Nebraska’s “Day by Day” Chant: Inside the Huskers’ Unity Prayer
The line sounds like a slogan on a shirt. Inside Memorial Stadium, it’s the moment a quiet team prayer turns into a roar.
“Day by Day” is the familiar refrain of Nebraska football’s pregame Unity Prayer. The longer recitation starts quietly, asking for a fair chance to compete and for the grace to handle the result. Then the volume rises as the Huskers turn to the part about getting better. That shift is what makes three ordinary words so recognizable in Lincoln.
Find more game-day designs in the Nebraska Cornhuskers collection and Ellie Shirt’s broader NCAA collection.
The Unity Prayer and the Tunnel Walk are connected, but different
The prayer is what the team recites. The Tunnel Walk is the entrance ritual fans experience in the stadium, scored by “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project. The entrance debuted in 1994. The prayer became a familiar part of the Tunnel Walk video years later, bringing something once heard mainly by players into the wider game-day experience.
Accounts trace the prayer’s wording to a poem by Berton Braley, often called “Prayer of a Sportsman.” Nebraska football histories differ on which player introduced it in Lincoln. That’s worth separating from the footage we can place with confidence. Grant Wistrom is one of its best-documented leaders, not necessarily the person who brought it to Nebraska.
Watch Grant Wistrom lead “Day by Day”
Wistrom led the Huskers in the prayer before the Wisconsin game in 2017, when Nebraska honored the 20th anniversary of its 1997 championship team. In the footage, the former defensive end stands among current players in his No. 98. What comes through is the build. The players begin close together and low enough to hear the leader, then the room answers as one.
The shirt prints three words. The video is what tells you how loud to read them.
How the shirt puts the chant on the page
DAY / BY / DAY fills three lines in heavy collegiate lettering. The diagonal red-and-light split cuts across the words, and a small Nebraska N sits beneath them. There’s no opponent or score on the print because the reference isn’t a particular win. It’s the part that happens before anyone knows how the game will end.
Day by Day Nebraska Cornhuskers ShirtView the pregame chant design →
Nebraska “Day by Day” FAQ
What does “Day by Day” mean in Nebraska football?
It’s the refrain of the Huskers’ pregame Unity Prayer, where the team shifts from a quiet recitation to a louder call about getting better.
Is the Unity Prayer the same as the Tunnel Walk?
No. The Unity Prayer is the team’s recitation. The Tunnel Walk is the stadium entrance ritual that has featured the prayer in its video.
Who leads the Nebraska prayer in the 2017 video?
Former Huskers defensive end Grant Wistrom led the prayer before the Wisconsin game during the reunion of Nebraska’s 1997 championship team.
Sources
Nebraska Athletics on Wistrom and the Unity Prayer · Sports Illustrated on Nebraska football traditions