Well, they broke my heart – again.
The Cornhusker men’s basketball team remains winless in the NCAA Tournament.
You know what happened last Friday evening. I don’t need to offer a repeat.
All baseball fans know that prior to 2016, Chicago Cubs faithful were annually known to hope out loud, “well, maybe next year.”
That was when the Cubs went 108 years between World Series Championships.
Cornhusker basketball began competition in 1897.
The Big Red has amassed 1,578 victories. However, not a one in NCAA Tournament play.
Heck, we fans aren’t craving a national championship, just a March Madness victory.
And less heartbreak.
Well, maybe next year.
I’ve loved Cornhusker basketball for 53 years.
Here’s how we met.
The excitement created by the Cornhusker football team winnings its first national championship in 1970 was rejuvenated when President Nixon visited Lincoln a few days later and presented the Cornhuskers a National Championship plaque. A packed house was on hand at the NU Coliseum to greet Mr. Nixon.
Wow! The President of the United States was in the same building I had visited only two weeks earlier! (I suddenly felt guilty about not voting for Nixon when my fourth-grade class held our own election two years earlier.) A few days after Christmas, I was visiting Grandma and Grandpa Horn, who resided two blocks north of Memorial Stadium, and Grandpa took me for a walk “uptown,” as he liked to call it.
Grandpa had retired in 1969 after working for the University of Nebraska power plant for 50 years, and now he had a lot of free time on his hands. We had just about concluded our walk through the campus when Grandpa took me inside Memorial Stadium, and I got my first look at the home of the NU football team. I stood on the northeast corner of the field and gazed at the bright green Astroturf, the rows and rows of gray seats that reached skyward like a mountain, and the grandiose press box. Even though the stadium was empty, I was as excited as if I was cheering for a Cornhusker running down the field 80 yards for a touchdown.
Grandpa then escorted me to the Coliseum and showed my me the court where the Cornhusker basketball team played. University employees were working on the floor, so I wasn’t allowed to walk on the playing court and gawk at the Coliseum’s innards like I did while surrounded by Memorial Stadium’s countless rows of seats. The Coliseum was a neat arena, but I hadn’t a clue that Cornhusker basketball even existed.
Having turned into a KFAB Radio of Omaha junkie, I usually listened to 1110 AM each night while doing my homework.
I was introduced to another KFAB feature the evening of Saturday, January 30, 1971 — University of Nebraska basketball.
I was craving tunes by the Lettermen, Frank Sinatra, and Pete Fountain. Instead, I heard the familiar voice of Jack Payne. At first, I thought KFAB might be replaying a football game, because Jack kept talking about field goal percentages. However, since he wasn’t mentioning Cornhusker kicker Paul Rogers by name, and the names Jack was announcing were unknown to me, I assumed it had to be another sport. A few minutes later, it became clear he was announcing a basketball game, and when I learned it was a Nebraska game, I immediately grabbed a pencil and paper and began keeping track of the running score.
As the next 90 minutes rolled by, I became acquainted with Cornhusker cagers Marvin Stewart, Leroy Chalk, Chuck Jura, Al Nissen, Tony Riehl, Mike Peterson, and Coach Joe Cipriano.
Jack Payne was as gifted at announcing basketball games as Lyell Bremser was talented at broadcasting football games. Since just about all the NU basketball games were played at night, I usually listened to the broadcasts while in the privacy of my bedroom. Listening to Jack describe a home Nebraska basketball game was especially entertaining. Jack would vividly describe the Coliseum crowd as it would belittle, beleaguer, harass, and torment the opposing players. Payne would also often refer to the animations of Cornhusker Head Basketball Coach Joe Cipriano.
The Cornhuskers blew out Oklahoma State, 80-59, and thus began my affection for Jack Payne and his descriptions of Cornhusker basketball opponents’ venues. “We’re at Brewer Fieldhouse on the campus of the University of Missouri,” or “We greet you from Balch Fieldhouse in Boulder, Colorado,” or, “We’re in Soonerland tonight, hello from the OU Basketball Fieldhouse in Norman,” or, “For the first time ever, we greet you from the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, a beautiful replacement for Iowa State basketball’s aging Armory,” surged from my radio’s speaker.
Jack also painted vivid pictures of other Cornhusker enemy courts, such as: KSU’s Ahearn Fieldhouse in Manhattan, Kansas; KU’s Allen Fieldhouse in nearby Lawrence; Oklahoma State’s Gallagher Hall in Stillwater; as well as the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, the home of the annual Big 8 Holiday Basketball Tournament held each year during the last week of December.
Payne turned over his basketball broadcast duties in 1974 to a young Kent Pavelka.
That legendary voice continues to grace the airwaves.
With nearly 50 years behind the basketball mic, Pavelka is also looking for his first NCAA Tournament victory broadcast.
March 22, 2024, only offered Kent more heartbreak, too.
Well, maybe next year.