Guest Post: How did Volleyball Day at Nebraska actually happen?

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Last Wednesday, the good folks in Lincoln, Nebraska pulled off something truly exceptional. The University of Nebraska hosted a volleyball game between the Cornhuskers and Nebraska-Omaha, drawing a world record 92,003 fans to Memorial Stadium. I watched it on TV here in Chicago, and the entire operation, from the crow shots to the pageantry to the game itself, was awesome.

Friend of the newsletter Erin Sorensen, a longtime Nebraska writer who just helped co-found the Counter Read newsletter, was at the game. I asked her to poke around and share the behind-the-scenes story of this whole operation…how did Nebraska pull this off? What went into it?

Below is her account.

By the time Nebraska announced it had set the world record for attendance at a women’s sporting event, the hard work was done. Well, mostly.

We’re also only talking about the logistical hard work and not the game itself — in which Nebraska swept Omaha 0-3 — because Volleyball Day in Nebraska was a significant production from planning to setup and teardown.

What Nebraska managed to pull off in front of a crowd of 92,003 people is nothing short of impressive. But what did it take to make a volleyball match inside a football stadium happen?

Here’s a look behind the curtain.

It takes an army of people