Steve Nestor admits if he tried to sabotage the University of Illinois Homecoming Parade this week he likely would be thrown in jail. But back in 1967 when he and a buddy crashed the parade, law enforcement gave the Minnesotans the green light.
Nestor was a student athletic trainer for the Gophers football team. His buddy, Steve Vegoe, was a gate guard at the team’s practice field. Neither student was part of the team’s official travel party so Nestor suggested the two of them drive down to Champaign, Illinois for the Saturday, October 14 game.
The boys left Minneapolis early on the morning of October 13 and were excited to see what the Gophers could do against the Illini in the team’s first Big Ten Conference game of the season. Hopes were high for the Gophers who had a 2-1 record in nonconference games with the only loss a 7-0 defeat at Nebraska against a Cornhuskers team that was a national power.
Nestor and Vegoe arrived in Champaign early on that Friday afternoon. It didn’t take long for Nestor to hit on an idea that added a lot of excitement to the weekend. He and Vegoe headed over to the student union and it was there that Nestor picked up a copy of the school newspaper. He saw the Homecoming Parade route published in the newspaper. “The light bulb went on,” said Nestor who now owns a radio station in Glenwood, Minnesota.
Nestor knew more than a little about marching bands and parades. He also liked a little mischief, so he imagined positioning his 1965 bright red Oldsmobile F-85 in the Illini Homecoming Parade. “I knew from marching in the high school band that the band always took longer to turn the (street) corners and there usually ended up being an opening between whoever was in front of the band and them,” he said.
Nestor and Vegoe went to a drugstore to buy the materials needed to make two signs that proclaimed: “Golden Gophers Rose Bowl Bound.” They taped the signs on the car’s front doors and were ready to join the parade.
“I got in an alley that was right after this corner so when the third unit of the parade went by me I pulled out onto the main drag,” Nestor said. “We were right behind that third unit, with the band coming behind us.”
So there the boys were—driving and waving in the Illini’s Homecoming Parade—going down the street in this car with Minnesota license plates and signage bragging about the Gophers’ intent to play in the 1968 Rose Bowl. “I don’t think we had gone even half a block and a guy pulled up on a motorcycle,” Nestor said. “It was a university policeman.”
The officer gestured for Nestor to roll down his window. The cop told the party crashers that if they continued on the parade route the F-85 wouldn’t be welcomed along fraternity row where students would likely tip the car over. Then came a surprise offer from the policeman.
“You got enough balls to be in this parade, I am gonna ride with you the whole way,” the officer said.
“Each of us (Nestor and Vegoe) had all we could do to keep from laughing,” Nestor remembered. “I said, ‘Well, thanks a lot.’ ”
The “Minnesota unit” continued on the parade route and at one point the car was about to approach school dignitaries including the University of Illinois president. “They’re all waving wildly at the queen and this and that,” Nestor said. “Then all of a sudden it was silence. They all stared at us. Right out of a movie—they’re looking at Gophers Rose Bowl bound!”
Nestor and Vegoe, like the other units in the parade, finished the route. Not only did they have a day to remember but so did the police officer. “Guys, that was beautiful,” he told Nestor and Vegoe.
And how did the Illinois-Minnesota game go the next day? Well, that had a happy ending, too, as the Gophers won 10-7 on their way to a final record of 8-2.
The Rose Bowl plan? Well, close but no roses for the Gophers who finished in a three-way tie for the Big Ten championship with Indiana and Purdue. The Hoosiers received the Rose Bowl nod because the Gophers and Boilermakers had more recently been to Pasadena for the big game.
This Saturday the Gophers will again be in Champaign to play the Illini. Like the 1967 team, the 2014 Gophers have just one loss. And, yes, it will be Homecoming on Saturday in Champaign.
Could there be a repeat of the parade escapade?
Nah, Nestor and Vegoe—he is a magazine writer living in Pennsylvania—won’t be travelling to Champaign this year. Illinois Homecoming officials can rest easy.