By Jonathan McNamara

A Wikipedia breakdown of Nebraska’s religious affiliations list Christians at 90 percent, other religions at 1 percent and atheism at 9 percent. Spend a few moments with Caryl Peters and you’ll know that those numbers are inaccurate. There may be other belief systems in place in Nebraska, but the primary religion is Cornhusker football.

Peters is a Cornhusker football fan, and make no mistake she’d probably bleed crimson and cream if it were possible. She graduated from the University of Nebraska with a masters in education and has been eating the corn ever since. Since 1996, she’s been at the epicenter of Nebraska culture in the Valley at Big Red of the Desert, her Cornhusker memorabilia shop located at 7066 East Indian School Road in Scottsdale.

So many things in such a small space.

Peters opened the shop at the suggestion of an associate athletic director for the Cornhuskers whom she had befriended. He had badgered with her unyielding enthusiasm for all things Cornhusker while she was working in the hotel industry and making reservations for the team.

“He said ‘cover yourself with red and then you’ll get your fix.’ And so that’s what I did,” she said.

Merchandise: How important is football to the state of Nebraska? Standing amidst a few jam-packed racks of Husker jerseys, Peters explains to me that she believes if the Cornhuskers had not gotten rid of former coach Bill Callahan “within a few years there would have been a noticeable economic depression in the state of Nebraska.” Callahan would have run the team into the ground and lost all the games, she says. People would stop coming out to see the game at bars and restaurants and they’d stop buying Husker merchandise.

Texaz Grill at the corner of Bethany and 16th St.

By Jonathan McNamara

Phoenix is a town of drifters. It is a home to adventurers. It's rare to meet a native, but common to meet someone originally from the East Coast or The Midwest or even a different country all together. As a result, much like America at its best, Phoenix is a melting pot of cultures and ideas.

With this as my inspiration, I found myself standing in front of Texaz Grill at the corner of Bethany and 16th St. This would be the first stop in my quest to discover how much of a melting pot Phoenix truly is. How many states cultures are represented here? Twenty? Forty? All fifty?

In the coming 50 weeks I will attempt to seek out restaurants and bars, cultural centers and places of nostalgia for each state in our union. Whether or not I can find examples from each state will be the ultimate challenge. Join me on this quest in search of 50 as I begin with my own home state: Texas.