Editor’s note: This fall, the Journal Star will go behind the scenes to see what it takes to make gameday go off without a hitch. Today, we look at how security pulls off a seamless Saturday in the fall.

Butch Hug was driving a Gator, a little all-terrain vehicle, and trying to push a porta-potty off 10th Street after a Nebraska football game.

“It’s long, long after the game and I hear, ‘Hey, somebody is in here.’ That’s the kind of thing you never forget,” said Hug, Nebraska assistant athletic director for events.

There are hundreds of porta-potties around Memorial Stadium. Think of 90,000 bladders and plenty of liquids injected.

You also have to get fans into and out of the stadium, plan for weather, prevent troubles by those who partake too much and those just wandering while staring at their cellphones.

“And they can get pretty emotional, too,” said Tom Casady, Lincoln Public Safety director. “I remember when I was a sergeant on the police force and I was alone in my cruiser, headed down 12th Street toward downtown. It was 1978, Nebraska had just beaten Oklahoma. The fans went nuts. They tore down the goalposts.

“Here came about 10,000 people, carrying a big chunk of the south goalpost toward me.”

Casady did what almost any sane person would do.

“I made a U-turn and turned on the lights and sirens and escorted the mob to the state Capitol,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Casady was part of the contingent that was told to feign guarding the south goalpost but really make an effort to protect the north-end post. “They only had one backup and Missouri was coming the next week,” Casady said.

That north goalpost came down, too.

Such is the life of securing Husker fans seven, eight times a fall.

Hug, who has a 25-page book of “gameday operations,” and another 20-page “book for the day of the game,” helps coordinate the efforts of more than 3,200 people in and around the stadium to keep people safe and make sure the day is as enjoyable as possible.

Owen Yardley, UNL chief of police, holds meetings in January, in the spring and the week before a game.

He conducts his force of some 30 officers, with the addition of 15 Lancaster County sheriff’s deputies and some private security personnel.

He also works almost year-round to increase security for night games, big rivals (such as the NU-Iowa game last November).

“We want to avoid the ‘Uh-oh’ moments in the gamedays,” Yardley said.

The city has four ambulances ready, 16 firefighters, six EMTs, and more on call.

“We coordinate efforts with Public Works and the State Patrol; we can delay the lights at key intersections we cover in the rest of the city at the same time,” said Jason Stille, captain of LPD’s Center Team. Even though he’s a captain now, he still works traffic at 10th and R streets, trying to remind folks that cutting across the I-180 entrance ramp could be hazardous to their health.

He also gets a peek at the game from the operations post outside the stadium. “We have all these monitors to watch, but one screen has the game on,” he said.

The Nebraska State Patrol has three helicopter pilots ready to fly one helicopter — with Trooper Dave Nelson situated somewhere (but not in his basement eating Cheetos, a spokesperson said) taking the messages and passing them along to the fans driving to and from the stadium.

Simply, the UNL force has the stadium and the campus, LPD has the city (including traffic controls at 10th and Q, and Ninth and Q), the State Patrol has the interstates (I-180 and I-80), and Lancaster County sheriff’s deputies have some work inside the stadium, some outside and a few places in between.

Hug’s horde of yellow-jacketed ambassadors work as ushers, door checkers, bag checkers, information sources, people-traffic controllers and parking attendants. The Boy Scouts work as ushers, too, as well as spread sand and salt if the sidewalks are slippery. The National Guard and the ROTC are involved, too.

The Federal Aviation Administration also helps. It monitors air traffic and unmanned aerial platforms (drones), which are usually unwanted over the stadium.

U.S. marshals escort Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and other visiting government dignitaries. The State Patrol escorts Gov. Pete Ricketts, and UNL Police escort Husker coach Mike Riley and the game officials.

Security includes staffing the operations center in the Memorial Stadium press box and an off-site operations center at the UNL Police station.

“It works pretty well, considering all the people we have working and all the people coming to the games,” Hug said. Stille added, “Hug and those guys have this down to a science.”

Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal government agencies also play roles, but their numbers and assignments are kept secret for security reasons.

“We are so much more efficient than we were just 20 years ago,” said Lancaster Country Sheriff Terry Wagner. “Yardley does an amazing job when you consider 90,000 people getting to and from the games. I think he runs the gamedays as well as anybody in St. Louis, or the Indy 500 or anywhere.”

Sure, there are the few who overindulge, overheat, overcelebrate, and they have a place, too.

“We probably have 400 or so police incidents each gameday, and that involves alcohol much of the time,” Casady said. “We fill up detox and we get some customers for the county jail.

“One of the new things I worry about most is not just the typical folks who ignore traffic cops, but the ones who are staring at their cellphones, wandering aimlessly and have to cross a street where a driver is distracted by the same.”

http://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/football/setting-up-gameday-the-goal-for-police-on-saturdays-is/article_589a0bfc-76c7-5d04-8460-c6b2940acf28.html

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