Christian Reese-Newquist was cleaning the stands at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., after Saturday's game against Illinois when he found something special.
"Section 31 in the stadium, I came across a hat just sitting on the bleachers," Reese-Newquist told Taylor Barth of KETV-TV, Channel 7, in Omaha, Neb.
The sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is also an Air Force ROTC member. It was his branch's turn to clean the stadium. At first, he said he thought he was about to snag a free hat.
"[I looked] at it, [and it] has a note under it," Reese-Newquist said.
The note was written by Vince Kunasek. The cap belonged to Kunasek's late 62-year-old cousin, Paul Renninger, who passed away from aplastic anemia just after Nebraska's 36-31 loss to Ohio State on Nov. 3.
Renninger sat in the very seat where Kunasek left the hat. Kunasek hoped the person who found the hat would get it autographed by Nebraska Coach Scott Frost.
"The classic note in the bottle and floating in the ocean and then someone finds it and returns it -- it's just like that," Reese-Newquist said. "The trust that someone would have to leave this hat that belonged to their loved one, just sitting on a bench you know, that's pretty insane."
The story in the note touched Reese-Newquist's heart and he thought it might do the same to others. He reached out to Kunasek on Facebook.
He told Kunasek, "I found your hat, I'm going to do everything in my power to help you get this done."
Reese-Newquist's roommate, Taylor Freeman, tweeted photos of the hat and note to get the word out.
"It blew up overnight," Reese-Newquist said. "People were going crazy. So many reactions."
It spread far enough to reach a Huskers football staffer, who messaged Reese-Newquist to arrange a meeting with Frost.
Reese-Newquist brought the hat, and several of his roommates, to the stadium Tuesday afternoon and Kunasek brought Renninger's mother, Greta, and his daughter, Nikki.
"We met Scott Frost and he signed the hat, he talked to the family a little about Paul, the person that passed away, and it was great," Reese-Newquist said. "It was just an awesome experience."
Cheap shot
A Fitchburg State player has been indefinitely suspended from his team and barred from campus as a result of a vicious cheap shot he delivered late in Tuesday's loss to fellow Division III school Nichols College.
Kewan Platt dropped Nichols guard Nate Tenaglia with a right elbow to the face better suited for a WWE match than a basketball game.
The incident occurred just after Tenaglia made a corner three-pointer with less than three minutes to go in his team's 84-75 victory. After appearing to turn his head to check whether the referee on the baseline was paying attention, Platt took his chance to retaliate, leaving Tenaglia writhing on the floor in pain clutching his face.
Another referee spotted the cheap shot, blew his whistle and gave Platt his second technical foul of the game, resulting in his ejection. The junior guard was escorted off the floor as Tenaglia collected himself and referees briefed both coaches on what happened.
"I was proud of how our guys handled the situation," Nichols Coach Scott Faucher told Yahoo Sports. "They came together and focused on the next play.
"Nate actually made the two free throws and stayed in the game. He's an extremely tough kid. He took the shot, rallied his teammates together and went right to the free throw line."
Sports on 11/16/2018