Nebraska football's Fan Day event brings levity on eve of training camp

The line snaked out from Hawks Championship Center, a thin vein of red and white zig-zagging out from the practice facility and toward Memorial Stadium and Stadium Drive.
Those who got there earliest were rewarded with the shade of the brick canopy next to the Hawks entrance. Everyone else among the hundreds in attendance was exposed to the midsummer sun before they could get into the air-conditioned building.
Those inside were also waiting for the doors to open. “Fan day, fan day!” walk-on redshirt sophomore receiver Elliott Brown yelled as he walked across the artificial turf indoor practice field toward rows of tables. Standing at the end of each was a person in a shiny mustard-colored shirt and holding a laminated sign indicating where each position group was to sit.
NU football fan day
Britany Shaw (left) holds her daughter, Bryn, 2, as she high-fives offensive lineman Justin Evans-Jenkins during Nebraska football's Fan Day event Sunday at Hawks Championship Center.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
On the last day before the beginning of training camp, Nebraska football players got a chance to interact with fans, chatting and signing autographs for two hours Sunday before the marathon of a new season gets started.
“This is one of my favorite events before the season,” fourth-year sophomore linebacker Jimari Butler said. “We get to see the fans. We don’t really get to see them during the season, so it’s just good for us to get them in front of us, and we can talk to them face-to-face.”
As the floodgates opened and fans entered the building, the long lines from outside split off based on the position tables. The line to get autographs from Jeff Sims and the quarterbacks was more than three horizontal field lengths at its peak. The others were smaller.
Fans had an eclectic assortment of items ready for signatures, from footballs to helmets to baseball caps to T-shirts to posters to a foam hat that looked like a cob of corn.
A vendor walked up and down the field selling water. Cheerleaders milled around near midfield and posed for pictures. Music pumped through the speakers, beginning with a run of mid-2000s pop but eventually extending into other decades and genres. Children played touch football in an unoccupied area in the north end zone.
NU football fan day
Nebraska's Luke Lindenmeyer tries on an old-style helmet brought by a fan during the Fan Day event on Sunday at Hawks Championship Center.
KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
And players, identified by T-shirts bearing their names and numbers but their faces not obscured by helmets as fans know them best, had a chance to briefly meet the people who will be watching them on Saturdays.
One young fan asked Brock Knutson for a hug. The 6-foot-7, 305-pound freshman offensive lineman obliged. Tight end Luke Lindenmeyer tried on an anachronistic helmet brought for him to sign.
At the end of the tight ends and specialists’ table sat Josh Martin on his third day as tight ends coach, promoted Friday after Bob Wager’s DUI citation and resignation. The heaviness of the personnel change wasn’t relevant as Martin signed autographs and chatted with fans.
It was all part of a relaxed atmosphere, a juxtaposition to the grind of several months that begins shortly. Monday will lead into the wins and losses, the highs and lows and everything in between a football season provides.
But on the last day before the rollercoaster began ticking up the first incline, Sunday brought two hours of levity and humanity.
“You see how genuine people really are,” Butler said. “I feel like that’s a big thing. Like yeah, they’ll bash us on Twitter, but when you get out in front of them and see that, I feel like that’s a good thing.”