My Early Years as a Husker
The first game I watched as a Nebraska Cornhusker fan—my parents are NU grads, my grandmother was a NU grad, various aunts, uncles, and cousins (and second cousins, etc.) are NU grads. And my great-grandfather received his Law degree from NU. So it kind of runs in the family. My youngest son almost went to NU. They gave him a good offer, a really good offer. He turned it down, but he’s a big Husker fan. In fact, he and I will be flying out for a game in Lincoln this fall—was against the Colorado Buffaloes. I was in fourth grade and was just getting into football. (I was a baseball fan long before taking up football. Dad was at work, but Mom sat down and watched the game with me, explaining what was what and who was who and why we were so much better than the other team (if I’m not mistaken, Colorado finished third that year, maybe fourth. I’ll get to that again later.)
(That was a long introductory paragraph. Sorry.)
So we (we being NU, of course) held off a determined Buffalo team, 24-7. Or maybe it was 21-7. Somewhere in there, anyway. The win kept us in first place in the national polls, first in the Big Eight conference, and ready for a showdown with Oklahoma. The game was in Norman, OK. Going into the game, it was crazy. NU and OU were spectacular teams. One of them was #1 in offense, and one was #1 in defense. I didn’t remember which way it was.
But the #2 teams in offense and defense were these same two teams. Okay, so NU and OU were #1 in just abouteverything. Chuck Fairbanks was coach at OU. Bob Devaney, with assistant Tom Osborne in the wings, coached the Huskers that day. And if you’ve read this far into this article, you already know that the game was called “Game of the Century.” The game was magnificent. solid on both sides of the line, with both offense and defense of each team doing some spectacular things. Perhaps the most impressive play was Johnny Rodgers’ amazing 74-yard punt return for touchdown. That was fairly early in the game and it sort of set the tone. We watched the game on television at my cousins’ home in Fremont, Nebraska. Well, we watched the TV, but we listened to the radio and Lyle Bremser’s broadcast of the game on KFAB Radio, your Cornhusker radio station. We won the game, 31-30.
Then it was off to the Orange Bowl. For the game, Dad went out and bought our first colored television set. That really made the game fun to watch! We played against the Alabama Crimson Tide, coached by Bear Bryant. The analysts were all saying that ‘Bama would trounce the Huskers since Bryant had much more experience in championship games than did Devaney. So, going into the game, NU was #1, Alabama was #2, followed by OU at #3 and (I think) CU at #4, though that might not be right. Anyway, we trounced the Tide, 38-6. Johnny Rodgers had another punt return … I think he ran for three touchdowns, had the punt return, and he threw a TD pass to Frosty Anderson (if I remember correctly.)
That was our second national championship in two years (we had beaten LSU in the championship game the previous year).
We had a dry spell for about twenty years after that. We had good seasons but just couldn’t bring the trophy home. We ALMOST did in 1983-4 when we played Miami in the Orange Bowl and lost when our two-point attempt at the end failed. We lost 31-30 (I think). I was there in the marching band … it was a tough loss.
That’s enough for now. I’ll be glad to share more about those early years later. Cheers.