KSU-NU festival in Marysville on Friday

MARYSVILLE, Kan. - Meshing with the defending Kansas state champion Wellington Crusaders-Marysville Bulldogs 4A sectional football battle here Friday night will be the third annual KSU-NU Showdown Festival in downtown Marysville.

The festival, which features Nebraska and Kansas State cheerleaders, mascots, band music, brief talks and autographs by former Cornhusker and Wildcat gridiron stars, starts at 6 p.m. downtown, three blocks from Homer Hanson Stadium. There will be food stands setting up at 5 p.m. and a children's Nerf football game run by local National Guard troops. Bremen Catbackers will serve free hot dogs.

The festival will conclude by 6:30 p.m. or no later than 6:40 p.m., chairman John Banister vowed this week, well before the start of the Marysville-Wellington high school game at 7 p.m. For those concerned about avoiding long ticket lines, Banister said, tickets will go on sale at the stadium at 5 p.m. and people can go in, leave blankets and get stamped.

Banister, a former trombone player in the Cornhusker Marching Band, came up with the idea of the celebration as a Marysville Main Street program fundraiser and to bring more focus on the town's historic downtown.

In recent years the KSU-NU game, which will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in Manhattan, has drawn national attention. Early in the season NU struggled and KSU lost two close games to ranked teams, but both are playing well and appear to be reaching the potential seen in preseason.

Speaking for the Wildcats this year at the Marysville festival will be former defensive star Mike Ekeler, and for the Huskers, Matt Davison, one of the best receivers in NU history. Both won academic honors.

Ekeler, who walked on in 1991, is remembered as a wildman defender who made things happen, and won a string of awards during his career as a leader of one of the Big Eight's best special teams and as a linebacker.

Davison was famous for "the catch" he made against Missouri in 1997 when he caught a deflected pass from Scott Frost to send the game into overtime. He dove for the ball just before it touched the end zone grass. NU won the game, went undefeated and won the national championship.

Jeff and Maureen Crist, Andrew and Amy Weides, Dave and Dana Pieschl and Larry and Kathy Shum will again feed NU and KSU cheerleaders, mascots and others at the Crist home in east Marysville.

Marc Shkolnick, associate executive director, NU Alumni Association, and his staff will be attending the pep rally, Banister said.

Kansas and Nebraska radio and television stations will provide coverage of the festival, Banister said, including WOW-TV, Omaha, which is bringing a satellite truck that may provide live coverage during the festival; KNDY, Marysville; KTGL, Lincoln; and KROCK, Manhattan.

Two TVs at Ott Electric, 810 Broadway, will be showing videos of the past four Nebraska-KSU games, two of which the Huskers have won and two of which the Cats have won.

Frank Solich, NU coach, and Bill Snyder, KSU coach, each has won two games in their four face-offs as head coaches.

Prints of this year's logo celebrating the annual battle, drawn by Marysville artist Mark Hoffman, are being sold for $5 each by the MHS Bulldog Marching Band flag corps, and T-shirts are being sold for $10 each by band members.