Husker obsessions: Fans take tunnel walk "Sirius"
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BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
What we present to you today is the fifth part in a weekly series looking at topics that constantly find their way into conversations among Husker football fans. Today’s Husker obsession: The tunnel walk.
Hurricane helmets emerge from a fog of smoke. Notre Dame players pound a sign that reminds them to “play like a champion today.” At Clemson, they touch a rock believed to have mystical powers before running down a hill to play football.
Hey, making a grand entrance just before kickoff is serious business. Granted, some college football fans take such things more “Sirius” than others.
As one Husker fan shared in an e-mail, when Nebraska takes the field before a game, the Alan Parsons Project song “Sirius” providing the soundtrack, he cries his eyes out. “My wife thinks I’m nuts.”
A Husker obsession since its beginning in 1994, the “tunnel walk” has become integrated into the Nebraska lexicon. Type those words into the search box on YouTube and you’ll find version after version of dramatic Husker tunnel walks.
And last year, there was a good deal of cyberspace commotion when word got out that a local artist named Mikey Bo was going to have some musical influence on the 2007 tunnel walk. Debates followed. Mikey did provide some introductory beats, but “Sirius” held its ground.
“Nothing elicits more passion to start the game than hearing the start of ‘Sirius,’ feeling all the hairs rise on my arms, and seeing the first shot of the guys,” wrote Chris McCallum from Highlands Ranch, Colo. “I travel back to Lincoln (born and raised from ’77) around two or three times a year and that easily surpasses my trips to Valentino’s and Runza.”
As “Sirius” offers the background beat, the HuskerVision screens go from blank to visuals that further the crowd’s frenzied state. There’s Tommie Frazier running out of the grasp of five Gators, some Husker walloping a quarterback, players parachuting from an airplane to defend Memorial Stadium (you’d have to see it to understand), the Sower on top of the Capitol striking the Heisman pose (an oldie, but a favorite of some).
Eventually the highlights and video animations give way to a live shot of the Huskers making a delirious walk from the locker room to the field, the first shot of the team bringing the crowd’s noise to its crescendo.
“For me, the tunnel walk is synonymous with Nebraska football…” wrote 29-year-old Eric McAndrew of Des Moines, Iowa. “It is the ultimate tool for firing everyone up, so as far as I’m concerned, it should be treated with the same respect that any other tradition of ours gets.”
One fan wrote that the 2004 and 2007 tunnel videos were kind of hokey and that the 1997 and 1999 ones were kind of “blah.” But 2006 rocked.
“The phrase ‘I play for Nebraska’ not only made you feel like you played for Nebraska but also gave Midwestern folks a realization that at Nebraska, you play for the ‘N’ on your helmet and those that came before you.”
As with everything, there are critics. Some fans have argued that “Sirius” is played out, having been the intro song through 14 seasons now. Others have noted that it’s not unique. Various teams have adopted the song, and the Chicago Bulls were using it as their intro music before Nebraska.
And some have said the video that goes with the tunnel walk has sometimes been over-the-top: Bo Ruud and friends parachuting in suits from an airplane didn’t work for them.
“I’ve been a little embarrassed the last few years with the production of the tunnel walk,” one fan wrote. “A big production and then we get smoked on the field. Just get ’em on the field and let the play do the talking.”
Of course, what may be cheesy to one person gives goose bumps to another fan.
There’s a high school teacher from Pueblo, Colo., who wrote in to say his obsession with the tunnel walk is that he watches it every morning before he goes to work.
“Kind of like an added jolt to my coffee, gets me fired up and ready to face my students.”
Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7439 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.
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