The town goes crazy. And there are certain things that go hand in hand with Husker football.
This includes the Husker fight song, tailgating, football parties and the colors red and white.
All businesses in town, including bars, stores and restaurants, thrive on the craziness.
But there is one place in particular that really goes crazy and goes hand in hand with Husker football.
It is a place where people will stand in line for hours on a cold Friday night in November.
They'll also line up out front at 5 the next morning waiting for the doors to open at 8.
Then, as soon as the game is over, they'll be standing in line again.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the establishment being described is The Sidetrack tavern, the Studio 54 of Lincoln on football weekends.
Once you get inside, you won't see famous stars dancing to blaring disco music, but you will see a group of people, young and old, dressed in red and white.
They'll be slamming back beers and singing along to the tunes of the group Husker fans can't help but love, The Sidetrack Band.
"There is No Place Like Nebraska" is the song you're almost sure to hear at some point in the bar. But that is by no means the group's limit.
Songs praising current players, such as Eric Crouch and Dominic Raiola, can be heard along with songs about former players Tommy Frazier and Ahman Green.
The group has come up with music poking fun at everyone from ESPN announcer Lee Corso to the Colorado Buffaloes and Texas Longhorns.
For 16 years, the group has been doing its thing in the Sidetrack Tavern, 935 O St. For eight years before that, the bar was located in the Haymarket where Jabrisco restaurant now stands.
"I'm getting ready for my 25th season in this bar," said owner Joyce Durand, who is also the lead singer of The Sidetrack Band.
Durand, a former liberal arts major who went to law school for a year, has been a bureaucrat and a director of budget and research at the public affairs commission, worked for the Legislature and taught school.
She decided to try her hand at running a bar 25 years ago when she opened The Sidetrack. She said she gave it its name because of its original location close to the railroad tracks.
Despite her other experiences and qualifications, she said she decided to open a bar because she thought it would be an enjoyable experience.
"I thought I'd try doing this bar thing for a while until I found something I liked to do better," she said. "I never did find anything I like better."
At least Durand said she thinks that's the reason.
"Either that or I'm lazy," she joked. "I'm not sure what the real story is."
When people own a bar for 25 years, you might think they'd be able to identify some specific changes they have seen since the beginning, but not Durand.
The only change she's seen is a change in the legal drinking age from the time she started and the fact that people today are more responsible drinkers than they were 25 years ago.
"One thing that has not changed is the kids," she said. "The kids are pretty much the same.
"I think when you spend all of those decades behind a piano taking requests, then you get a bird's eye view of society that is different from anyone else.
"I've gone through short hair and long hair and tight clothes and baggy clothes, but that's just superficial stuff. I don't think the people have changed."
Durand said the bar has had many notable people in it.
She recalled numerous Husker football players, a former boxing champion whose name she did not remember, the governor of Kansas and possibly the most memorable for her, former Nebraska Football Coach Bob Devaney, who was in the bar numerous times throughout the years.
One particular time stuck out in Durand's mind.
"He was in here just before he became bedfast," she said.
"We had just defeated Kansas. I saw him come in, and I got down off the piano. He was feeble.
"I asked him if he would like to come on the stage. He did, so we helped him on stage and put a microphone in his hand under the spotlight."
Durand smiled as she finished her story.
"He became 35 years old. He spread his feet and said, 'It was a glorious game!' He was the coach again, and that was a good memory for me."
Durand, who described herself as a very identifiable Democrat, said she's also had the likes of Bob Kerrey and Ben Nelson in The Sidetrack, but she said anyone is welcome.
"We'll even let Republicans in here," she joked. "You have to, or you wouldn't be able to make a buck here in Nebraska."
Durand said her most memorable moments from the last 25 years have occurred on game days.
She recalled a time they were having a national championship party and had just got finished talking over the microphone about former Husker football player and Heisman trophy winner Johnny Rodgers.
Right at that time, he walked through the back door.
"He began running through tables like a broken field runner and doing the Heisman pose," she said.
Another memorable time was when the Huskers won the National Championship in 1995.
She described the scene as "crazy."
"We had four guys with Ns shaved in their heads, and some people were so excited I thought they were gonna wet their pants before the game started," she said.
Afterward, when people were running around in the cold downtown celebrating, she said they would stop inside the bar to warm up, then go running outside again.
"They were so happy," she said. "I know some people might think 'Why be so happy over a football game?' but I think it's symbolic.
"People, especially when they're young, want to experience joy and celebration. What's wrong with that?"
It's obvious that Durand loves Nebraska football, and when asked if things would change in her bar if the team took a turn for the worse, she said definitely not.
"There was a time when jokes were going around when the Huskers weren't doing as well, but they never went over the microphone in my bar, and they never will."
She even joked that the band takes credit for the football team not losing a game last season after its loss to Texas.
She said it was because of a song the band did after the loss.
Some of the lyrics went, "I'm tired of my old Ford, I want a Lexus, and we're tired of losing football games to Texas."
"They didn't lose again," she said.
"We feel we're mainly responsible for the fact that we only lost one game all season," Durand said. Had she written that song earlier, NU may have been national champions.
Durand's light-hearted spirit has rubbed off on the atmosphere that comes across in her bar.
Cheryl Connor, who has worked at the bar since it opened and described Durand as her best friend, said The Sidetrack has sustained its popularity simply because it is fun.
"Here, the audience participates with the band," she said. "That interaction is what has kept the bar around for so long."
Throughout the year, the band serves as a live karaoke band.
"They are such good musicians, they can make anyone sound good," Connor said.
Durand and Connor both noted that The Sidetrack has been around so long they are now entertaining a second generation of patrons.
Durand also agreed that what makes her bar unique is that it is fun.
"Sidetracks is fun. It is always fun," she said.
"This is a place where fun comes first and drinking comes second. If you just want to drink, you can get a 12-pack and go home."
As for the future of The Sidetrack, Durand said she doesn't plan to shut it down soon.
"It's a fun place," she said. "I may die up on stage, I don't know, but it would be a hard act to follow."
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