-Isms: views on life in rural America

The play of the Husker football team won’t be the only thing under scrutiny during Saturday’s Red-White scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.

A new and improved Herbie Husker is set to take the field. Herbie’s makeover includes ditching the jeans and polo shirt and donning overalls from the mascot’s 1970s debut.

Only this time, Herbie has obviously embraced a Keto diet, his features more refined than rugged. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Husker fan still carries an ear of corn in his left hip pocket, although the kernels look smaller. Yields matter, right?

Nebraska Athletics announced the return of the favored icon Monday, via hype video, from athletic director Trev Alberts. In the video, Herbie finds a sketchbook of mascots from days gone by, flips through pages and tacks the newly-released version on a beam in a barn, kernels of seed corn scattering everywhere.

Updated Herbie will be available in sport-specific gear. Want to promote the Husker golf team? Have no fear. Updated Herbie can be seen leaning on a golf club. Want Herbie to send an ace serve over the net? Check out volleyball Herbie. Only thing missing: sidekick John Cook.

At least updated Herbie doesn’t resemble Corncob Man, the mascot from 1955 to 1962. This mascot looks like something straight outta the cornfield, with yellow kernels for his head, adorned with two green corn leaves for trim. His eyes are painted black and about four kernels are red, denoting his mouth. Creepy.

At least updated Herbie doesn’t look like a peanut with kernels drawn with black marker and a too-small red cowboy hat. That’s what Mr. Cornhead looked like in the 1960s. Um, double creepy.

I’m a fan of Harry Husker, or Mr. Big Red, who represented the University from 1965 to 1973. This mascot wore white slacks and a red suit coat. Under one arm, he carried a blanket and a program. The other hand held a pennant, a red cowboy hat tipped on his head.

The original Herbie surfaced in 1973, in a Cotton Bowl cartoon, designed by artist Dirk West. Then sports information director, Don Bryant, requested West’s permission to use the cartoon on the 1974 football media guide. The first version of the mascot lasted until 2003. Suddenly, Herbie had a new wardrobe and his blonde locks changed to brown hair.

I’m not sure what was wrong with jeans-and-polo-shirt Herbie. He seemed like an average Nebraskan, decked out for a game. Like any super duper Husker fan walking down 10th Street toward Memorial Stadium.

Wait a minute! 2003 ... the year Frank Solich was dismissed from his coaching duties ... the year Husker football began a downward spiral and the supposed “Solich curse” began. Is the return to Herbie wearing overalls a way to ward off the curse, a means for Matt Rhule to rule, for Husker football to return to the world power its meant to be?

It couldn’t be that simple, could it? We may find out when former coach Solich walks out of the tunnel Saturday, when a mascot rights so many wrongs with a single wave, chanting “Go Big Red!”