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SAN DIEGO — After Brad Bundy was paralyzed by a 2006 car accident, people from Ord and Grand Island helped him buy a wheelchair van so he could go to Husker football games in Lincoln.
This week that van carried Bundy and his wife, Deb, all the way from Grand Island to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.
They were among the thousands of Nebraska fans who had the pleasure of watching live as the latest version of the Big Red did a great impression of old-school Big Red Wednesday night.
“I like how they’re starting to play harder, with more intensity and fire,” Bundy said. “Kind of what Nebraska’s all about.”
Bundy, 46, has been going to Nebraska games in Lincoln since his father, Lanny, first took him to one in 1972. He and Deb have had Husker season tickets since 2006, the year the accident changed his life forever.
On April 13, 2006, Bundy was driving east on U.S. Highway 34 south of Phillips, Neb., en route to work in Aurora. A pickup truck slammed into his Ford Explorer. The crash left Bundy paralyzed from the chest down.
He has gotten around in a wheelchair since. He hasn’t been able to go back to work. The limitations have been frustrating at times, but he hasn’t let things get him down, said his sister, Shelley Boyce of Ord.
“He has taken what has happened to him very well,” said Boyce, who happens to be a licensed mental health practitioner. “I’ve never really seen him be negative. He’s very optimistic — he does whatever he can do to be positive and move forward in life.”
Bundy has been an avid Husker fan all his life. After the accident, Boyce helped put together a barbecue, dance and auction at Ord’s Bussell Park and the Ord Veterans Club to raise money for the wheelchair van. Deb and Brad have taken it many times to watch Nebraska play at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln.
This week, Deb Bundy piloted the vehicle to her sister’s home in Imperial, Calif., about an hour from San Diego. The trip took two days of driving, about 12 hours a day.
“I irritated my wife enough to keep her awake and going,” Bundy said.
His mother-in-law had bought tickets for the Holiday Bowl. Though he’s seen dozens of Husker games, this was Brad’s first bowl game. He chose a good one.
It was a thrill to be there, he said, and to watch Nebraska whup Arizona.
He and Deb tailgated a little. They cheered a lot. Like people on the edges of their barstools and La-Z-Boys across Huskerland, Bundy hollered for the Nebraska defense to make a fourth down stop late in the fourth quarter, even though the game was decided at 33-0.
“Had to keep that shutout,” he said.
The best part of the contest? “To me, it was what it always is, just the game itself and watching ’em play.”
And what did Bundy think of Qualcomm Stadium, home of the NFL’s San Diego Chargers?
“It was nice to go to a different venue,” he said. “It was fun. But it still doesn’t compare to Memorial Stadium. That’s the pinnacle.”
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
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