10 times we were proud to be Nebraskans
Some moments or events are etched into our hearts as Nebraskans. Here are 10 of them.
Clayton Anderson
Ashland native Clayton Anderson spent five months at the International Space Station in 2007, returning there in 2010 on a resupply mission aboard space shuttle Discovery.
Jack Hoffman
The moment 7-year-old cancer patient Jack Hoffman ran 69 yards down the field for a touchdown during the red-white spring game in April 2013 will be forever remembered by Nebraskans.
National champions
Nebraskans are proud to have had five national football championships: 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995 and 1997.
Legislature unique
Nebraska became the only state in the U.S. with a one-house Legislature -- the unicameral -- after passage of an amendment in 1934. Nebraska's Legislature is also officially nonpartisan.
Ted Kooser
Ted Kooser of Garland did the state proud when he became U.S. poet laureate in 2004 and won a Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2005.
Pilger cleanup
Nebraskans are proud to be good neighbors, with people coming from around the state to help pick up after a tornado destroyed much of the town of Pilger in 2014 (above) and after natural disasters in Hallam and elsewhere.
Hannah Huston
“You are doing Nebraska so proud,” Pharrell Williams told Hannah Huston on "The Voice" in 2016. The Lincoln teacher and Grand Island native made it to the finals on the show.
150 years of statehood
Nebraskans celebrated 150 years as a state on March 1, 2017, with much hoopla in Lincoln and throughout the state. In this picture, Taylor Keen performs a monologue as Chief Standing Bear before an audience during the celebration in the Capitol rotunda.
“Without being unsuccessful, we wouldn’t have ended up where we are now,” Mike Endorf said. They have a daughter excited for a little brother or sister, a partially completed nursery, a new addition coming and strengthened faith.
At football games, when Wyatt was on the sidelines, fans chanted “Gilly, Gilly,” using his nickname. Early in the season, before Wyatt’s surgery, Northwest football coach Kevin Stein had him give sideline calls to players on the field.
Every year, Dave Wamburg and his students craft about 30 cradles to donate to the yearly event. “It gets in your blood,” he said.
“It’s overwhelming the way the community came together to help me out,” Wade Holt said. “I just can’t put it into words. It was awesome and I’m glad it happened the way it did.”
Gavin Schwartz had a lot of friends. “He helped a lot of people with their vehicles, whether selling parts or just helping work on them,” Kyleigh Smith said. About 1,000 people turned out for the car show and balloon release.
The Rasmussens urge people to get second opinions for medical diagnoses. “If we wouldn’t have done it, we would be visiting Mark’s grave every year, instead of enjoying his life with his family,” Melinda Rasmussen said.
Preston Walls had just finished a shift when he heard the call on the scanner about a baby not breathing. He knocked on the door and said, “Give me the baby.” Then he went into action.
Between the brotherhood of the fire department and Ryan Lohr’s dedication to the community, it’s not much of a surprise that everyone rallied together to help out the family when times got tough.
"We … banged on the window to see if he’d wake up. Well, he didn’t, so we grabbed a hitch, we hit the window and shattered it. We pulled him out and, right after we pulled him out, the car blew up," one of the men said.
For her dedication to helping kids in need receive a comfort item, Donna Pearson was recently presented with the Distinguished Achievement Award from Lincoln’s Gamma Delta Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha.
Some moments or events are etched into our hearts as Nebraskans. Here are 10 of them.
A 1996 arrest made them unlikely friends. Now, a former gang member is working to help the ex-cop who arrested him and helped him build a boxing gym in Omaha.
