How OU football standout Reggie Grimes is embracing his return to Nebraska roots

The words hung up in Mikaela Perry-Grimes’ throat.

"I never thought in a million years I’d be yelling 'Boomer Sooner,’" Perry-Grimes said.

More than two years after the Omaha native and lifelong Nebraska fan first sat in the stands and cheered for her son, Reggie Grimes, playing for the Sooners, Mikaela Perry-Grimes will return to her home state for Saturday’s OU-Nebraska matchup in Lincoln (11 a.m., Fox).

She’ll do so with her son a significant part of the Sooners’ defense.

Through two games, Reggie leads OU with four sacks and five tackles for loss.

In Grimes’ first two seasons with the Sooners, he had three sacks total and just 3.5 tackles for loss.

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“He’s more disruptive,” OU defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “He’s more aggressive. He’s playing faster and he’s been really consistent.

“I think he’s playing with some confidence. And, you know, confidence is such a powerful thing.”

Grimes has always been analytical, his mother says.

That comes from his grandparents.

His grandfather on his father’s side, Nathaniel, is a preacher. His grandmother, Barbara, is known as “Mama” far beyond her children.

Mikaela’s dad, Otis, was a school administrator. He still competes in the Senior Olympics and holds powerlifting records for his age group in Florida.

Her mom, Doris, taught first grade for more than 35 years at the same Omaha school.

“He’s just got an old soul,” Perry-Grimes said. “He just steps back and looks at everything, analyzes it and he puts his take on it. He’s always done that.”

Otis and Doris Perry graduated from Southern University, a historically Black college and university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before moving to Omaha, where Mikaela was born.

Perry-Grimes grew up around athletics and the family gravitated toward Cornhuskers’ football.

“We would go to as many games as possible,” she said. “We’d travel to bowl games. We didn’t have a professional football team, so you cheered for Husker football. That’s what you did.”

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One of Mikaela’s older brothers earned a track scholarship at Nebraska and was a captain on a Big 8 championship team.

Eight years later, Mikaela decided to follow in his footsteps after winning state titles in track.

She, too, earned a track scholarship and in 1993 also became a cheerleader for the Cornhuskers, one of the first Black cheerleaders at the school.

Her final home game as a cheerleader there, Nov. 26, 1993, was on a cold, windy day as Tommie Frazier and Nebraska knocked off the Sooners 21-7.

After her freshman season, Mikaela transferred to Alabama — where she met Reggie Grimes Sr. — but didn’t give up Cornhuskers football.

“All I ever knew was Tom Osborne. Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney,” Perry-Grimes said. “I got to Alabama, didn’t have a clue who Bear Bryant was.”

None of Grimes’ family lives in Nebraska any longer. Otis and Doris retired to Florida. Mikaela and Reggie Sr. settled in the Nashville area. One of Reggie’s uncles lives near his parents in Florida, while another lives in Louisiana near where his parents went to college.

But Reggie Grimes has been to Nebraska before.

During his sophomore year in high school, the Grimes family went back to Omaha for Mikaela’s induction into the Omaha Public Schools Athletic Hall of Fame.

“You grow up in Nashville and your dad is who he is and he’s obviously really well-known around the city, around the state and around the south,” Reggie said. “But then you go back (to Omaha) and you actually see it (what Mikaela accomplished), you’re like, ‘OK, she actually means all this stuff.’ … It was really, really cool to be able to see that. Can’t wait to get back.”

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Nebraska — along with just about every other major school in the country — recruited Reggie.

But he wanted to go his own way.

And though the thought of rooting for the Sooners was hard to swallow for Mikaela, she wasn’t about to get in the way of what her son wanted to do.

“We told all our kids, ‘You write your own story,’” Perry-Grimes said.

Saturday will be Perry-Grimes’ first time in Memorial Stadium since that long-ago Nebraska victory over the Sooners.

She’ll attend the game with her childhood best friend and her friend’s son — a middle schooler who roots for the Cornhuskers.

Now, though, there will be no hesitation as Perry-Grimes belts out “Boomer Sooner.”

“Now, I’m a tried and true fan,” she said.

And though her son never lived in Nebraska and hasn’t even visited very often, her son is savoring his return to a place that is an important part of his family’s history.

“That’s a part of where I’m from,” Reggie said.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU football: Reggie Grimes embraces Nebraska return roots with Sooners