Communities of Cornhuskers: The Generation of Place Through Sports Fans' Rituals

Abstract

This article explores communication at University of Nebraska Cornhusker football “watch parties”—public gatherings where fans watch the football team's game on television—at seven locations across the United States. This study concludes that the decoration of the watch-party site, the attire worn by fans attending the watch parties, and collective activities of relating and connecting that occur during the watch parties constitute a unique type of performance ritual. Specifically, this article analyzes how the watch-party rituals spin a web of communal connections in which fans at each site connect with one another, with fans at other sites, and with the state of Nebraska to form what is called an “intermediate place”—a place that is symbolically rooted in a specific geographic location and simultaneously manifest in other physical locations.

Keywords:

• Football
• Place
• Sports Fans
• Ritual

Acknowledgments

Some ideas in this article were originally developed in individual papers presented as part of a panel at the 2000 National Communication Association conference; all of the authors participated in the panel. This project originated as a data collection effort for Roger C. Aden's book, Huskerville: A Story of Nebraska Football, Fans, and the Power of Place, (2008), Jefferson, NC: McFarland. The analysis presented in this report is distinct from ideas found in the book.

Notes

The University of Nebraska fields the only major college football team in the state of Nebraska. Because no National Football League franchises are located in the state, the Cornhusker football team serves as the state football team. Indeed, the team's home stadium—which holds nearly twice as many people as the state's third largest city—has been sold out for every game since 1962.

Observation occurred at all watch parties that the authors attended. Interviews were obtained at the Portland, Denver, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Seattle, and Louisville sites; questionnaires were distributed and collected at the Chicago and Seattle sites. The co-host of the Moorhead–Fargo watch parties did not engage in these institutional review board-approved data collection procedures; instead, his insights as both a host and a fan are incorporated into this analysis.

Eastman and Land (1997) offered a similar observation in their analysis of sports-bar viewing. In these cases, however, the bartenders controlled the television sets and typically displayed multiple sporting events on the establishments' televisions.

Phoenix interviews were conducted by undergraduate students at Arizona State University and supervised by a faculty member at that institution.

S. Smith (2005) noted in his fan autobiography, Forever Red, that “this happens all the time when Nebraskans get together. It's like our version of the Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon game. Everyone either knows you or knows someone who does” (p. 125). S. Smith offered this observation after explaining that he ran into someone at a Northern Nevadans for Nebraska watch party who knew someone who lived down the street from S. Smith's childhood home in Rosalie, Nebraska.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roger C. Aden

Roger C. Aden (PhD, University of Nebraska, 1989), School of Communication Studies, Lasher Hall, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701.

Timothy A. Borchers

Timothy A. Borchers (PhD, Wayne State University, 1996), Department of Communication Studies, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN 56563.

Amy Grim Buxbaum

Amy Grim Buxbaum (PhD, University of Colorado, 2005), Department of Speech Communication, North Central College, Naperville, IL 60540.

Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Kirstin Cronn-Mills (PhD, Iowa State University, 1997), South Central College, North Mankato, MN 56003.

Shannon Davis

Shannon Davis (MA, University of North Texas, 1998), is a caseworker with The Samaritan Inn homeless shelter, McKinney, TX 75071.

Natalie J. Dollar

Natalie J. Dollar (PhD, University of Washington, 1993), Speech Communication, Oregon State University-Cascades, Bend, OR 97701.

Innes Mitchell

Innes Mitchell (PhD, University of Kansas, 1997), St. Edward's University, Austin, TX 78704.

Alena Amato Ruggerio

Alena Amato Ruggerio (PhD, Indiana University, 2004), Southern Oregon University, Ashland OR 97520.