Full disclosure, though I was born in Oklahoma and am a political Independent, I’m an east coast progressive and supporter of civil progress. That being said, I gotta ask: what is this weird backwater place called Nebraska University?

First the main news: this week Nebraska football, one of the more storied programs in the game, fired its coach, a former beloved player and quarterback of the 1997 national championship team. Unfortunately, as a coach for the school, Scott Frost had gone 16-31 with no winning seasons and several hi-profile gaffes. So he was handed his hat and a buyout check for $15MM.

But there was some ancillary news: after the above story washed across the major news outlets, a second wave announced that the Cornhusker team will be led on an interim basis by Mickey Joseph, who was hired as Associate Head Coach just 3 games ago. And somewhat buried in that story was this nugget: he becomes the first black head coach of any sport at Nebraska.

Wait, what? I had to check this out. The Husker athletics site lists 9 men’s and 13 women’s programs. And sure enough they have all had only white head coaches, even the ones with a high proportion of black athletes such as football, basketball and track&field. Some of the other sports have some small representation of non-white-American players, such as a Japanese golfer or a East European gymnast. But no high-level coaching diversity.

I figured, c’mon, at least the men’s soccer program might have some hot-shot import from some place like Brazil, so I checked to find…there is no men’s soccer at Nebraska. I wasn’t surprised they don’t play ice hockey either. But if preppy white-bread sports are their thing, how about Lacrosse? Nope. Crew or Sailing? Uh-uh. They do have Swimming and Diving, but only for women, not for men. And they have 5 young ladies who compete in Rifle.

And did I mention they’ve never had a black head coach in anything?

I was intrigued. I dug into the school history to find that – somewhat a propos – they were once known as the Rattlesnake Boys and then the Bugeaters. Thankfully, they gave that up to become Cornhuskers in 1900, which is quaintly cute.

As for mascots, they are perfectly represented by Herbie Husker, a very muscular white dude in a red cowboy hat. And his junior sidekick is known as L’il Red. Which I hear is some reference to their team colors, which leads some of their fans to call them…um… by a different name…oh no…an informal nickname…which is…ugh…which is…

No. NO. NO! NO!! NO!!! NO!!! I dug deeper. I found the website which lays out the school’s brand standards. Nebraska’s official team colors are Scarlett and Cream. That’s not Red. That’s not White. Not even close.

So I gotta go on record. There’s only one “Big Red” in NCAA Division One. And though this school can’t play football to save its life, it has a handful of national championships in hockey and lacrosse. And its Women’s Polo team has won 15 national titles, perhaps in part because this “Big Red” is also the New York State school of Agriculture (did I give it away?)

The school’s colors are true to the name: ‘Carnellian Red’, chosen to honor its founder Mr. Cornell, is so handsome that Campbell’s Soup adopted it for their labels; and Plain White to honor its first President, Mr. White. Pure Red, Pure White.

All of which explains why, when any self-respecting college sports fan rises and yells “Let’s Go Red!” there’s only one school they are actually cheering for.

And it’s not some school in Nebraska.

Which, as I now understand, has never had a non-white head coach in anything.