Joe Anderl (The 1984 Draft)
SPB: What is the origin of the band name?
Anderl: Both my parents are from Omaha, Nebraska. My dad graduated from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Since my dad was in the Air Force, we moved around a lot so we didn’t have deep ties to any real geographic region or sports teams outside of our family in Nebraska. This meant I was raised a Nebraska Cornhusker fan. This was instilled so deeply in me that in kindergarten I would refuse to put the Oklahoma (at the time Nebraska’s biggest rival) piece in the puzzle and once told my teacher it was because “Barry Switzer is the devil.” This was something my grandpa said while we were watching a game together. My love of the Cornhuskers continues to this day.
You may be wondering what if anything does this have to do with a band name. Well, The 1984 NFL draft was the only NFL draft where two Nebraska Cornhuskers were drafted #1 and #2, Irving Fryar and Dean Steinkuhler. When I found out this information, I thought to myself that the name The 1984 NFL Draft for a band would sound cool. We eventually dropped the “NFL” to avoid getting sued and simply became The 1984 Draft. Lucky for us, some people have noticed our football association, which has resulted in interviews in Sports Illustrated, the cover of the Omaha World Herald, and being included in a documentary on the 1984 NFL draft on NFL films.
