The Nebraska Cornhuskers made history on Saturday. The team brought in Kike Morales, the Spanish voice of the Kansas City Chiefs, to handle play-by-play on the first ever Spanish language call of a Cornhuskers football game.
Spanish speaking fans heard Huskers kicker Lane McCallum hit a field goal as time expired to beat Northwestern 13-10. The broadcast was heard on stations in Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island. It also streamed on Nebraska’s athletics website.
Nebraska’s hispanic population was estimated to be somewhere around 216,000 last year. Morales told Brent C. Wagner of the Lincoln Journal Star that he knew he wouldn’t be talking to hardcore football fans during the broadcast and needed to give listeners reason to stay tuned in.
“I like to have fun. I make jokes, and I laugh along,” he said. “I play a little bit with the Hispanic culture. This has to be fun. I have people who have no idea of football, and they listen to me and they say, ‘Dude, that was so much fun. Thank you.'”
Wagner watched Saturday’s game from the Spanish broadcast booth with Morales and color commentator Oscar “El Tico” Monterroso. He posted video of a touchdown call on Twitter that drew rave reviews from both English and Spanish-speaking fans.
The University of Nebraska became just the tenth FBS school to broadcast at least one game in Spanish this season according to the Associated Press.
