Loyal Husker fan hung on

LINCOLN — Behold the power of the Big Red.

It was so strong for one avid Husker fan last week that he was able to rise from his deathbed to watch one last game.

Rex Plock, 89, of Lincoln, died Sunday — but not before he fulfilled his dying wish: to watch Nebraska defeat Missouri in a televised football game last Thursday.

Plock had fallen gravely ill with pneumonia about two weeks ago, according to family members.

At Lincoln's BryanLGH Medical Center East, he was placed on a respirator and heavily medicated in hopes that his fluid-filled lungs might recover. After six days in an induced coma —the day before the Nebraska-Missouri game — Plock was unhooked from the machines.

He announced that no matter how ill he was, he was planning to stay alive long enough to watch the game Thursday night.

“That was his wish,” said his oldest daughter, Kathy Cane, of Lincoln. “He was deathly sick, but he pushed himself.”

According to his other daughter, Deb Kapperman, a nurse in Lincoln: “He said if I don't get to see that Nebraska football game, I am going to be really mad.”

By late Wednesday, he had weakened, but by Thursday morning, Plock was chipper, bugging his family about when the football game was going to start.

“It was amazing,” said Kathy Cane.

Strength had been a hallmark of Plock's life, said his daughters and former wife, Ina.

A football and basketball player at Fairmont High School, Plock was wounded three times during World War II, including on Utah Beach during the D-Day invasion. But he healed and returned to duty.

An Army master sergeant, Plock farmed near Fairmont after the war and later operated a Dairy Queen in Crete, Neb. He retired around 1980 and moved to Lincoln.

For about 30 years, he was a season ticket-holder for NU football games. The infirmities of age forced him to give up his seats about six years ago, his daughter said.

“He loved the Huskers,” said Ina, who reunited with Plock four years ago, after they had divorced in the 1970s.

A religious man, Plock had “great faith” in NU football coach Bo Pelini, his daughter said, adding that former coach Tom Osborne was his favorite.

Plock rode a bicycle and walked every day until the last few months of his life, joking that he needed to stay in shape in case the Cornhuskers needed a quarterback “because he had eligibility left,” Cane said.

Kapperman said her father's condition worsened late in Thursday's game, and he became unresponsive.

He had instructed his family to place a radio by his ear so he could listen to the game even if he faded again, said his pastor, the Rev. Jim Miller.

On Friday, Plock was moved to a hospice bed at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, where Kapperman works as a nurse. He died two days later.

Funeral services are scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Christ United Methodist Church in Lincoln. Other survivors include a son, Douglas, of Lincoln. He was preceded in death by son Charlie.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com