Nebraska football putting balloon tradition on hold due to helium shortage

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The University of Nebraska will halt its decades-long tradition of releasing balloons at Huskers football games due to a helium shortage. 

On Monday, University of Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts announced the tradition will end at Memorial Stadium during the 2022 football season. 

Head coach Scott Frost of the Nebraska Cornhuskers with the team before a game at Memorial Stadium against the Iowa Hawkeyes Nov. 26, 2021, in Lincoln, Neb. (Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)

"While we’re still concerned about the environmental impact of the balloons, the reality is acquiring helium in today's day and age, given some of the production of it is really challenged and it's been hard to get," Alberts said Monday on the Huskers Radio Network. 

"And so we've been asked by the university that the helium we are getting as a university we need to use for medical purposes at UNMC [University of Nebraska Medical Center] in Omaha. And so, we are this year not going to be providing the red balloons for the first time at Memorial Stadium."

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Since the 1960s, Nebraska football fans have released red balloons into the sky after the Huskers score their first touchdown of each game. 

Iowa's Tyler Goodson (15) carries the ball as Nebraska's Marquel Dismuke (9) dives for the tackle during the first half of a game Nov. 26, 2021, at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)

Alberts said the university will work with Nebraska’s marketing department in trying to find a different way of keeping the tradition alive, possibly with digital balloons.  

According to Alberts,