matt has a lot to do with Adam becoming the guy he is today,” says the boys’ father, Robert. “He could have blocked every shot, but he let Adam feel worthy of being an opponent.”
Adam didn’t need anyone to take it easy on him by the time he reached high school. He was good on his own. Good at basketball, football, heaving the shot.
Of all his athletic achievements at Orchard High School, one of the most special was when he claimed King Shot Putter status in a family of shot putters.
His father had held the Orchard school record in the shot put for 25 years, only to have that record broken by Matt, who launched the thing 56 feet, 1 inch to win a Class D state title.
Then Adam came around and took the record from Matt — who lettered for the Husker football team in 2001 — by putting the shot more than 57 feet.
Of course, throwing the shot put is not what most Nebraskans will remember about Adam. They’ll more likely recall his block of a last-second field-goal attempt by Pittsburgh this year.
It was his big paw that preserved a 7-6 win for the Huskers.
Mom and Dad were in the stadium that day and could hardly stand to witness the play.
“I was looking down because I was sure we were going to get beat and I could hardly believe it,” Robert says. “At the last second, I halfway stood up to watch it on the big screen but I missed the doggone thing.”
Good thing for VHS tapes.
Robert laughs. “I bet I’ve watched the play 100 times since.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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