50 Fun Facts About Nebraska Cornhuskers Football

How many national championships does Nebraska football claim?

They came in 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995 and 1997, plus seven more from selectors the school does not claim.

Nebraska has sold out every home game at Memorial Stadium since which year?

The streak reached 411 games, an NCAA record for any sport, and began the year Bob Devaney arrived.

What is Memorial Stadium's nickname on game day?

The stadium opened, unfinished, on October 13, 1923, dedicated to Nebraskans who served in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I.

Where did Bob Devaney rank on Tippy Dye's list when Nebraska hired him in 1962?

He came at a salary of $17,000 and won two national titles and eight conference crowns in eleven seasons.

How many seasons did Tom Osborne spend as Nebraska's head coach after succeeding Bob Devaney in 1973?

His teams never won fewer than nine games and were ranked for 304 of his 307 games.

What was Tom Osborne's career record as Nebraska's head coach?

That works out to a .836 winning percentage, with 13 conference titles and three national championships.

After coaching, Tom Osborne served three terms in what role?

He was elected in 2000 as a Republican from the third district, then returned as Nebraska's athletic director in 2007.

Tom Osborne played college football at which small Nebraska school?

He was a quarterback and receiver there before a brief NFL career and a job on Devaney's staff.

Nebraska's 1971 "Game of the Century" was a 35-31 Thanksgiving Day win over which rival?

Fifty-five million Americans watched, the largest college football audience ever, as the Blackshirts faced the Sooners' wishbone.

Which quarterback started for Nebraska's 1971 national champions after sharing the job in 1970?

NU won each of its first eleven games in 1971 by at least 24 points, then beat Alabama 38-6 in the Orange Bowl.

Which three Cornhuskers have won the Heisman Trophy?

Their wins came in 1972, 1983 and 2001; Suh finished fourth in 2009 as a defensive tackle.

Nebraska's defense is nicknamed the Blackshirts because of what?

The tradition began in 1964, the first year of free substitution, so Devaney could tell his units apart.

Which instrumental accompanies Nebraska's Tunnel Walk?

The Tunnel Walk began in 1994 and is preceded by the split-crowd "Husker Power" chant.

What do Memorial Stadium fans release when Nebraska scores its first points?

The tradition dates to the 1960s and was spotted as early as 1932.

What is the Nebraska crowd known for doing to the visiting team after the game, win or lose?

The band also plays the visiting team's fight song before every home game.

Before "Cornhuskers" caught on, what was Nebraska's best-known early nickname?

It referred to an 1870s drought when farmers supposedly ate bugs; sportswriter Cy Sherman hated it and started writing "Cornhuskers" in 1899.

What are the names of Nebraska's two official mascots?

The team is commonly called the "Big Red"; its colors, scarlet and cream, were chosen in 1892 to avoid the gold used by Iowa and Missouri.

What was the final score of the 1984 Orange Bowl, where Tom Osborne went for two instead of a tie?

Turner Gill's conversion pass fell incomplete and Miami won its first national title in Osborne's own stadium of frustration.

Which quarterback led Nebraska to back-to-back national titles in 1994 and 1995?

He rushed for 199 yards in the 62-24 Fiesta Bowl rout and was MVP of a third straight title game.

Which backup quarterback led most of the undefeated 1994 regular season while the starter was sidelined?

Frazier returned for the Orange Bowl, where two fourth-quarter Cory Schlesinger touchdowns beat Miami for Osborne's first consensus title.

Nebraska's 1995 team set a college football record by averaging how many points per game?

It is the only national champion to win every game by at least 14 points.

Which quarterback led Nebraska to the 1997 national title and later returned as head coach?

NU beat Tennessee in the Orange Bowl, the designated Bowl Alliance title game, despite trailing Michigan in both polls.

Which team did Nebraska crush 62-24 in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl to repeat as champions?

The Blackshirts intercepted Danny Wuerffel three times.

Who took over from Tom Osborne in 1998 and reached the 2002 BCS title game before being fired in 2003?

Nebraska went 7-7 in his last year, ending the program's record 35-year bowl streak the following season.

Nebraska joined which conference in 2011?

It had been a Big 12 charter member since 1996 and a Big Eight power for decades before that.

Nebraska and Iowa play annually for which prize?

After 2024 realignment, Iowa is the Huskers' only permanent conference opponent.

Which team took over as Nebraska's Thanksgiving-weekend opponent when the Big 12 formed in 1996?

Bill McCartney's Buffaloes had beaten NU in 1986, 1989 and 1990 to break the Nebraska-Sooners grip on the Big Eight.

Which defensive tackle won the Outland, Lombardi, Nagurski and Bednarik awards for Nebraska in 2009?

He finished fourth in that year's Heisman voting before going second overall to Detroit.

Which Nebraska center won two Outland Trophies and has the top-center award named for him?

He won the Outland in 1981 and 1982 and the Lombardi in 1982; Raiola won the Rimington Trophy in 2000.

Which two players have had their numbers permanently retired by Nebraska?

Novak was the school's only four-time all-conference pick and Brown was Devaney's first All-American.

Which two Cornhuskers have been picked first overall in the NFL draft?

Francis went first in 1937 and Fryar in 1984; Stan Hegener was the very last pick of the 1971 draft.

Nebraska played in how many consecutive bowl games from 1969 to 2003, a record at the time?

The streak ended in 2004; the Huskers then missed bowls entirely for seven straight years starting in 2017.

Which sport drew a stadium-record 92,003 fans to Memorial Stadium in 2023?

It was the largest crowd ever recorded for a women's sporting event.

Nebraska's famous single-"N" helmet came about in 1970 because of what?

The team had worn a red "NU"; the accident became permanent after that season's national title.

Nebraska's official walk-on program began in 1973 in response to what?

Osborne and Solich stocked their unusually large rosters with walk-ons from across the region.

Which coach did Nebraska hire in 2023 to end its worst eight-year stretch in six decades?

The previous eight years were the program's worst stretch in more than sixty years.

Bob Devaney's first season ended with the program's first bowl win, in which now-defunct game?

The 36-34 win over Miami in 1962 preceded a 1966 Orange Bowl loss to Bear Bryant's Alabama.

Which university did Bob Devaney coach before Nebraska?

He went 35-10-5 there in five seasons after years coaching Michigan high schools.

How many conference championships has Nebraska won, second-most of any FBS program?

Osborne accounted for 13 of them and Devaney for eight in eleven seasons.

Which team upset Nebraska in the 2012 conference championship game and leads the Freedom Trophy series?

The Freedom Trophy has been at stake since 2014, when the two became division rivals in the West.

The Cornhusker Marching Band goes by what nickname?

It performs before every home game and plays the visitors' fight song as a welcome.

Where does Nebraska rank among FBS programs in all-time victories?

The program claims 46 conference titles and five national championships.

Between 1900 and 1916, Nebraska went how many consecutive games without a loss?

The same stretch included five undefeated seasons.

How many Nebraska head coaches have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame?

They include Fielding H. Yost, Dana X. Bible, Biff Jones, Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne.

Nebraska declined an invitation to the second bowl game ever played, in 1915, against which team?

University officials balked at the cost of sending the team to Pasadena; NU's first bowl was the 1941 Rose Bowl.

Whose sideline outbursts led Nebraska to create a women's seating section far from the home bench?

Nebraska went 28-0-2 at Nebraska Field under him.

How many former Nebraska walk-ons have become All-Americans?

Twenty-five walk-ons have gone on to be drafted into the NFL.

Against which visitor was Nebraska forced into blue practice jerseys in 1920, its first non-standard uniforms?

The visiting Coyotes had mistakenly brought their home reds to Lincoln.

A bison head named Mr. Chip was presented in the 1950s to the winner of Nebraska's game against whom?

The exchange ended when a Colorado student society misplaced the trophy.

In which year did Nebraska return to a bowl game after a seven-season absence?

The drought began in 2017 and covered Scott Frost's entire tenure as head coach.