Memorial Stadium: The Fourth Decade, 1953-62

The Huskers were stuck in neutral or worse. But then along came Bob.

Nebraska Athletics photo from 1960 game program

Seventh in a series marking the 100th season of Nebraska football in Memorial Stadium. Pictured above is the Huskers’ “spirit line” entry onto the home field, circa 1960.

This 10-year span in Memorial Stadium, much like the one before it, saw Cornhusker football failing to maintain anything more than sporadic success. But this time, there was light at the end of the tunnel, and it was no mere glimmer.

Bill Jennings / Nebraska Athletics

Coach Bill Glassford survived a player rebellion after the 1953 season and got Nebraska to the 1955 Orange Bowl with all-conference players Bob Smith at fullback, Charles Bryant at guard and Don Glantz at tackle.

After Glassford’s exit from coaching and Pete Elliot’s one-and-done stint in ’56, Bill Jennings delivered five seasons marked by listless losses and the occasional upset win — including one of the biggest in program history.

Jennings struggled despite having the services of three of Nebraska’s longest-tenured pro players: Ron McDole, Mick Tingelhoff and Pat Fischer. Jennings’ Huskers were particularly inept on offense: One game in four was a shutout loss.

Then came Bob Devaney. His arrival in 1962 came on the heels of a dismal 20-season stretch for Nebraska: Just one major-college team lost more games than the Huskers from 1942 through 1961.

Devaney immediately flipped that script, starting with a 9-2 debut season. Point production soared, and former Jennings players suddenly were enjoying a winning brand of football. A sold-out stadium quickly became a given. And so it would go for many decades to come.

For a sampling of Memorial Stadium games from this 10-season span, scroll past the facts box below.

Just the Facts: 1953-62
• Home record: 24-30-1 (.445). • Overall record: 42-58-2 (.426). • Conference titles: None. • All-Americans: None. • Head coaches: Bill Glassford, 1949-55; Pete Elliott, 1956; Bill Jennings, 1957-61; Bob Devaney 1962-72.

Fifteen Huskers tame the ’Canes

Miami News via Newspapers.com

1953: Nebraska 20, Miami 16. The Hurricanes’ futility in Lincoln (zero wins, four losses) started with this back-and-forth tussle in mid-October. After trailing by 10-7 at halftime, the Huskers dominated the third period and held on late for the win. Nebraska used just 15 players, including seven starters who played the entire 60 minutes. Among the seven were quarterback John Bordogna and end Andy Loehr. In the photo above, Loehr stops Miami’s last threat by picking off a pass by Don James, the future head coach of the Washington Huskies. | Details

---

Surging toward bowl status

Cornhusker yearbook

Bob Wagner, left, and Ron Clark put the clamps on Missouri halfback Ray Detring.

1954: Nebraska 25, Missouri 19. Nine months after coach Bill Glassford weathered a player rebellion, Nebraska bolstered its bowl hopes by following up its win at No. 11 Colorado with a home upset of Mizzou. The Huskers rushed for 331 yards against the Tigers and built a 25-7 lead before allowing two late Missouri touchdowns. Conference rules forbade a return trip to the Orange Bowl by Big Seven kingpin Oklahoma, so the Sooners stayed home while the runner-up Huskers went to Miami — and lost badly to Duke. | Details

---

Stymied by the islanders

Hawaii Athletics

Hawaii’s Hartwell Freitas goes over for the winning TD with 9:20 remaining.

1955: Hawaii 6, Nebraska 0. Looking ahead was a costly mistake in this season opener. Favored by at least 40 points, the Cornhuskers scrimmaged against Ohio State formations on the Wednesday and Thursday before the game. The Rainbows, outclassed and outnumbered in every conceivable category, pulled off the upset “through courage and sheer guts,” as Hawaii coach Hank Vasconcellos put it. A week later in Columbus, the Huskers would give Woody Hayes’ sixth-ranked Buckeyes all they could handle before falling 28-20. Coach Bill Glassford would resign at the end of the 5-5 season, in which Nebraska was the Big Seven runner-up for the third time under his tutelage. | HuskerMax game page

---

Another Tiger-bagging

Cornhusker yearbook

On the throwing and receiving end of the game winner were Willie Greenlaw and Frank Nappi, both from Portland, Maine.

1956: Nebraska 15, Missouri 14. On fourth-and-16 with under two minutes to play, southpaw halfback Willie Greenlaw hit Frank Nappi with a 25-yard touchdown pass to give the Huskers an upset victory. George Harshman’s pass breakup in the end zone several plays later helped preserve the win. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak and helped Pete Elliott’s Huskers finish .500 in the conference and 4-6 overall, after which Elliott bolted for the West Coast. | Details

---

Kicked to the curb

Lincoln Journal Star via Newspapers.com

1957: Kansas 14, Nebraska 12. With 90 seconds to play, the Huskers’ try for a chip-shot field goal from the 13 barely got off the ground, letting the Jayhawks escape Lincoln with a victory. George Cifra said afterward, “I don’t know what happened, but the ball just squirted off the side of my foot.” Two failed PAT attempts earlier in the game also proved costly to the Huskers, who would finish 1-9 — worst in program history — in Bill Jennings’ first season as head coach. | Details

---

‘Champions of Pennsylvania’

Cornhusker yearbook

Husker players whoop it up after the big win.

1958: Nebraska 14, Pittsburgh 6. Staggering into this mid-November game on a five-game losing streak, Nebraska figured to have no chance against Pitt, ranked 14th and gunning for a bowl invitation. Instead, the Huskers upset their longtime nemesis, beating Pitt for just the fourth time in 22 tries and for the first time ever at home. Fans stormed the field, and the Corn Cob mascot lost its head in the chaos. The victory, coupled with the season-opening upset of Penn State, made the Huskers the unofficial champions of Pennsylvania. Little else, however, went right during the 3-7 season, which ended with a 40-7 shellacking at Oklahoma. | HuskerMax game page

Owl yearbook, University of Pittsburgh

Pitt defenders have Husker halfback Pat Fischer hemmed in. Fischer, who was moved to quarterback as a senior in 1960, was the youngest of four brothers who earned a combined 10 varsity football letters at Nebraska after World War II.

---

An upset for the ages

Cornhusker yearbook

Oklahoma’s Brewster Hobby wraps up the Huskers’ Ron Meade. Meade not only provided seven points with his kicking toe, but he also sealed the win by picking off a pass intended for Hobby.

1959: Nebraska 25, Oklahoma 21. The goalposts came down for the first time ever at Memorial Stadium after the Huskers broke the Sooners’ 74-game conference unbeaten streak on Halloween. Favored by 14 to 17 points, Oklahoma fell to the Huskers for the first time since 1942, and it was the first conference defeat in the 13-year career of OU coach Bud Wilkinson. It was one of just two conference wins for the ’59 Huskers. | HuskerMax game page

---

Outflanking the Cadets

Cornhusker yearbook

Bennie Dillard’s touchdown reception puts the Huskers on top.

1960: Nebraska 14, Army 9. The Huskers managed just five first downs but rallied from a 9-0 deficit by cashing in on a couple of big plays, including the game-winning 57-yard touchdown pass from Pat Fischer to Bennie Dillard. Nebraska improved to 3-2 with the mid-October win but would drop its next four games before upsetting Oklahoma in Norman to finish 4-6. The 1960 Huskers failed to score more than 17 points in any game — the third time that had happened under Bill Jennings. | HuskerMax game page

---

Trailblazers cross paths

Lincoln Journal Star via Newspapers.com (left) and Cornhusker yearbook

1961: Syracuse 28, Nebraska 6. The Orangemen used three pass interceptions and the running of All-American Ernie Davis to cruise past the Huskers. One consolation was that Nebraska’s Bill “Thunder” Thornton outrushed Davis, 133 yards to 120, despite having seven fewer carries. Davis at season’s end would become the first Black player to win the Heisman Trophy, and Thornton in 1962 would become Nebraska's first Black captain. | Details

---

Stuck in a quagmire

Lincoln Journal Star via Newspapers.com

Good luck figuring out who’s who. Sopping snow turned Memorial Stadium’s playing field into a sea of mud.

1961: Colorado 7, Nebraska 0. On a muddy field in mid-November, the Huskers hit rock bottom: zero first downs and 31 yards. The score stayed deceptively close thanks to four lost fumbles and three missed field goals by the eighth-ranked Buffaloes. It was part of a 1-6 finish to Nebraska’s 3-6-1 season. Bill Jennings, who believed that “we can’t feed the ego of the state of Nebraska with the football team,” became the seventh consecutive Husker coach to bow out with a losing record. | HuskerMax game page

---

Fourth-quarter rescue

Cornhusker yearbook

Nebraska took a third-quarter lead but it lasted just 12 seconds, thanks to this 91-yard kickoff return by the Wolfpack’s Joe Scarpati.

1962: Nebraska 19, North Carolina State 14. It was do-or-die time for Nebraska and quarterback Dennis Claridge. Just 2:45 remained when the Huskers, trailing by a point, took over on their own 32. Eleven plays later, including a pass interference call against the Wolfpack, Nebraska was in the end zone with the clinching touchdown. Dennis Steuwe did the scoring honors, just as he had earlier in the fourth period when Nebraska cut the deficit to 14-13. Without the two clutch fourth-quarter drives, Bob Devaney’s 9-2 debut season might have been somewhat less lustrous: 7-3 with no bowl game. | HuskerMax game page

---

Postscript: Steps into past and future

Lincoln Journal Star via Newspapers.com

NCAA substitution rules shifted into reverse as this 10-season span in Memorial Stadium began. Two-platoon football, a fixture since 1941, was abolished as of the 1953 season and wouldn’t return in full until 1964.

The forward march of technology, on the other hand, was evident from the outset. The 1953 opener against Oregon was the Huskers’ first game on national TV, and it was college football’s first NCAA-regulated telecast.

On the financial front, Nebraska was playing catch-up with most of the conference in terms of athletic scholarships. The Touchdown Club was formed in 1957 to help close that gap.

---