Team Effort to Unfurl Huge Banner

LINCOLN, Neb., Sept.11, 2009 -- It took more than 85,000 Cornhusker fans to fill Memorial Stadium in Lincoln for last week's season opener -- but only 14 to make a super-sized statement of Husker pride.

And those 14 were engineering students -- the bearers of a tradition, who ensured that the debut of the giant "GO BIG RED" banner went up as planned.

At 80 feet by 60 feet, the banner -- when it's unfurled -- covers several hundred seats in two sections of the stadium and boasts letters taller than linebackers.

"It's unreal," said sophomore Bryce Ebel, one of the engineering students charged with operating the banner. "You get the hairs standing on the back of your neck."

Joining the Fun

Added Bill Poppe, another engineering student: "Most people come here and they go, 'Oh, it's the cheerleaders, it's the football team, it's the whole crowd.' But the College of Engineering gets their little bit with our massive flag."

The new banner replaces one that said "The Power of Red," which was used for the past few years. When the old one was too tattered to use again, the engineering college and athletic department partnered to get a new one. Thanks to a sturdier weight of fabric, the new banner weighs about 250 pounds, roughly twice what the old one did.

The extra weight makes the process of getting the banner unfurled a bit more difficult.

It all starts underneath the stadium's east section, where the banner is kept rolled up in a ball in a giant storage cage. Seven or so of the engineering students pick it up and move it out of the cage and into the hallway underneath the stadium.

Then it's time to unroll it, turning the ball into an 80-foot-long pile of fabric. The students make sure they've found the top and bottom edges of the banner, pick it up and snake their way out from the storage area, up a flight of stairs to their destination: the base of the east stadium's student section.

Once there, they split off, with some students staying at the bottom of the section to mind the top and bottom edges, and others heading for the stairs to make sure the outer edges stay taut.

A Team Effort

Those at the base hand off the top edge of the banner to fans in the first row. When the students at the base hear their cue from the marching band, they signal the front row to start tossing the banner back.

Then it rises from near the bottom row over the top of cheering students, who keep tossing it up and over their heads.

When it's time, the students get the banner back down much the same way they got it up -- by grabbing and throwing it row by row.

The 14 engineering students then scoop up a portion of the banner, toss it over their shoulders and make their way down the stairs and to the hallway under the stadium.

There, they roll the banner up like a snowball -- end over end -- until it grows into a giant pile of fabric ready to be placed inside the storage cage until the next game.

Plenty of Hard Work

It's a relatively short process, but a tiring one that requires teamwork.

Ever the champions of precision, the engineering flag team has a goal for how long the banner should stay up in the student section: 2.2 minutes, said junior Long Nguyen. That way, the process stays in sync with the marching band's music.

"You're hearing 'There Is No Place Like Nebraska,' and then you see this flag go up," said Rena Becker, recruitment coordinator for the College of Engineering who helps organize the flag team. "The entire stadium is focused on that flag."

David H. Allen, dean of the College of Engineering, got the idea for the banner while traveling abroad several years ago. Supersized banners are more common at soccer games, internationally, in places like Brazil, where Allen got the idea. He took it to the athletic department and, soon after, a new tradition was born, with engineering students picked to coordinate the affair.

On Saturday, being among those students gave Nguyen a chance to go to his first Husker game.

Earlier in the week, he was worried he might end up tripping on the stairs if he had to run up with one of the outer edges of the banner. On game day, though, Nguyen was stationed at the base of the banner near the middle.

But even that can be a dangerous spot.

"I got bashed in the face, like, three times," as students pulled the banner down, Nguyen said.