Your Favorite Husker Memories

[schneidsNU]

So I was born in the mid-late 70s and didn't grow up watching College Football really at all.  My dad always figured that fall Saturdays were better spent doing yard work and hauling crap out to the dump than watching or listening to football games.  Somehow I didn't inherit that attribute.   But it has made me wonder, what have I missed out on?  I know some of the history of the program, and living in South Dakota, I did hear about the Huskers some of the times; it is part of what made decide to go there for school.  I was there during the run of the 90s.  (And no, I do not assume that is how all Husker teams should be.)

I've seen the highlight videos of Johnny The Jet, Mike Rozier, the Fumblerooski, etc, but for me they are all replays.  I definitely am lacking in the history department of Nebraska football, especially pre-80s.  What are YOUR favorite memories of watching/listening to Husker games in the Devaney/Osborne (pre-90s) era from growing up / going to / listening to the games?

In my basement I have an autographed poster of most if not all of the members of the 1970 Championship team (was signed in 95), and the only names I really recognize are Devaney, Osborne, and Johnny Rodgers.  I'd like to change that. 

Correction: my poster is of the 1970 National Championship team, who won the 1971 Orange Bowl.

[jd]

So I was born in the mid-late 70s and didn't grow up watching College Football really at all.  My dad always figured that fall Saturdays were better spent doing yard work and hauling crap out to the dump than watching or listening to football games.  Somehow I didn't inherit that attribute.   But it has made me wonder, what have I missed out on?  I know some of the history of the program, and living in South Dakota, I did hear about the Huskers some of the times; it is part of what made decide to go there for school.  I was there during the run of the 90s.  (And no, I do not assume that is how all Husker teams should be.)

I've seen the highlight videos of Johnny The Jet, Mike Rozier, the Fumblerooski, etc, but for me they are all replays.  I definitely am lacking in the history department of Nebraska football, especially pre-80s.  What are YOUR favorite memories of watching/listening to Husker games in the Devaney/Osborne (pre-90s) era from growing up / going to / listening to the games?

In my basement I have an autographed poster of most if not all of the members of the 1971 Championship team (was signed in 95), and the only names I really recognize are Devaney, Osborne, and Johnny Rodgers.  I'd like to change that. 

My Dad was of the same mentality.  Of course, the difference was, we always had the game on the radio.  Of course, back then, the games weren't on every weekend.  The OU game was on the day after Turkey Day and just a couple of others depending on the year.

[Valiantsailor]

My first memory's were watching Bill Jennings on black and white tv explaining away losses in the early sixties.  My first live football game was in Lincoln in 1962, I think we played North Carolina St.

[Capn Krunch]

Lived on the east coast so I would wait for Dave Diles (Prudential college scoreboard show) to show the Husker score on that mechanical board of scores that the numbers flipped like those original clock radios. There was only one game a week on back then. If the Huskers weren't on then, I'd look for their highlights on that show with Bill Fleming (or Art, whichever wasn't the Jeopardy host) that had college highlights right before the pro games came on. Unlike the OP, I was really young when I got into college football and the Huskers. I could never understand when watching the highlight show how so many teams could have a wood bee as mascot. Every guy who missed a tackle, was a wood bee tackler. Finally, when I was 10, the Huskers came to play Army. My sister and I sat in the top row of Michie Stadium in those corny red cowboy hats with the white N on them that our aunt sent from Omaha.

[OhioHusker43065]

94 CU game (I was there), 94 Orange Bowl (folks were there),  I almost cried at the end.

[Huusker]

Lived on the east coast so I would wait for Dave Diles (Prudential college scoreboard show) to show the Husker score on that mechanical board of scores that the numbers flipped like those original clock radios. There was only one game a week on back then. If the Huskers weren't on then, I'd look for their highlights on that show with Bill Fleming (or Art, whichever wasn't the Jeopardy host) that had college highlights right before the pro games came on.

Dave Diles and Bill Fleming both lived in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where I grew up. As a little kid, I was convinced Nebraska was horrible because every time they'd get on television, they'd get destroyed (see Alabama, Oklahoma) But then they beat Georgia in the Sun Bowl and the next season ('70) I followed them game-by-game. Back then, that meant getting up early Sunday morning, going out to the paperbox, getting the Detroit News, and paging past all the Michigan, MSU and Notre Dame coverage to the long list of college scores. Each week (except for a tie with Southern Cal) I was rewarded with happy news. Some of those weeks, I was looking for details rather than the score because I had watched the Prudential College Scoreboard.

I think we saw the Colorado game during those years and of course Oklahoma and the bowl games. Certainly no more than two or three games a season.

It was really exciting if Nebraska got on that Bill Fleming show on Sunday afternoons. That was it for national highlights back then in the realm of college football. They picked about five games and apparently it took a team of film editors an entire day to get the highlights on the air. Other than Fleming's narration, they added fake crowd noise at the appropriate time (which was hokey even by 1970 standards) and recordings of the schools' fight songs underneath the film.

Man, do I feel old.

[Big Sky Husker]

A lot of good memories.  As a youngster... beating OU in 78 was a good memory.  That was a very good Oklahoma team and it was Osborne's first win over OU as head coach. 

Beating OU in Norman for the first time in a decade in 81 was nice too.  I was walking around the Sunset Mall in Norfolk that day, catching the game in some of the stores... waiting for my future wife to get off work... and everyone I ran into had a shxt eating grin on their face.  Nebraska pounded the Sooners that day... 37  - 14. 

[HuskervilleJoe]

My favorite was not on the field but involved a couple of Husker legends.
When we lived in Huskerville there were several staff members also that lived nearby,
One was Schnitzie,  There were several people gathered on Schnitz’s porch and having a beer and  one
Bob Devaney drove by and stopped. 
Well Schnitzie offered him a beer and when he open it Bob noticed the can opener.
Coach got me aside and offered me a quarter to get his can opener back that Schnitiz had “borrowed”
I procured the can opener and slide in his hand secretly and he flipped me a quarter. 
In 1983 I was finishing my residency in Florida and Paul brought Bob out to the barns when NU traveled for the Orange Bowl.
Paul had told him who I was and when they got out of the car Devaney asked me if he could borrow a quarter. 
I had forgotten all about it but he had not, Schnitzie a couple days later asked me what it was about and
I asked if he had a beer can opener I could borrow,  When the bell went off, Schnitzie lit a Winston, rubbed his bald head and said you SOB’s and then handed me my tickets to the Orange Bowl, as I was leaving the hotel lobby they were still arguing over whose beer opener it was.

[Carolina Husker]

2001 NU vs OU my first ever Husker game, came all  the way from North Carolina with my son who was 7 years old at the time.  It was worth every mile.  I still have the aluminum "Huskers" hot dog wrapper from that game.  Met Scott Frost in the St. Louis airport getting on  the same plane.  What a day that  was.   

[OhioHusker43065]

2001 NU vs OU my first ever Husker game, came all  the way from North Carolina with my son who was 7 years old at the time.  It was worth every mile.  I still have the aluminum "Huskers" hot dog wrapper from that game.  Met Scott Frost in the St. Louis airport getting on  the same plane.  What a day that  was.   

I think my first OU game was 84 in Lincoln (I think it was 84).  It was great to see, but the Huskers lost. 

[bowz]

First Husker memory was Minter's pick against CSU 2nd play of the game, he housed it.  Also remember meeting Terry Donahue sp? before a UCLA game.  Best memory was Fraziers run, Scott frost snot bubbling Dat Nygyn sp?, Mackovica's hard td run, Connlely sp? sand bagging in 94.  Those come to mind the quickest. I also thought of my saddest memory and that was when I heard on the radio that Brook Berrigners plan went down.  I cried sitting in the truck that day.

[Johnny Blackshirt]

watching Johnny "the Jet" running one back for a TD with my Dad

[Big Sky Husker]

watching Johnny "the Jet" running one back for a TD with my Dad

Was that at Norman or Lincoln?

[OhioHusker43065]

watching Johnny "the Jet" running one back for a TD with my Dad

Was that at Norman or Lincoln?

I have a mental image of a white jersey.  Had to be away.

[Big Sky Husker]

watching Johnny "the Jet" running one back for a TD with my Dad

Was that at Norman or Lincoln?

I have a mental image of a white jersey.  Had to be away.

I think the Jet had a punt return for a TD against someone in Lincoln.  I want to say it was in 1972.