Welcome to installment No. 10 of ‘The Cob’s Archive Dive’, where each week, I’ll share headlines and excerpts from past articles printed in the Falls City Journal. Hopefully you’ll find a piece of Husker football history that makes you feel the sights and sounds of gameday.
On this day in Cornhusker Football History:
October 12, 1970 – Headline: Husker Win Led by Blackshirts
The Nebraska football team did just what Bob Devaney wished for in Saturday’s 21-7 Big Eight win. Before the game Devaney repeated the same thing Missouri Coach Dan Devine said during the week. “I hope our defense can keep it close enough our offense can win it.” That’s just what happened as the Black Shirts led by Jerry Murtaugh blunted the normally potent Tiger attack and produced a 7-7 standoff after three quarters. On the first play of the last period, Joe Orduna, following the recovery of a Missouri fumble, bolted 41 yards to Missouri’s 15. Four Jeff Kinney rushes later, quarterback Van Brownson sneaked over from the one. Sophomore Johnny Rodgers iced the cake almost nine minutes later, returning a punt 48 yards for a touchdown.
“It seems like we waited a long time to beat Missouri, and it certainly feels real good,” Devaney said. The Black Shirts held Missouri to 218 yards of total offense, including only 87 on the ground against a club which had been grinding out better than 277 yards rushing per game. Devaney presented the Black Shirts with the game ball in recognition of their performance. “In athletics you either improve, or you go downhill,” he said, “you never stand still.”
(Winning football requires two things, being able to run the ball and stop the run. Devaney’s 1970 Cornhuskers were able to do both. He took great pride in the Black Shirts.)
October 7, 1980 – Headline: ‘Jarvis to Get A Flak Jacket’
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne was asked if he thought Jarvis Redwine should be considered for the Heisman Trophy. “The only other player we’ve had with as much talent was Johnny Rodgers, and he DID win the Heisman Trophy. Jarvis certainly deserves the recognition.” After Redwine rushed 34 times for 189 yards against Penn State, he shrugged off talk of winning the Heisman. Unfortunately, Redwine took a hit against Florida State, and now the Huskers find themselves ordering a flak jacket for Redwine. Coach Tom Osborne doubts it will help the rib Redwine cracked in the loss to Florida State. Redwine, the nation’s leading rusher, is expected to miss at least two games. After the loss Nebraska is ranked No. 10 in the AP poll. Nebraska and Oklahoma both lost home games, the first time that’s happened since 1960.
(From the Journal’s Sports editor Del Sutherland. ‘The Huskers draw fans from across the United States as you discovered if you read the Journal’s classified ads yesterday. There was an ad from 14-year-old Davis Rist of Ashland, Oregon who wanted two tickets to the Nebraska-Oklahoma game in November, because he desperately wants to see the Huskers beat Oklahoma. Now that’s going a long way to see the Big Red play.)
September 24, 1990 – Headline: Huskers Roll Past Minnesota
About the only thing that challenged Nebraska against Minnesota on Saturday was a wind gusting at 35-mph through Memorial Stadium. But Tom Osborne’s eighth-ranked Cornhuskers handled that too in a 56-0 thrashing of the Gophers. Nebraska’s defense recorded its second shutout of the young season, giving up 106 total yards.
“Nebraska has a tremendous defensive football team. You have to out-execute them,” Minnesota coach John Gutekunst said.
Nebraska’s offense rolled up 564 total yards and hadn’t started a true freshman at tailback in 16 years until Derek Brown lined up Saturday and gained 120 yards rushing. “We were expecting some real strong, tough guys up there – Big Ten type players. We really pounded it at them,” said offensive tackle Tom Punt.
(Nebraska was closer to a Big Ten team in the nineties than when they joined. They are just now becoming a Big Ten-type team as far as personnel and attitude. It’s been a long transition with all the coaching setbacks.)
September 23, 2000 – Headline: Nebraska finds new Way to Win
The score was typical Nebraska. The method, anti-Nebraska. The top-ranked Cornhuskers rolled past Iowa 42-13 on Saturday by – get this – throwing touchdown passes. Five in all, tying a school record. Not once did Nebraska run the ball into the endzone, which is hard to do when the team rushes for 331 yards. Dan Alexander rushed for 113 yards, Correll Buckhalter had 100 and Crouch finished with 93 yards on the ground. Crouch also passed for 159 yards. “We have a passing game when we want it,” Crouch said. “But we run the ball, that’s what we do.” Perhaps it was a good day for Couch to put the ball in the air, against Iowa, Nebraska fumbled three times, losing the ball once after driving to the Iowa 10-yard line. "You would never know they are not a passing team," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "What makes them so dangerous is their running game.” The Hawkeyes finished with 47 yards rushing. QB Scott Mullen was 19-of-40 for 252 yards, but the Huskers had two interceptions and four sacks.
(To Ferentz’s point, being successful passing the ball requires being able to run first.)
Be sure to look for next week’s edition as the ‘Cob’ dives into each week’s headlines as they once appeared in the Falls City Journal.
GO BIG RED!! SIMPLE, FAST VIOLENT!!
All headlines and excerpts were gathered from Associated Press articles, and most but not all were published in the Falls City Journal. Home - Falls City Journal - Falls City, NE
Photographs were gathered from multiple sources.
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