On Nov. 3, 1962, a capacity crowd filled Memorial Stadium to watch Nebraska lose its undefeated record to the Missouri Tigers.

It was the first of Nebraska football's 300 consecutive sellouts.

Don Bryant wasn't there.

Bryant was sports editor of the Lincoln Star newspaper at the time, and he was sent to Lawrence, Kan., that weekend to cover the Jayhawks, NU's next opponent.

He was back for the next home game against Oklahoma State.

By 1963, Bryant was sports information director for the NU athletic department. He never missed another home game. In 1999, NU named the Memorial Stadium press box after him.

In those days, Bryant took his 10-year-old son, Bill, along to work on Saturdays to help lug equipment from his office to the press box.

Bill's stayed, too. He works in the press box as a PA announcer on game days and says he's made at least 296 of the last 300 Nebraska home games.

Of all their memories, Bryant remembers Oct. 26, 1963 — the day he took Bill to the Colorado game.

After father and son finished their pre-game work, Bryant gave Bill a sideline pass and sent him to sit in the “knothole” section bleachers.

Wait here, Bryant told his son. I'll come back for you after the game.

Bill had other ideas. He walked to the sideline, wandered amongst the players and sidled right up to Bob Devaney.

He wanted to ask the coach how well his idol — running back Maynard Smidt — was playing that day.

A Nebraska assistant saw the whole thing, kicked Bill in the rear end and ordered him off the sideline. The event became legend in the athletic department, though it gave Bryant, who retired from NU in 1997, a bit of heartburn.

“I thought I was fired,” he said.

— Juan Perez Jr.