NU's 'sacred' bowl streak is on the line
The streaks are over and have even started to fade from memory.
Two years ago, the remarkable records of Nebraska's football fortunes started breaking like strings on an abandoned piano.
In 2002, for the first time in 34 years, the Huskers failed to win at least nine games in a season. Their streak of 348 consecutive weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 ratings ended that year, too.
Only a victory today against Colorado can preserve NU's record streak of 35 consecutive bowl appearances and its 42-year string of nonlosing seasons.
Since 1969, the Huskers have always played a game after the end of the regular season.
The last time Nebraska stayed home, the Huskers had just been humiliated in their worst loss on television and coach Bob Devaney's biggest defeat.
Oklahoma flattened Nebraska 47-0 to end the 1968 season. The Huskers were staying home for the holidays.
That season included a loss to Kansas the last time KU beat Nebraska a homecoming loss to Kansas State that Devaney said was the worst defeat in his career, a narrow loss to Missouri and the spanking at Oklahoma.
Some former players say Devaney declined any bowl offers because his team was embarrassed in Norman, Okla., and did not deserve to go to a bowl game.
Others said the players voted to spurn a bowl offer.
"Those of us younger guys didn't know what we were missing because we didn't go as freshmen or as sophomores," said Jerry Murtaugh, who played linebacker for the Huskers from 1968 to 1970.
"I was there when we didn't go to a bowl game to winning our first national championship," he said. "And now, I'd hate to see that bowl string end."
Murtaugh laughed and added, "When we got a taste of bowls in 1969, we knew it was something we always wanted to be a part of.
"Heck, we had so much fun finally going to a bowl, I had to bail six guys out of jail in Juarez, Mexico, when we went to the Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas) in 1969," he said. "I can't say what they did to get arrested. But Coach Devaney kicked all of us off the team for a day. Took us back. Won the game. Kicked us off again. Then told us, Next season, the Lord has your soul, but I've got your asses.'"
After a 9-2 season in 1969, including a 45-6 win against Georgia in the Sun Bowl, Nebraska won national championships the next two seasons with victories in the Orange Bowl.
"If we didn't make a big improvement and make a bowl in 1969, I'm pretty sure all of us would have been gone," said Jim Ross, assistant coach at Nebraska from 1962 to 1976.
"The heat was really on and we could feel all the bad feelings about what we didn't do in 1967 and 1968 no bowls, big losses and 6-4 records.
"John Melton used to joke that he even signed the petitions (asking for Devaney's firing) because we were so bad," Ross said. Melton was the NU linebacker coach at the time.
The 1967 and 1968 Huskers had eight total losses. Devaney's first five teams combined lost a total of eight games.
When Devaney arrived in Lincoln in 1962, he turned the players recruited by his predecessor into a national powerhouse team. Instantly, Nebraska won four Big Eight Conference titles, played in bowl games and played in front of national television audiences. Devaney and his staff recruited well.
Devaney's first five teams were a combined 47-8. But even Devaney admitted recruiting slipped some and with back-to-back 6-4 bowl-less seasons, there were grumblings that Nebraska needed a new coach. There was talk of hiring Lloyd Eaton, who had succeeded Devaney at Wyoming.
"There were petitions in Omaha to dump Devaney and we players were getting a lot of crap from old folks who said we were worthless as human beings," said Murtaugh, who until this year was NU's all-time leading tackler.
"The players and coaches were treated a lot like the team is being treated this year. It's just a game. And they will get better. But some fans have little patience," he said.
Ken Geddes, who started alongside Murtaugh at linebacker before switching to middle guard, said 1968 was frustrating, but most people agreed things were going to improve in a hurry.
"We had a great sophomore class and a great bunch of freshmen," he said. "I felt we were a fumble or two away from a great season in 1968.
"I remember we voted to not go to a bowl game after the 1968 season and Coach Devaney said we didn't deserve it anyway," said Geddes, now a counselor at a middle school in Seattle.
"We made getting a bowl game in 1969 a goal. We also had Jerry Tagge and Van Brownson at quarterback, Jeff Kinney at halfback, Bob Newton, Dave Walline, Wally Winter, Jim Anderson and Larry Jacobson. Johnny Rodgers and Rich Glover were coming up."
Improved recruiting and changes in the coaching staff brought immediate results after the two down years.
"In 1968, we didn't have consistency on offense and we were fumbling when we were coming back on teams," former NU center Joe Buda said.
"The biggest change for 1969 was Tom Osborne becoming the offensive coordinator, and Monte Kiffin and Warren Powers taking over on defense," he said.
"We didn't deserve a bowl game in 1968."
Devaney changed his relationships with his players after 1968, too.
Although none of the former Huskers contacted said Nebraska was as troubled by racial tension as were Wisconsin, Illinois and other college football teams that year, there were concerns in Lincoln.
In the spring of 1969, Devaney met with Mike Green and many of the other 11 black players on the team to "open up lines of communication," Geddes said. "I don't think there were racial problems, but that helped everybody understand each other more.
"We might have been closer as a team in 1969."
Devaney counted on Osborne to help change from an unbalanced line and the T-formation variations to the I formation in 1969. The defense improved with faster players, too.
"We were better and we knew it," said Buda, who is a former Lincoln police officer and now a factory representative in Lincoln. "It seemed like everything that didn't work in 1968 worked in 1969."
The Huskers produced almost 30 percent more offense in 1969 than they did the year before.
Frank Patrick, NU's quarterback in 1967 and early in 1968, said Nebraska sold a lot of recruits on going to bowls from 1962 to 1966.
"When we didn't go in those two years, most of us didn't know what we were missing, but it was a pretty good feeling to go to a bowl in 1969," he said. "The fans really got behind us and have been there ever since."
Fans, local travel agents, the Nebraska ticket office, even local calendar producers, have always been able to count on NU going to a bowl game since that 1968 season.
"Once we knew what was missing, I think every player since and every coach since figured they had to win enough to get to a bowl game," said Patrick. "I think all of us would like to see the string of bowls stay intact."
Patrick said Devaney apologized to him after the 1968 season. Patrick was the starting quarterback in 1967 and opened the 1968 season at the helm of the NU offense.
"He said maybe he should have had more patience with me at quarterback," Patrick said. "We were behind Wyoming 7-0 at halftime in our first game in 1968 and Devaney told me I had better get seven points in five minutes or I was done.
"I didn't get the score and Ernie Sigler took over for the rest of the season except for one game."
Patrick, now an insurance salesman in Lincoln, moved to receiver the next year and Tagge took over at quarterback in 1969.
Ross said the difference was players. "We had good players in 1967 and 1968, but we didn't have a couple of really great ones like we did the next few years like Tagge and Rodgers and Glover and Jacobson," he said.
Since 1969, the Huskers have packed their bags, loaded up weight-lifting equipment, made motel reservations and bought sunscreen every winter.
Nebraska's bowl streak has been highlighted by stunning national championship victories against Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl and Miami in the 1995 Orange Bowl.
There were heartbreaking losses in the 1984 Orange Bowl to Miami and to Florida State in the 1988 Fiesta Bowl and the 1994 Orange Bowl.
Nebraska also became the butt of jokes for seven straight bowl losses under Osborne.
There were hard feelings in Nebraska about facing Oklahoma in the 1979 Orange Bowl in a forced rematch just weeks after NU beat the No. 1 Sooners.
Only a team re-vote, without ballots recounted, sent the Huskers to a 1975 Fiesta Bowl loss to Arizona State on the Sun Devils' home turf in Tempe, Ariz.
Still, through the highest peaks and not-so-low lows in the Nebraska football program's history, the Huskers extended their record of 35 bowls in a row.
Bowl games were such a fixture that Osborne lobbied and eventually convinced donors that he needed an indoor practice facility to prepare for bowl games played in warmer climates.
"It has been the bowl season every year, even when we didn't win the Big Eight," said Geddes. "Nobody else had a streak like Nebraska. I was hurt most when we lost the nine-win streak. But I figured the bowl streak would go forever."
Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or at khambleton@journalstar.com.
Two years ago, the remarkable records of Nebraska's football fortunes started breaking like strings on an abandoned piano.
In 2002, for the first time in 34 years, the Huskers failed to win at least nine games in a season. Their streak of 348 consecutive weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 ratings ended that year, too.
Only a victory today against Colorado can preserve NU's record streak of 35 consecutive bowl appearances and its 42-year string of nonlosing seasons.
Since 1969, the Huskers have always played a game after the end of the regular season.
The last time Nebraska stayed home, the Huskers had just been humiliated in their worst loss on television and coach Bob Devaney's biggest defeat.
Oklahoma flattened Nebraska 47-0 to end the 1968 season. The Huskers were staying home for the holidays.
That season included a loss to Kansas the last time KU beat Nebraska a homecoming loss to Kansas State that Devaney said was the worst defeat in his career, a narrow loss to Missouri and the spanking at Oklahoma.
Some former players say Devaney declined any bowl offers because his team was embarrassed in Norman, Okla., and did not deserve to go to a bowl game.
Others said the players voted to spurn a bowl offer.
"Those of us younger guys didn't know what we were missing because we didn't go as freshmen or as sophomores," said Jerry Murtaugh, who played linebacker for the Huskers from 1968 to 1970.
"I was there when we didn't go to a bowl game to winning our first national championship," he said. "And now, I'd hate to see that bowl string end."
Murtaugh laughed and added, "When we got a taste of bowls in 1969, we knew it was something we always wanted to be a part of.
"Heck, we had so much fun finally going to a bowl, I had to bail six guys out of jail in Juarez, Mexico, when we went to the Sun Bowl (El Paso, Texas) in 1969," he said. "I can't say what they did to get arrested. But Coach Devaney kicked all of us off the team for a day. Took us back. Won the game. Kicked us off again. Then told us, Next season, the Lord has your soul, but I've got your asses.'"
After a 9-2 season in 1969, including a 45-6 win against Georgia in the Sun Bowl, Nebraska won national championships the next two seasons with victories in the Orange Bowl.
"If we didn't make a big improvement and make a bowl in 1969, I'm pretty sure all of us would have been gone," said Jim Ross, assistant coach at Nebraska from 1962 to 1976.
"The heat was really on and we could feel all the bad feelings about what we didn't do in 1967 and 1968 no bowls, big losses and 6-4 records.
"John Melton used to joke that he even signed the petitions (asking for Devaney's firing) because we were so bad," Ross said. Melton was the NU linebacker coach at the time.
The 1967 and 1968 Huskers had eight total losses. Devaney's first five teams combined lost a total of eight games.
When Devaney arrived in Lincoln in 1962, he turned the players recruited by his predecessor into a national powerhouse team. Instantly, Nebraska won four Big Eight Conference titles, played in bowl games and played in front of national television audiences. Devaney and his staff recruited well.
Devaney's first five teams were a combined 47-8. But even Devaney admitted recruiting slipped some and with back-to-back 6-4 bowl-less seasons, there were grumblings that Nebraska needed a new coach. There was talk of hiring Lloyd Eaton, who had succeeded Devaney at Wyoming.
"There were petitions in Omaha to dump Devaney and we players were getting a lot of crap from old folks who said we were worthless as human beings," said Murtaugh, who until this year was NU's all-time leading tackler.
"The players and coaches were treated a lot like the team is being treated this year. It's just a game. And they will get better. But some fans have little patience," he said.
Ken Geddes, who started alongside Murtaugh at linebacker before switching to middle guard, said 1968 was frustrating, but most people agreed things were going to improve in a hurry.
"We had a great sophomore class and a great bunch of freshmen," he said. "I felt we were a fumble or two away from a great season in 1968.
"I remember we voted to not go to a bowl game after the 1968 season and Coach Devaney said we didn't deserve it anyway," said Geddes, now a counselor at a middle school in Seattle.
"We made getting a bowl game in 1969 a goal. We also had Jerry Tagge and Van Brownson at quarterback, Jeff Kinney at halfback, Bob Newton, Dave Walline, Wally Winter, Jim Anderson and Larry Jacobson. Johnny Rodgers and Rich Glover were coming up."
Improved recruiting and changes in the coaching staff brought immediate results after the two down years.
"In 1968, we didn't have consistency on offense and we were fumbling when we were coming back on teams," former NU center Joe Buda said.
"The biggest change for 1969 was Tom Osborne becoming the offensive coordinator, and Monte Kiffin and Warren Powers taking over on defense," he said.
"We didn't deserve a bowl game in 1968."
Devaney changed his relationships with his players after 1968, too.
Although none of the former Huskers contacted said Nebraska was as troubled by racial tension as were Wisconsin, Illinois and other college football teams that year, there were concerns in Lincoln.
In the spring of 1969, Devaney met with Mike Green and many of the other 11 black players on the team to "open up lines of communication," Geddes said. "I don't think there were racial problems, but that helped everybody understand each other more.
"We might have been closer as a team in 1969."
Devaney counted on Osborne to help change from an unbalanced line and the T-formation variations to the I formation in 1969. The defense improved with faster players, too.
"We were better and we knew it," said Buda, who is a former Lincoln police officer and now a factory representative in Lincoln. "It seemed like everything that didn't work in 1968 worked in 1969."
The Huskers produced almost 30 percent more offense in 1969 than they did the year before.
Frank Patrick, NU's quarterback in 1967 and early in 1968, said Nebraska sold a lot of recruits on going to bowls from 1962 to 1966.
"When we didn't go in those two years, most of us didn't know what we were missing, but it was a pretty good feeling to go to a bowl in 1969," he said. "The fans really got behind us and have been there ever since."
Fans, local travel agents, the Nebraska ticket office, even local calendar producers, have always been able to count on NU going to a bowl game since that 1968 season.
"Once we knew what was missing, I think every player since and every coach since figured they had to win enough to get to a bowl game," said Patrick. "I think all of us would like to see the string of bowls stay intact."
Patrick said Devaney apologized to him after the 1968 season. Patrick was the starting quarterback in 1967 and opened the 1968 season at the helm of the NU offense.
"He said maybe he should have had more patience with me at quarterback," Patrick said. "We were behind Wyoming 7-0 at halftime in our first game in 1968 and Devaney told me I had better get seven points in five minutes or I was done.
"I didn't get the score and Ernie Sigler took over for the rest of the season except for one game."
Patrick, now an insurance salesman in Lincoln, moved to receiver the next year and Tagge took over at quarterback in 1969.
Ross said the difference was players. "We had good players in 1967 and 1968, but we didn't have a couple of really great ones like we did the next few years like Tagge and Rodgers and Glover and Jacobson," he said.
Since 1969, the Huskers have packed their bags, loaded up weight-lifting equipment, made motel reservations and bought sunscreen every winter.
Nebraska's bowl streak has been highlighted by stunning national championship victories against Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl and Miami in the 1995 Orange Bowl.
There were heartbreaking losses in the 1984 Orange Bowl to Miami and to Florida State in the 1988 Fiesta Bowl and the 1994 Orange Bowl.
Nebraska also became the butt of jokes for seven straight bowl losses under Osborne.
There were hard feelings in Nebraska about facing Oklahoma in the 1979 Orange Bowl in a forced rematch just weeks after NU beat the No. 1 Sooners.
Only a team re-vote, without ballots recounted, sent the Huskers to a 1975 Fiesta Bowl loss to Arizona State on the Sun Devils' home turf in Tempe, Ariz.
Still, through the highest peaks and not-so-low lows in the Nebraska football program's history, the Huskers extended their record of 35 bowls in a row.
Bowl games were such a fixture that Osborne lobbied and eventually convinced donors that he needed an indoor practice facility to prepare for bowl games played in warmer climates.
"It has been the bowl season every year, even when we didn't win the Big Eight," said Geddes. "Nobody else had a streak like Nebraska. I was hurt most when we lost the nine-win streak. But I figured the bowl streak would go forever."
Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or at khambleton@journalstar.com.
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