Remembering Brook Berringer

Has it really been 10 years? April 18th, 1996, Husker fans were anticipating the celebration of Nebraska's back-to-back National Championships when the horrible news came out about Brook Berringer's death.

Berringer wasn't the greatest football player, but he may have been one of the greatest people to ever wear a Nebraska uniform. And that's no knock on his football talent; he was in line to be drafted by the NFL. Berringer took over the Huskers' after Tommie Frazier was sidelined with blood clots and directed the team into the 2004 National Championship game in the Orange Bowl against Miami. The next season, Berringer found himself back on the sidelines as Nebraska repeated, yet didn't allow his disappointment to become a distraction in a season full of distractions.

I think Tom Shatel summed up the feelings of Husker fans everywhere with the final line of his column today:

Just let me get a tissue first.

Some other links:

• Omaha.com: "Ten Years Later, He's Still Touching Lives"
• JournalStar.com: "Berringer's Memory Lives On"
• JournalStar.com: "Remembering a Husker Hero"
• Sawyer Brown: Lyrics to the "Nebraska Song"