Nebraska’s tradition of releasing red balloons after the first touchdown in Memorial Stadium has been placed on hold, due to a global helium supply shortage.
Trev Alberts, the Cornhusker’s athletic director, announced Monday that they will no longer hand out red balloons before home games to be released by fans — a tradition that began more than 60 years ago.
“Acquiring helium in today’s day and age, some of the production of it is really challenged, and it’s been hard to get,” Alberts said on his radio show. “So we’ve been asked by the university, the helium that we are getting as a university, we need to use for medical purposes at (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.”
