Sixty-six. How about that.

As of 4:54 p.m. today (used to be halftime of the Rose Bowl but you know how things change) yours truly will be 66 years old. In the meantime I am answering some very nice birthday wishes and getting ready for my birthday lunch with our immediate family. We are meeting at York and while you might be thinking Chances R I seem to be pulling for the truck stop diner at ol’ I-80 Exit 353. One thing about eating at a truck stop, and I have eaten at my share over the course of all this time, you are seldom disappointed with the food.

Having your birthday on the First of the Year has led to some New Year’s Eve complications back in the day, not gonna lie, but even back then it meant your birthday was an opportunity for reflection on the past and your hopes for the future, especially the next 12 calendar months. Not sure that I ever wrote down a set of real New Year’s resolutions but I will say I usually have a few goals in mind, for myself, my career, and for the world around me.

The world around me is, as you very well know, a mess. And there is a sense of helplessness that comes with reading the news and trying to figure how you as a person can be an agent for change and the greater good on a worldwide level, so I try concentrate on my own world and how I can make it better. (Or, at age 66, keep it from slowing to a crawl.)

Outside of my family and friends, much of my world still revolves around Huskerland Prep Report, about to commence its 35th year, and my involvement in Nebraska high school sports. I don’t do it often, but I did for a little while yesterday, reflect on the world of high school media coverage when we went with throttle up for the idea of creating Huskerland on that hot August drive home from Grandma and Grandpa Abariotes’ place in Omaha. (PS - that would be Huskerland Penni’s folks.)

If you have been a regular reader over time then you know the story, at least to some degree, so I won’t bore you with a long story. (not this time, anyway) What I will say is that once we launched Huskerland, with very little real idea of its endgame, there The World-Herald and The Journal-Star (to a lesser degree) sports sections that covered statewide high school sports. That was it.

Our state was then, and still is today, very blessed with the quality of our local high school sports coverage as presented by our newspapers, radio and TV stations. I was asked in an interview just last week why our state track meet was such a mad house, the stands filled to overflowing to watch our high school athletes compete. My answer had little to with watching Johnny running a 10.4 hundred, or Janie high jumping 5-foot-10, and much more about community, especially our small town communities. In many ways attending high school sporting events is the fabric of our social web, especially in the small towns. It’s what we do, whether the kids are still home or not. We go because Johnny and Janie have the home town name written across the chest of their uniform, a seminal call for community pride.

Entering our 35th year of the Huskerland Prep Report era the games are still fun, the people are still fun, the traveling our great state to see both is still fun. When it’s not fun and I lose interest, or you beat me to it and lose interest first, that will be it, the end of Huskerland. But we’re not there yet and I can’t wait to see what the world of Huskerland sports has to offer in 2024.

And much more important than all that, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write or call on my birthday. It means a lot, all of it, thanks again...Bob