One man's holiday feast

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Craig Degel

Mele Kalikimaka, everybody.

And what says Happy New Year like a champagne fizz hangover and a television tuned to football for 12 hours? Everybody has a favorite team. And they're entitled to root for it no matter how evil that team's existence may be.

Down in the bowels of the Franklin Building on the corner of Park Avenue and Fourth Street, you'll find the one man who was genuinely happy to see the Arizona football team sent to the Holiday Bowl.

Journalism department head Jim Patten is excited. You see, the man is a native of Nebraska and a University of Nebraska graduate. He even had a class with Nebraska coach Frank Solich back when both were undergraduates That means when the Cornhuskers and Wildcats face off Dec. 30, the school that cuts his paycheck and the school that gave him his degree will face off.

Make no mistake, he has a deep respect for the University of Arizona. However, when it comes to football, home is where the heart is.

"I've been kind of a closet Nebraska fan," Patten said. "I decided I could either hide or have some fun with it."

He has put a sign on his door imploring you to "Hug a Husker." You'll excuse me if I pass on that.

Patten and I have always had a love-hate relationship when it comes to Nebraska. He loves them and I hate them (in a healthy, journalistically-unbiased way, of course).

Patten is a man who, in 1995, wrote a detailed letter to the editor here explaining why Nebraska was a more deserving national champion than Penn State. And damn it if he didn't have me convinced.

Patten knows it's been a tough year for his Huskers. He knows that Nebraska's odds against Arizona depend on which Cornhusker team shows up in San Diego - the one that played Kansas State tough or the one that managed just three field goals and a touchdown against Colorado.

Win or lose, though, the Big Red blood runs deep. Of course, that's how it is with all Nebraska fans. They go on jihads for their bowl-bound teams. You put the Cornhuskers in a bowl game in Iceland and you'd get 50,000 red-clad fans. You've got to respect that. After all, Arizona couldn't sell out a bowl game in its home stadium.

This will be the first meeting of the two teams since 1961, a game in Lincoln that ended tied at 14. Considering how good Nebraska has been the last few years - three national titles in four years - perhaps this is the year to face them.

"I don't have any doubt that (Solich) will carry on the tradition," Patten said.

Oh, to be home for the holiday.

Craig Degel is a journalism senior and can be reached via e-mail at Craig.Degel@wildcat.arizona.edu.