World Record Volleyball

by Ken Hambleton

Volleyball Day started with smiles as big as the Plains.

It ended with tears of joy, dreams of something so big and a world record for people in the stands for any women’s sport—ever.

Nebraska turned the world upside down when 92,003 fans jammed into Memorial Stadium on a Wednesday night for a game with University of Nebraska at Omaha, preceded by an exhibition game between Wayne State College and the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

By the time everybody cheered, wept, danced, bounced and sang along to the music of Scott McCreery, everybody in the country and the world of sports agreed with Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook, when he said,
“We made history.”

Born from a conversation eight months prior, to try volleyball in the 100-year-old football stadium, known for sellouts dating back 60 years, the Huskers surpassed the NCAA record for volleyball attendance by 75,000 fans. They topped the record for women’s sports attendance of 91,648 fans who watched FC Barcelona face Wolfsburg in Spain in April 2022. They bested the U.S. women’s sports record set by the U.S. Women’s soccer team’s victory over China in 1999 in the Rose Bowl.

“I am not aware of a single thing that did not go exactly according to how our team and our marketing team went according to our strategy,” said Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts. “They executed the thing flawlessly.”

There was a massive fireworks show, a drone display a country music show and great volleyball for the whole state. But that grew with coverage on the Big 10 Network, reportage by CNN, ESPN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other news outlets.

Nebraska had to plan everything from building the Teraflex court on a plywood stage, a concert stage on the south end of the field, coordination with the City of Lincoln—police, fire and rescue, city buses, parking plans.

“We had to consider that the week previous and the week after we had heat index in the 110s,” said Alberts. “We had to think about the safety of the players and the fans. (Game temps dropped to the low 80s). The effect of rain on the court, wind on the play of the games were also factors we had to hope would work in our favor. They did.”

Alberts said he didn’t immediately grasp the significance of celebrating almost 50 years of Title IX and what that impact made on the players, fans, little girls and parents across Nebraska and the country.

Nebraska All-America libero Lexi Rodriguez noted, “It’s so huge for little girls to get to see a woman’s sport and volleyball played on this big a stage and having so many people invest in it.” She added, “Because when you’re a little girl you have big goals and big dreams. And having this to kind of look up tois something little girls will keep in the back of their mind when pursuing the sport of volleyball.”

Alberts said his eyes were open to the possibilities for more events.

“I didn’t understand the impact for women, student athletes, for former student athletes (past Huskers from five NCAA title teams were in attendance), and future female athletes,” he said. “I do now.”

Alberts said his staff is looking at future non-football events in Memorial Stadium.