Chris Fowler happily gave a Nebraska fan his autograph 18 years ago.
The College GameDay Vote is Back On
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By Randy York
Bill Ziegler is one of those lifelong Nebraska football fans whose experiences are few but passions are strong. He was born in Grand Island and moved to Pennsylvania at age 6. Growing up, he bled Big Red living in the land of Penn State blue. His roots were so deep, he enrolled at Nebraska in 1994 and saw his first-ever Nebraska game when UCLA visited Memorial Stadium. The College GameDay crew was there, and Ziegler never will forget the buzz for that first home game of the season after NU’s lopsided road wins over West Virginia and Texas Tech. Nebraska unveiled its new jumbo screens for the UCLA game and somehow Ziegler ended up on those screens as a college freshman. Nebraska ran over the Bruins, 49-21 that day with junior Tommie Frazier directing an attack that produced 484 rushing yards. Ziegler’s personal highlight was getting an autograph from ESPN’s Chris Fowler. “To this day, he’s the only Colorado grad I’ve ever truly liked,” Ziegler said.
As fond as that home-opener was for him in 1994, Ziegler has another GameDay memory from that same season – third-ranked Nebraska’s 24-7 triumph over second-ranked Colorado in an early kickoff on Oct. 29. Ziegler remembers joining some friends down the walkway under the South end zone stands midway through the fourth quarter of that game and seeing Craig “The Pony” James. “I asked him: ‘What do you think of the Huskers now?’” Ziegler said. “He was polite and answered: ‘You guys are pretty good.’” Shortly thereafter, Ziegler joined Husker fans carrying and riding part of the South end zone goalpost out of the stadium. He remembers those fans moving right past the GameDay set and on to downtown Lincoln where the celebration continued.
The unbeaten ‘94 Huskers were Tom Osborne’s first of three national championship teams, and that season ended so memorably historic, “I figured my job was done in Lincoln, so I went back home,” Ziegler said. “In all seriousness, I was a little homesick and had the opportunity to play football at the D-II level at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. That’s where I graduated from, and, yes, we were a school that played Slippery Rock every year.” Today, Ziegler is a social studies teacher at Manheim Township Middle School in Lancaster, Pa., and he remains a staunch Nebraska fan. “Since graduating, I’ve been mostly to away games,” he said. “I saw Nebraska play at Penn State 10 years ago and then saw ‘em again this past fall in State College. That was surreal. PSU fans were actually nice this time around.” Ziegler says he “loves” how Coach Osborne and Chancellor Harvey Perlman helped Nebraska get invited into the Big Ten, and he’s “looking forward” to attending this year’s game at Ohio State.
In the meantime, when the N-Sider asked Husker fans for their fondest ESPN GameDay memories in light of a fan voting contest that could send the Fowler-led crew to the campus of the winning school sometime this summer, Ziegler couldn’t resist turning the clock back 18 years and letting Husker fans know why he sees one of CU’s most visible grads as a good sport. And I happen to agree with him. Fowler, a Denver native, is one of the most respected hosts and commentators on network television. He’s worked his way up through the ranks before spending the last quarter century at ESPN. Before he hit the big time, Fowler was a sports director at CU’s campus radio station. He was a high school sports writer for the Rocky Mountain News and an intern for Denver’s CBS affiliate. So he knows all about hard work, and frankly, I think that’s one reason why he respects Nebraska.
Send a comment or GameDay memory to ryork@huskers.com
