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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

a tremendous work of longform journalism

Team Der Viener Schlinger does its best to keep all fans’ retinas fully attached. Good said he never even saw “a bloody lip,” adding that the worst incident was that “one lady got hit in the face … Her husband threw the hot dog back at us.” “We try not to hurt anybody; That’s not the point,” Eliker told me, although he admits to unintentionally “knocking a beer out of a guy’s hand” last season.

A launched hot dog once hit Husker radio analyst Matt Davison in the chest while he was sitting in the press box, shattering the sunglasses hanging from his polo. “I’ve never been hit that hard in my life, even during my playing career,” he told me.

They have fired it at Ribfest, a GermanFest and the Nebraska Cattleman’s Ball. They fired it at one funeral.

Safety, or at least clothing safety, is also why Der Viener Schlinger frankfurters fly in their foil condiment-free. At first, they were accompanied by one ketchup and one mustard packet.

It worked fine until a hot dog left the tube and “just exploded,” Roode said. “All we saw was hot dog, bun, and Ziploc bag dust flying through the air.”

When the hot dog hit the man who caught it, condiments splattered “all over his real nice new Husker gear,” Good said.

The next Monday morning, Roode got a call at his office. It was the gentleman from western Nebraska, calling to complain that the condiments had stained his clothes. They were worth $175, and the Fairbury hot dog munitions overlords needed to replace them.

You may wonder how hot dogs headed to hungry Huskers prior to the Schlingerian Age. In addition to Memorial’s more milquetoast vendors, the idiosyncratic, tam-sporting P. Stephen Potter famously walked the sidelines and whizzed wieners into the stands using only the 50-odd muscles in his right arm. A Gothenburg lawyer during the workweek, for 36 years the ponytailed Potter was a gameday fixture, accurate to 40 rows up — farther than the first Der Viener Schlinger could hit. “He was a dead eye with those hot dogs,” Good said. “He threw it right to ’em.”

Flatwater Free Press@flatwaterfreep.bsky.social

Der Viener Schlinger, the world’s first handheld hot dog launcher, can now fire a 2.67-ounce Fairbury Tomboy at 90 mph from Tom Osborne Field over the 165-foot-high skyboxes. The machine has come a long way, in part thanks to 170 UNL engineering students. Read more 🔗 buff.ly/RUjRedg

homerus heresy @choamchomsky.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

adding a silencer could probably reduce muzzle velocity

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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

incredible contrast between the author's headshot and the image of the author firing the hot dog cannon, I feel like our man J.J. has truly found his calling in life

an image of J.J. in the story, holding a hot dog cannon. he is wearing a tanktop and has long, curly hair and a variety of tattoos

Mike @mdharrington.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It’s one of my favorite @homefield.bsky.social shirts. Nebraska Der Viener Schlinger Tee www.homefieldapparel.com/products/der...

homefieldapparel.com

Nebraska Der Viener Schlinger Tee

Memorial Stadium is home to many delicious treats for fans to enjoy (including, but not limited to, Runzas and Valentino’s), but none create quite as spectacular as the Fairbury hot dog gun, Der Viene...

Russ Oates @roates33.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

"They fired it at one funeral." The 21-hot-dog salute can now be a thing.

Jean-Paul Blartre: Mall Cop @oldpappythomas.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

America is still great.

Pat Maloney @pdgareject.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Reading this and trying to keep a straight face in my Knights of Columbus officers meeting 😐😐😐

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Katherine, but spooky @krzonca.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Flatwater Free Press does incredible work, regardless of the content!

c bear @hibiscus-cranberry.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

@elizabethbsf.bsky.social

4crynoutloud.bsky.social @4crynoutloud.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Was there when it debuted. It had yet to be named. How are things going on the Runzapult?

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Neil Kaslon @kaslon2410.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I got to shoot it at my local town celebration in the early 2000's. Highlight of my life

Texas Wodehouse @texas-wodehouse.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

“John Henry, but make him a Nebraska white dude”

Beast Froning @beefhusker84.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Flatwater Free Press employs only top notch Journalists

Ulrike @ulidig.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Ribfest sounds like an odd combo.

They have fired it at Ribfest, a GermanFest and the Nebraska Cattleman’s Ball. They fired it at one funeral.

dumb genius/smart idiot @andrew.mcguiregis.com · 14/10/2026

Holy shit, Gothenburg NE metioned

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coastally1337 @coastally1337.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

So now we know how Nebraskans will attack LA, San Diego