This is the story of a native Nebraskan who's a 2007 engineering graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He lives in Singapore and is finishing up a Fulbright Grant.

That means he's adapting to a new culture, experiencing a different style of learning, engaging with the community, sharing the experience, finding new pathways, changing perspectives, fusing cultures, learning independently and always looking for challenges.

Fulbrighters are innovative in ways we haven't even thought about, so you can imagine what it might have been like for Clayton Miller listening intently to Nebraska's 10-3 upset of Oklahoma on a Sunday morning last fall in Singapore while his Vietnamese roommate was still sleeping.

Miller, a McCook native and a student at the National University of Singapore, was living in a student hostel at the time, so he had no choice but to share a bedroom with another student.

Since the bedroom was the only place that had air-conditioning, and his computer was the only place he could connect to the game via Huskers.com, imagine the roles Miller had to play to hide his excitement and conceal his enthusiasm.

With every pop from a Blackshirt, every stop of a Sooner and every elevated inflection in Greg Sharpe's demonstrative play-by-play paint-by-voice, Miller was reaching an emotional threshold that made him look like a mime on steroids.

He Could Barely Control His Emotions

"I could barely control my outbursts as we went on to win," he said. "I'll never forget the look on my roommate's face when he woke up seeing me do a crazy end zone dance in my pajamas on that Sunday morning. It took me a while to explain what was going on."

That was last year's silent movie in Singapore. This year will be a full-fledged, full-bright action movie where Miller will camp out with other Nebraska football fans to celebrate Red Out Around the World.

Forgive Miller for thinking to heck with a Red Out. This Husker is just happy he now has a place to yell.

The hard-working secretary of the UNL FAN (Friends and Alumni of Nebraska) group in Singapore, Miller is part of the planning committee for 15 fans who gather at private residences or clubhouses three times a year to cheer on the Huskers.

"We intend to ask our members to submit photos of themselves at famous landmarks around Singapore, so we can post them on our website and send them to the Nebraska Alumni Association," he said.

The idea is to have Big Red fans everywhere doing the same thing, showing their support in unique ways, just like these Husker fans in the District of Columbia do on a regular basis in the Nation's Capital. Check the site and while you're there, make sure you see how easy it is to join an alumni chapter or find a Husker watch site.


Now is the time for all good Huskers to put themselves on the world map and join the nearly 14,000 Big Red fans who already have signed up.

Soldiers Keep Track of Big Red in Iraq, Afghanistan

Try it and see what a hoot it is to move your mouse over the world map to discover how many Husker fans have joined the cause and are ready to wave the Nebraska flag. You see 31 in Canada, 27 in Japan, 24 in Iraq, 23 in the United Kingdom, 22 in Germany and 20 in Afghanistan.

And that's just after one week.


Wherever you point, someone seems to have signed in on this collaborative site brought to you by Nebraska Athletics, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Nebraska Alumni Association and the Omaha World-Herald.

Of the more than 13,000 Big Red fans who have signed on from the United States, please take a few extra minutes to view the scrolling totals at the bottom of the map. You can't help but notice that nearly 6,200 fans who have signed on live in Nebraska. The other top 10 states are Texas (704), Kansas (614), Colorado (577), Iowa (501), California (461), Missouri (400), Arizona (322), Florida (265) and Illinois (248).

Knowing that more than 500 Husker fans have joined this website from outside America's borders, I pointed my mouse 10 times at random and found seven in Italy, 15 in Australia, six in France, two in Russia, 11 in Sweden, one in Madagascar (my grandkids would enjoy knowing that), four in Brazil, eight in China, six in the Czech Republic and let's go back to where we started ... oh yes, here it is, seven in Singapore.

Looks like Clayton Miller and his group still have a little work to do. Maybe he'll go home and start his favorite DVD that shows Nebraska steamrolling Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. "That game was, by far, my all-time favorite," Miller said. "There's nothing that gets me pumped up more than seeing replays of Tommie Frazier's amazing touchdown run in that game."

Family, Friends, Mexican Food and Tom Osborne

Miller admits that when he relaxes and thinks about home, he sees his family, his friends, Mexican food and Tom Osborne - in that order. "Tom Osborne is not only my favorite Nebraska coach of all time, but one of my favorite people of all time," he said. "Coach Osborne is the ultimate role model for my generation of Nebraskans because we grew up seeing him and his players dominate college football like never before."

Miller isn't the only diehard Husker in Singapore who loves Frazier and Osborne. Alfonsus Karli, the webmaster for Singapore's Nebraska FAN site, says Osborne is his favorite coach "because he's a humble person and his teams have won three national championships." Frazier, Karli said, is his favorite player of all-time because "even though he did not win the Heisman, he led the Huskers' high-octane offense with 1,996 yards and won two national championships."

Sorry, Tommie, but Karli's favorite game of all time was Nebraska's 1997 overtime win at Missouri. He ranks it at the top for three reasons: 1) "It was Tom Osborne's last season with the Huskers; 2) Without Matt Davison's catch, the Huskers would not have been able to claim a fifth national championship; and 3) Davison's catch really was a miracle."

Even though Karli says he was "only" an international student at Nebraska and does not reside here anymore, "the Huskers are always in my heart," he said. "I still follow them through three websites (one newspaper, one TV station and Huskers.com). I know our move to the Big Ten will give us a more competitive environment, and I always believe that Nebraska will win another national championship."

Karli closes with three words that have become his mantra.

"Go Big Red!!!" he says from 9,000 miles away, leaving absolutely no doubt about what color he'll be wearing on Oct. 16.