The No Option Tailgate is located just North of the Post Office and right off the South end of the Haymarket Park Pedestrian Bridge. (Look for the "No Option" flag on the fence)
In order to cut down on Large Parties, the owners of our lot have decided to only admit people to the lot that have wristbands. They have given us a certain number of wristbands per game. Each No Option Sponsor will have one for each game. Sponsors can request limited wristbands for their identified guests prior to game day. The balance will be given out first come first served on game day. If you would like to request wristbands for your guests, please send an email to the following people
dglist@cox.net
dgzehoviak@yahoo.com
How Did We Start?
The NO OPTION tailgate started as a dream of a few men that regularly got together with their wives before the Nebraska Football games. Some of these “men” had season tickets for years and others just came to Lincoln on game day to either try to get tickets or stay in the bar and watch the game on TV. Some of them even came to Lincoln just to hang out at the bar with everyone before the game and then left to go back to Omaha about 45 minutes before kick-off to watch the game at their house. With these “men” were the women. Now the women liked the current arrangement – leave home at a decent hour, go to a bar/restaurant where they could sit down and have someone wait on them and give them everything they wanted, when they wanted, with no preparation, no cleaning up, and then they could leave to go to the game without any concerns about the mess they left behind.
Then within a few years – the “men” of the group expanded to include the “son’s” of the “men”. The son’s would stop by and have a drink with the men and the women, but then would leave to go join other friends at the venue they loved – a Tailgate! The “men” got to thinking – maybe they should tailgate too. They wanted to have the same fun as the “son’s” but the wives weren’t so sure…. Sitting on gravel in a parking lot – eating food out of the back of the car did not seem appealing at all. They didn’t’ want to stand – No problem - we will get chairs! They were concerned about the hot sun – No problem – we will get tents! They didn’t want to eat out of the back of a car – No problem – we will get tables. They didn’t want the tailgate to involve a lot of work for them….NO PROBLEM…..
Then one night – it was decided – we have a couple of reserved parking stalls and we will be tailgating. The group thought we needed a name to identify our newly founded entity. That was in 2004 – the year that Frank Solich was leaving Nebraska and Bill Callahan was coming in to be our new coach. Bill Callahan was known for a West Coast Offense which is completely different than the Option offense that Nebraska was known for. A tradition was leaving Nebraska football so the guys decided to hang on to the tradition and name our tailgate “NO OPTION"...you don’t have any other options when it comes to tailgating but to attend the NO OPTION tailgate.
So in 2004 – the new tradition started with about 9 couples and many of their offspring that were students of the University of Nebraska. Every year the tailgate gets bigger and better. NO OPTION started out with 21 original sponsors and it has grown to 52 Sponsors in 2010. We started on a gravel parking lot using at times a very nice camper or sometimes using the back of the Jeep, to now, having one of the best tailgates there is in Lincoln.
On behalf of all the sponsors – we have a great tailgate due to all the hard work and great ideas of many, many people. We thank everyone for their contributions and we are looking forward to a great final year of the Big 12 and look forward to many more years of tailgating while we become a new addition to the Big 10! GO HUSKERS!
