(upbeat music) VOICEOVER: Funding for this program was provided by: U.S. Bank, offering solutions for all your financial needs; the Abel Foundation; and viewers like you who are members of Nebraskans for Public Television.

(crowd cheers) (Husker fight song) TREV ALBERTS: For more than a century, Nebraskans have had a passion for Husker football.

KEITH JACKSON: And it goes back, I think, to the very beginning when, there we were, out on the plain.

All we have is us.

And they made it work.

ALBERTS: In the early days, Nebraska fans had much to cheer about, beating football powerhouses like Knute Rockne's Notre Dame.

But the spirit of Nebraska fans was challenged in the 1940's and '50's, when coach after coach fell short of victory.

LYLE BREMSER: Holy moly, man, woman, and child did that put 'em in the aisles.

ALBERTS: Then against all odds one coach found a way for Nebraska to win again.

(Husker fight song) CROWD: Go Big Red, go Big Red, go Big Red, go Big Red, go Big Red, go Big Red.

ALBERTS: It's September 9, 2000.

CROWD: Go Big Red, go Big Red, go Big Red.

FAN You know in Nebraska we only have two seasons, four months of football and eight months of waiting.

GROUP: Go Big Red, go Big Red.

ALBERTS: Husker fans stream into South Bend, Indiana for a chance to see Nebraska play the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

FANS: It's a tradition, man.

This is big time.

Notre Dame, you got Nebraska, don't get any better.

KID: Programs, get your programs.

ALBERTS: The last time these two traditional football powers played here was in 1947.

FRANK SOLICH: Congratulations on your first win of the season, that was tremendous.

ALBERTS: The Cornhuskers are ranked number one in the national polls.

FOOTBALL PLAYER: Look at the sea of red.

I don't see all the blue and green.

I don't see it, woo!

ALBERTS: It's the game of the week with a national television audience and press coverage from all across the country.

LEN ROBBINS: I think it's a big game just because of the tradition of both of the programs.

It's kind of a unique matchup in the sense that the Notre Dame kids, I don't think, have run into a team like Nebraska in quite some time, and the Nebraska kids have been very upfront about saying, what Notre Dame tradition?

I mean, the only guy they know is Rudy for crying out loud.

ALBERTS: The stadium is sold out, Nebraska is allotted only 4,000 tickets, but an estimated 25,000 Husker fans found a way to take over parts of the stadium.

DICK VITALE: I can't believe I'm seeing so many Nebraska fans, how did those Notre Dame fans sell those tickets?

I'm very disappointed.

CHRIS FOWLER: This is a great setting and Nebraska has, as they're showing today, probably the best fans in college football, I was shocked when I saw this much red when I walked in the stadium.

I've never seen for a big game on another campus this many visiting fans.

LEE CORSO: Nebraska, to me, was the finest place I ever played and coached against, because the people respected football there and they understood it better.

That's why they're so good.

ALBERTS: Nebraska fans expect a blowout.

(crowd cheering) (band plays) FAN: Yes, yes, Irish, woo!

ALBERTS: Despite a scare, Nebraska pulls out a win over Notre Dame, 27 to 24 in overtime.

PLAYER: That's right, number one.

PLAYER: It's a dream to play in this stadium, it really is a dream.

And to come out on top is even a bigger dream come true, it's a bigger dream come true.

ALBERTS: History will decide the magnitude of this victory, because at Nebraska, winning is expected.

(music and cheers) ALBERTS: Nebraska's victory at Notre Dame showed the Huskers' spirit and determination to win.

Hi, I'm Trev Alberts, and I know firsthand about the winning tradition at the University of Nebraska.

We want to win football games, and we aim to be the best in the country.

In the first 50 years, Nebraska had only three losing seasons, but there was a time when the Huskers struggled through years of losing seasons and fired coaches.

The fans were frustrated, and the thought of winning a national championship was a dream.

But Coach Devaney rallied the team back to glory, before that can happen, bad times lie ahead.

Before you can move forward, you need to know where you've been.

(bomb explodes) FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

JIM SHERWOOD: If you think about Pearl Harbor, you think about the impact on American society, but specifically in terms of football, it impacted the coaching, because Biff Jones was recalled to active duty, so that began the coaching problems that we had.

And secondly, it impacted the caliber, the physical caliber of the player that was able to come to Nebraska.

If you were young, healthy, you went to service, you didn't come to college and play football.

(melancholic music) ALBERTS: Nebraska loses a successful coach and many of its best players to the armed forces.

Major Biff Jones is replaced by former pro standout Glenn Presnell.

In his rookie year at Nebraska, Presnell lost seven games and won three.

After one season, Presnell went off to service.

1942 begins a cycle of losing seasons and a revolving door of coaches.

(melancholic music) (triumphant, patriotic music) NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: The full industrial might of hundreds of millions, the courage, and skill, and tireless effort of the allied armies of liberation will be brought to bear ag ainst both Germany and Japan.

ALBERTS: During the war, many major universities, mainly Big 10 schools, had military officer training programs.

While ca dets finished their training, they were eligible to play football.

Teams like Notre Dame never experienced a drop-off in talent.

There was no military program at Nebraska.

Men enlisting in the Air Force and Navy had to leave the state for training.

SHERWOOD: When you look at the kind of players Nebraska was able to put on the field during the World War II period, they're either people who were physically ineligible to serve in the Army, which probably didn't make them very good football players, or they were young players who were simply waiting to be drafted into the Army.

And so it was various sportswriters would use phrases like ragtag collection of players.

(playful ragtime music) ALBERTS: The Lincoln Journal wrote about the Cornhusker kids, MAN (reading story): I find that seven of the 11 starters scarcely were sufficiently aged to possess a speaking acquaintance with that handy implement known as a razor.

To most of them, I suspect, shaving is an unknown art.

ALBERTS: The 1943 team is coached by Adolph J. Lewandowski.

His team is hardly championship quality.

Lewandowski managed to win only four games in two years.

Season attendance dropped to a record low of 16,000.

Lewandowski was removed as football coach and made ticket manager.

The war is taking its toll on Husker football.

(triumphant, patriotic music) PRES.

TRUMAN: General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations.

(bomb explodes) ALBERTS: On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima and later Nagasaki.

Japan soon surrenders and the Pacific war comes to an end.

(crowd cheers) ♪ Come a-running boys ♪ ♪ Don't you hear that noise ♪ ♪ Like the thunder in the sky ♪ ALBERTS: Nebraska's boys are returning home and the state expects to return to stability.

For Nebraska football, there's excitement that the Huskers can return to their winning ways.

Bernie Masterson, the fourth coach in the last five years, is hired to lead Nebraska back to victory.

SHERWOOD: Bernie Masterson was gonna be the savior.

We talk about someone coming in with high expectations, Bernie Masterson played at Lincoln High, then he played for the Cornhuskers, then he went off and he played for the Chicago Bears.

And he was the offensive coach at Stanford when we played Stanford in the Rose Bowl.

So when Bernie Masterson came in, everyone expected this is it, now we're back.

The war's over, now we can get started, and who better to bring us back than one of our own loyal sons.

ALBERTS: In 1947, Nebraska struggles, but there's one player that both the team and fans identify with because of his blue-collar, never-give-up attitude.

He's one tough 205-pound center and linebacker from South Omaha, Tom "Train Wreck" Novak.

(triumphant music) DON BRYANT: I mean he just had no regard for his body.

He tackled with his chest and always he'd have a rubber pad on his chest for the deviated sternum or something, and he just was a ferocious defensive player.

FRAN NAGLE: He was good, he was just a good football player.

He was made to play football, I think.

He had the instincts and he was a linebacker, and he could just smell out the plays and just attack ferociously, I think you'd have to say.

ALBERTS: It's Saturday, October 18, 1947, Tom Novak guarantees Nebraska fans a victory against Notre Dame.

This is the first renewal of a series between the two schools since 1925.

It's a sellout crowd at Notre Dame Stadium.

This game attracts one of the largest Husker fan migrations since the 1941 Rose Bowl.

Notre Dame scored in every period.

The Huskers had several chances to score, but each time the Fighting Irish stopped the drive.

Tom Novak was everywhere, he made most of the tackles and set the Irish back on their heels.

But the Train Wreck wasn't enough, Notre Dame wins, 31 to nothing.

SHERWOOD: You know, when we lost to Notre Dame, Novak got a standing ovation, at South Bend.

NAGLE: They talk about Dick Butkus and Illinois, I think Tom was every bit as tough.

(melancholic music) BRYANT: For years, I'd go to the Hall of Fame and see Notre Dame players of that era, and they'd ask about Train Wreck.

How's he getting along and all that stuff.

So, I mean, he had great respect, he was a fine, tough football player.

ALBERTS: Tom Novak's number would go on to become the only permanently retired number in Husker history.

The gap between Nebraska and football powerhouses like Notre Dame is widening.

Bernie Masterson couldn't put a winning team together.

Masterson lost most of his games, and the fans lost their patience.

SHERWOOD: Bernie Masterson didn't get the job done, I mean, that's fair to say.

In fact, he's the only coach in Nebraska history who, in his second season, lost all his home games.

ALBERTS: The university caved in to pressure from fans and financial boosters.

Masterson is the first Nebraska coach to have his contract bought out with private money.

In 1949, Nebraska hires Bill Glassford, a highly touted assistant at then-powerful Pittsburgh.

SHERWOOD: He began to address that issue that was so lacking in the 1940's and that was the quality of player.

So we began to get players that had the physical skills to compete at the top level.

It's under Bill Glassford that we begin to offer athletic scholarships.

There was some controversy over that, including the athletic director thinking, you know, is it right to somehow offer players something in return for coming and playing for the university?

KEITH JACKSON: That was a terrifying moment when somebody said, my god, if we put them on a grant and aid scholarship program, are we hiring them?

Are they on salary?

If we pay them money, they're on salary, now it's a contract, now they're subject to workman's comp.

There were legislators jumping out of their socks all over the country over that possibility and that's how this phrase, student-athlete, came into being.

ALBERTS: But to Glassford, student-athletes from Nebraska weren't good enough.

He begins to looks elsewhere to find more experienced players.

His first quarterback recruit is from Massachusetts, World War II vet Fran Nagle.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Nagle drifts back to pass, eludes two Tiger tacklers.

NAGLE: I was strictly a drop-back passer.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: And fires away to Reynolds, who wrestles the ball away and falls in the end zone for a touchdown.

NAGLE: But when it came to running, that was not my forte.

So I either threw the ball or I was caught dead in the backfield there.

ALBERTS: Fran never had to run the ball with Mr. Touchdown Bobby Reynolds in his backfield.

(dramatic music) SHERWOOD: Bobby Reynolds had a major strike against him in Bill Glassford's eyes, and that's he was a Nebraskan.

ALBERTS: In 1950, Bobby Reynolds proved to Glassford that Nebraskans could play football.

Reynolds, a sophomore from Grand Island, gained 1,342 yards and scored 22 touchdowns.

NAGLE: He was so good, just an outstanding athlete, and he came out of nowhere as a sophomore.

I think everybody in Nebraska expected something of Bobby, but not what he accomplished.

I mean, he was just fantastic that sophomore year.

He did everything, he was running, he could pass if he was called on, he did the extra-point kicking.

He was just so versatile.

We were playing Missouri here in Lincoln in 1950.

Bobby took the ball and started around the right side and then around the end and was stopped, turned around, came back around to the left, was stopped again.

Then came back and retracing his steps to the right and went in for a touchdown for 40 yards vertically, and about 120 yards laterally.

It was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen.

Aside from all the talent that Bobby Reynolds had, he was just a great kid, too, and he had a lot to do with the spirit that carried through that team in 1950.

ALBERTS: All-American Bobby Reynolds is hampered by injuries in his junior and senior year and was never able to repeat his standout season.

Bill Glassford's 1950 squad ended the season second in the Big Seven Conference.

This marked the first winning year since 1940.

(playful blues music) In the early 1950's, Nebraska begins to regain its self esteem on the football field.

Not only are the Huskers winning, the state's economy is improving.

Nebraskans enjoyed newfound prosperity.

Farmers see large crop surpluses.

Omaha is the nation's leading meat supplier The College World Series comes to town.

Television is the latest rage.

And the university's television station begins broadcasting a weekly Nebraska football highlights show.

GLASSFORD: Seven of our boys went 60 minutes in the ballgame.

It was a team victory from the standpoint of all the boys on the playing field, and also on the bench.

ALBERTS: Even though the country is at war in Korea, there is a revival of hope and prosperity for Nebraska and Husker football.

(playful blues music) SHERWOOD: Nebraska started winning, which was a refreshing change for Nebraska fans.

Glassford also brought controversy to the Nebraska football program.

You know, it's the proverbial my way or the highway, there was only one way to do things and that was Bill Glassford's way.

He saw players as cogs in a machine.

They had no personality, they had no individuality.

(playful blues music) NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: The return of veteran linemen like tackle Max Kitzelman, number 63, should enable Bobby Smith to break loose on a few more gallops like the one you're going to watch right now.

MAX KITZELMAN: As the veterans left the team, and he got into the younger players, he forgot how to treat people and he had an awful lot of people that just didn't stay there because of the way he did things.

And he was just a little bit more aggressive with the personnel than I thought he should've been.

They claimed that he played at Pittsburgh, and they called him the Babyfaced Assassin.

We called him something else.

We called him the Babyfaced Bastard.

JACKSON: Because if you remember when the guys came back from the war, they brought a new attitude that suddenly confronted the educational people, and confronted the coaches.

The coach was not quite the king after the war that he was before.

KITZELMAN: Glassford did some very interesting things.

I mean, he held preseasons workouts out in Curtis, at the ag school in Curtis, put a locker room in the second floor of an old barn out there, and players had to shimmy up the rope to get to the locker room.

How would you like to go through a two-and-a-half, three-hour practice, then have a long ladder that's inclined and you had to hand walk it with all your equipment on to get inside before you could go eat?

Hot, dry, miserable conditions, and that was a time when they felt that you got in better condition if you didn't get any water during practice, so you didn't get a drink.

SHERWOOD: They shut down Camp Curtis because the reports of both the brutality, I mean there's no other way to describe it, or the conditions, and then the injuries to the players became so apparent that they didn't have any choice.

But Glassford found other ways to condition his players for the games.

KITZELMAN: The fall camps that we had was five to six in the morning we had a practice, went to breakfast, then we had a meeting, then we had three hours of practice.

Then we ate, then we had a meeting, and went three and a half hours of practice.

And then we ate, then we had a meeting at the night, got to bed about 11.

And after a while, two days went by and you thought you'd been there a week.

(melancholic music) ALBERTS: In '53, Nebraska beats Miami in Lincoln, but the season ended with only three wins.

The players' hard work and long practice sessions aren't paying off.

By 1954, Glassford has a losing record.

His abrasive style is wearing thin with the team and with the alumni.

KITZELMAN: Some of the alumni in Lincoln and in Grand Island that wanted Glassford to leave had gotten a hold of some of the older players and with my being the senior and all, they wanted me to go to a meeting at the Lincoln Hotel.

CHARLES BRYANT: Yeah, I remember that very vividly.

One day after practice, they said to John McWilliams and I, come on meet us down to the Lincoln Hotel, we're gonna have a party, we're gonna try to get rid of the coach, we got a petition for you to sign.

We get down there, and they have this party lasts three days, three days, and they're drinking and all this stuff, and they pull this petition out, and of course I signed it.

The worst thing I ever did in my life.

(mournful music) ALBERTS: In January 1954, the Nebraska football team did what was unthinkable for the times.

35 squad members signed a statement demanding the resignation of their coach, Bill Glassford.

JACKSON: It was interesting to see that football players had dared to stand up and say, enough, we're not gonna do this anymore.

There were guys all over the country who were wondering, am I next?

ALBERTS: The Glassford petition was signed by Max Kitzelman.

KITZELMAN: I think Bill fully understood that we were kind of pulled in by the alumni, and really used for their purpose.

SHERWOOD: Glassford seemed shocked by the whole thing.

But again, given his style, since he never listened, it would be not surprising that he never heard how unhappy the players were prior to this.

KITZELMAN: He called me in and he said, I think if I'm here next year that you will be.

I just plain told him, no, I wouldn't be.

'Cause under the circumstances I had a service requirement of at least two years in the military and I was just gonna go ahead and not take the deferment for the draft, and consequently I went in the Army for two years.

SHERWOOD: And in the end Bill Glassford was retained as coach.

Because it would appear, and the conclusion of most observers was that we simply couldn't afford to buy out his contract.

KITZELMAN: I got into coaching later, and I could look at it this way, it helped me know how to treat people.

And I've had players call me after they've left, 15, 20 years later, visit with me from California and tell me, I just wanted you to know you touched my life.

And that means a lot to you, that you helped someone, and maybe Bill had something to do with that, who knows.

ALBERTS: In 1953, the Korean War ends.

At home, a new conflict is surfacing across the nation and in Nebraska.

CHARLES BRYANT: There'd be one black kid on a football field with 100 white guys, who have come from Scribner, and Schuyler, and Broken Bow, and they had no idea what it was like to deal with black people.

And they just ignored me most part.

And I had many a fight, we call fights, punch you, I punch you, and that's it, and the coach stops it.

But my buddy, Max Kitzelman, kinda settled all those problems for me and he kinda took care of me.

He was six-foot-five and 250 in those days, and nobody bothered me.

KITZELMAN: You learn how to take care of yourself.

You stick up for yourself, you stick up for your friends.

And Charlie was a good friend.

(triumphant piano music) ALBERTS: Charles Bryant from Omaha South High was the first black football player to letter at Nebraska since Clinton Ross in 1913.

Bryant was later joined by other black players, John McWilliams and Sylvester Harris.

CHARLES BRYANT: There was never any racism among the coaches, never heard him say a word, Bill Glassford, they were just all kinda weird to me.

One day I walked out to practice and he said to me, Charlie, why you look so mad?

And I said, I'm mad.

He said, you oughta smile.

So the next day I came by him and he stopped me, he was chewing me out and I laughed in his face.

Oh, did he get angry.

I said, Coach, you told me to be happy.

(melancholic music) JACKSON: In the '50's, you had the real beginning of athletic integration, the black athletes coming in.

Sports has done as much as anything in our society to help bring the races, if you wanna use that term, together.

ALBERTS: Integration of the Nebraska team happens at a time when much of the Big Seven is still segregated.

Social attitudes are changing, but black players traveling to places like Missouri and Oklahoma are faced with open discrimination.

CHARLES BRYANT: We went to Oklahoma and we had to stay at the black Y, and I don't know what they were thinking, but why wouldn't they let us eat there at the black Y?

They had to bring us all the way across town, march us into the dining room to eat with the team, then we had to march out.

It was just more than I could stand.

KITZELMAN: I didn't know until many years later that they had to stay in the YMCA.

That's embarrassing to me that those conditions existed at that time.

SHERWOOD: And it was really the worst of American society at first-hand experience.

NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: At Lincoln, Nebraska, coach Bill Glassford returns in '54 with high hopes for a big Cornhusker season.

Coach Glassford has his problems, the major one being to find a quarterback re placement for Johnny Bordogna At Norman, Oklahoma, they're confident of something that has come to be tradition, a Big Seven title for the Oklahoma Sooners.

Bud Wilkinson envisions still another split T power for 1954.

ALBERTS: Wilkinson's Sooners beat Glassford's Cornhuskers, 55 to seven, the worst defeat suffered by Nebraska at Oklahoma.

Because of an NCAA no-repeat rule, Oklahoma is not allowed to make a return bowl trip.

SHERWOOD: We were destroyed by Oklahoma.

Oklahoma knew it couldn't go to the Orange Bowl, it knew if things played out, Nebraska would go, and there were some who speculated that Oklahoma wanted to show the Orange Bowl that they really were getting the second-best team in the Big Seven.

ANNOUNCER: The 21st annual Orange Bowl Classic, 1955, Duke versus Nebraska, it's New Year's Day in Miami.

ALBERTS: This is Nebraska's first bowl appearance since the Rose Bowl, but fans and the national press show little interest.

SHERWOOD: In fact, again if you read some of the sportswriters' evaluations of the Orange Bowl, they talked about what a miserable showing Nebraska made, national sportswriters now.

ALBERTS: A Houston Post sportswriter wrote, Glassford can now find at least 68,750 who will sign a petition recommending the di smissal of his football team.

SHERWOOD: So we certainly didn't gain a heck of a lot of national credibility by playing in the Orange Bowl.

ANNOUNCER: Final score, Duke University 34, Nebraska seven.

ALBERTS: Going into the next season, Bill Glassford could see the writing on the wall.

(melancholic music) SHERWOOD: Glassford's career ended quietly, I guess would be the nicest way to put it.

You know, it's tough to be where you're not wanted.

The end of the 1955 season, his contract expired, but he had the option of renewing that contract for another five years, it was at his initiation, and he chose not to exercise that option.

So the '55 season was played out and Bill Glassford left quietly, and probably at both sides everyone was happy it ended that way.

If you look at the mid-'50's, what happens, of course, is that the conference is so dominated by Oklahoma, the other six of the Big Seven are in the shade, if you will, of the big Oklahoma tree.

ALBERTS: Bud Wilkinson's Sooners are on a winning streak with a record 74 conference wins and two national championships.

Oklahoma is the envy of the nation.

Nebraska's under pressure to hire a top replacement for Glassford.

(optimistic swing music) JIM SHERWOOD: We hired Pete Elliott from Oklahoma, and so if you want to emulate the best, you steal from them.

SO there was a great deal of expectation, now we're gonna come back, now we've got the guy we need.

DON BRYANT: The word was Bud Wilkinson loved Pete Elliott like a son.

Well, Dad beat Son about 54 to six, and Pete immediately took the job as head coach of California and left after one season.

SHERWOOD; And then the university said, well, we're gonna go to Bill Jennings, because here's a loyal assistant coach, someone we can count on, someone we can depend on to be here a number of years.

TREV ALBERTS: Dependable Jennings wins only one game in his first year.

SHERWOOD: Bill Jennings was the epitome of the Peter principle.

He was a good recruiter, but then when he got to be head coach, one of his real lacks was organizational skills.

ALBERTS: Yet again, Nebraska fans lacked confidence in their new coach.

There was little to cheer about in Lincoln until October 31, 1959.

It's a dreary Halloween afternoon at Memorial Stadium.

The Huskers are massive underdogs to Oklahoma.

Quarterback Harry Tolly from North Platte ran the NU offense.

(upbeat music) HARRY TOLLY: Oklahoma took the opening kickoff and marched it down the field and scored on their first drive and everybody kind of thought, well, business as usual, and Oklahoma's gonna win.

ALBERTS: OU took an early lead, but Tolly threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Richard McDaniel to make it seven to six.

Even though it's early in the game, Nebraska tries to take the lead with a two-point conversion.

TOLLY: At that time, even though we missed the two-pointer, and then it was still seven to six, I think all of us started thinking we're not playing for a tie and we're not gonna lose, we're gonna try to win this game.

ALBERTS: A field goal by Ron Meade in the third quarter put the Huskers ahead, 15 to 14.

TOLLY: And I think a lot of people started thinking, well, maybe this is the year that we're gonna get 'em.

And I always have people tell me that there were more fans in the stands at the end of the game than when they started, because they kind of listened on the radio and they could see that something special was happening.

And a lot of people came, I think, to watch the rest of the game.

ALBERTS: A late fourth-quarter touchdown by Tolly puts the Huskers ahead, 22 to 14.

TOLLY: As Oklahoma can do, why they came back and drove the ball down and ended up scoring with about four minutes to go and so it was getting a little nervous for most of us.

And so Oklahoma was putting on a final drive and the fans were up and screaming and making noise.

They drove down to our about our 30 or 35, and they were running out of time, and so they started passing into the end zone.

Ron Meade intercepted it in the end zone for a touchback, which means that we had the ball on the 20 with less than a minute to go so we could run out the clock.

Now at the end of the game, the fans came on the field and tore both the goal posts down.

ALBERTS: Husker fans let go of years of pent-up frustration.

TOLLY: We as players carried Coach Jennings off the field on our shoulders.

I mean, it was a wonderful day.

And I thought a lot of Coach Jennings, and I was really happy for him to get the win.

(melancholic music) SHERWOOD: I mean, one of the questions, if he could do that, why couldn't he win other games?

That's why you play the games, you know.

Some day it all come together for you, it might be the only time that season that it all comes together for you, or in Bill Jennings' case, it might be the only time in your career it all comes together for you.

ALBERTS: For a moment, Coach Jennings offered fans hope that he could turn the program around.

But after five straight losing seasons, he ends his career at Nebraska.

SHERWOOD: Bill Jennings was very unhappy as head coach.

Some of the coaching and training staff who were his personal friends said they really worried about him, because he changed as an individual.

He became more depressed.

When Bill Jennings was fired, a lot of his friends applauded, not because they wanted to see him go, but they just wanted to see this burden lifted from him.

ALBERTS: Bill Jennings closes the revolving door of failed Nebraska coaches.

Like Glassford before him, Jennings didn't believe the Cornhuskers or the state had the makings of greatness.

In a newspaper interview, Jennings said, MAN (reading Jennings words): There's an intense desire to do something good in this state like elect a president, but I can't feed the ego of the state of Nebraska with a football team.

ALBERTS: Jennings was right about desire, he was wrong about football.

Fans had to wonder if stability and success would ever return to the Nebraska football team.

At this point in Husker history, fans had seen only three winning seasons in 20 years.

It was time for Nebraska to prove itself again.

Well, they not only proved that they could win, they shocked college football.

(upbeat marching band music) ALBERTS: In 1962, NU president Clifford Hardin began a national search to replace Jennings.

Hardin offered the job To Michigan State coach Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty, one of the most popular coaches in America.

COACH BOB DEVANEY: He says, I can't do this, but he says, there's a guy coaching out there at Wyoming that worked for me that I think would do you a good job.

And so, Duffy recommended me and Chancellor Hardin at the time called and I came in here under an assumed name, because I guess they weren't sure they wanted me.

SHERWOOD: And Bob came to campus, and of course, I couldn't picture Bob Devaney blowing an interview for a job if he really wanted it.

He was that good.

DEVANEY: When I first came here, though, I was not very impressed with Nebraska's athletic facilities, in fact, they were horrible.

I called back to Duffy, and I said, Duffy, this place doesn't look too good.

But he said, if you win there, you can win a national championship.

And he said, I know that these people are interested in football and interested in winning.

BRYANT: None of us could have ever dreamed the impact Devaney would have on Nebraska football.

But it was refreshing, and we felt, I think, most of us that met him felt, hey, this guy may have some potential, he looked like a good guy.

(upbeat music) SHERWOOD: Bob Devaney brought enthusiasm to the Nebraska program.

His own personal enthusiasm, and then the enthusiasm that he generated among the players and fans.

He made Nebraska believe in itself again as a football team.

ALBERTS: Bob Devaney's first star quarterback is Jennings recruit Dennis Claridge from Robbinsdale, Minnesota.

DENNIS CLARIDGE: There were a number of things that Bob did that made him a winner.

When he came in, he found out what our gripes were, and did everything the opposite.

If we had three-hour practices, he came in and said, we're gonna practice an hour and a half.

We heard you guys scrimmage, we're gonna have no contact.

There will be no scrimmaging during the week.

I don't care who you are, everybody starts on a level plain, so if you're a starter, you're fighting for a job.

And ended up a lot of the guys that were second, third, fourth team under Bill Jennings ended up playing quite a bit against Bob.

So he did a lot of things that got the players excited about playing again.

He had a unique knack of letting us know that we could win.

DEVANEY: I think any person that's worth a damn has gotta believe in themself.

If they don't believe in themself, nobody else in the world is.

ANNOUNCER: The University of Nebraska Department of Intercollegiate Athletics presents, football highlights of 1962.

ALBERTS: In his coaching debut at Nebraska, Devaney's team overwhelms South Dakota.

DEVANEY: I can remember our first game, and we threw an incomplete forward pass, and everybody in the stands stood up and cheered and hollered, I guess they hadn't been passing much.

ANNOUNCER: Here's a man in motion, Faiman rolling out to the left, wants to throw, spots a receiver, he's got him free, to Tomlinson, touchdown.

Nebraska's first touchdown of the 1962 season.

ALBERTS: Nebraska beat South Dakota, 53 to nothing.

Devaney's next opponent was a bit more intimidating.

Nebraska takes on Big 10 powerhouse the Michigan Wolverines.

ANNOUNCER: It was Nebraska's first appearance on Michigan turf since 1915 in a series which found the Huskers winless in three previous tries.

CLARIDGE: The idea of going to Michigan, first of all, was a little fearful, you were gonna be playing the big boys.

They had a great reputation, everybody knew who Michigan was, and nobody knew who we were.

Bob Devaney was from Michigan, I think there was a pressure there.

He didn't say a lot about it, but in our private coaches meetings with our position coaches and things like that, they all let us know that this means a lot to the old man, this is a big deal.

(anticipatory music) ALBERTS: It's a bright Saturday afternoon, September 29, 1962 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

ANNOUNCER: The underdog Huskers of the Big Eight showed early that they were unawed by the crowd of 70,000 and the Michigan reputation.

ALBERTS: The game started off an even match, neither team was able to score in the first quarter.

ANNOUNCER: Second and nine, the first unit back in, Claridge at quarterback.

He pitches to Stuewe, goes outside, has a block at the 40, the 45, the 50, the 40, to the Michigan 30, still driving, and carries out of bounds down to the Michigan 25-yard line.

Claridge calling signals, takes plenty of time, seven-man Michigan front, pitches it out, goes to Steuwe, has a block at the five, the two, the one, touchdown Nebraska.

ALBERTS: In the second half, Dennis Claridge breaks things wide open.

CLARIDGE: I did some kind of a roll out or an option, ended up keeping the ball and I wasn't very elusive, and the guy was coming, and so we just went head on.

And as I got up and kinda looked at him, there was not a fear, but there wasn't a confidence in his eyes, there wasn't this thing, I'm from Michigan and I'm gonna get you, it was a, like, wow, there was just a little look in his eye that said, boy, this game's about over, we're gonna take control here.

ANNOUNCER: Nebraska first and 10 on the Michigan 16, 7:45 left in the game.

Claridge hands off to Th ornton, has a hole at the 10, driving to the five, the two, the one, touchdown, Bill "Thunder" Thornton.

Thornton with his second touchdown of the afternoon.

And he came racing back out of that end zone just as fast as he went in.

He's a happy guy.

DEVANEY: And we beat 'em, 25 and 13, which was a tremendous upset.

And that was maybe as an important game as we ever won during my tenure at the University of Nebraska.

CLARIDGE: It was a good game, I think we controlled things.

Michigan being up in that area got a lot of press, so nationally we were recognized.

I think after the game, and after we won, then I think the state got probably a little excited about how good we were and what we'd done.

(triumphant music) ANNOUNCER: This is the story of a football team that played the comeback of the year in the midlands.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers, once proud rulers of Great Plains football, led from the depths to prosperity by a 46-year-old magician, Bob Devaney.

The combination wizard-humorist took the reins of the Huskers in Lincoln.

ALBERTS: Devaney is actually winning with players he inherited from Bill Jennings.

ANNOUNCER: He's got a block, cuts in at the 10, to the five, to the one, he scores.

ALBERTS: He has help from loyal assistant coaches, many that came with him from Wyoming.

CLARIDGE: He had a great staff, and he kept that staff, and then recognized the budding genius of Tom Osborne.

KEITH JACKSON: He brought a coaching staff that stayed together.

Stayed together to the point where they knew out of hand what the other guy was gonna do.

That is one of the greatest assets you can have.

It's better than having players, because you can take ordinary players and develop them with that kind of a corps of teachers, and that's exactly what they did.

ANNOUNCER: The record led to Big Eight Coach of the Year honors for Bob Devaney in his first year with the Huskers, and player of the year-- ALBERTS: Devaney's 1962 team wins eight regular-season games and lands a spot in the Gotham Bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York.

(upbeat music) BRYANT: Nebraska was guaranteed $35,000 to fly to New York and play in the Gotham Bowl game against the University of Miami.

There was a newspaper strike in New York, so it was the best-kept secret in Gotham.

CLARIDGE: The day of the game, you'll have differing reports on how many people were there, I looked around the stadium a lot, and there was a Salvation Army band, and I'm gonna tell you there were 500, maybe 1,000 kids at the most, that they had let in.

ALBERTS: The temperature is in the teens with freezing sleet.

BRYANT: I was in the locker room and I remember Devaney's last admonition, or apology, to the squad just before they took the field, and he said, fellas, I really gotta apologize to you for getting you into this mess.

He said, this is a terrible day and terrible conditions.

He says, but it reminds me an awful lot of my old days of the back-alley fights in Michigan when I was a kid.

There isn't anybody there to watch you, but the toughest SOB's gonna win.

And they cheered and went out the door, and it was a great game, it really was.

ANNOUNCER: Claridge looks over an eight-man Miami front, Theisen in motion, Claridge in a rollout, fires a pass for a touchdown to Mike Eger in the end zone.

Well, these Huskers time and time again have fought back with great courage.

This has been a fine effort.

ALBERTS: A nearly empty stadium sees an exciting game.

Nebraska and Miami traded scores in every quarter.

Nebraska holds on to win their first bowl game ever, 36 to 34, and ends Devaney's first season with nine wins, the most wins in one season since 1903.

BRYANT: The nation was stunned as we won nine games and won the Gotham Bowl.

I mean, hey, boy, that's a heck of a job.

JACKSON: The Nebraska faithful were hungry for somebody to do something successful.

They needed a win.

He got a win, he got their applause, then he got their support.

DEVANEY: The thing that really was great, and I really mean this, was the people in the state of Nebraska.

How much behind the team, and how badly they wanted to win in the sport of football.

ANNOUNCER: After a great season in 1962, Nebraska football fans look forward to the '63 season with even more optimism.

Coach Bob Devaney-- ALBERTS: As the season begins with optimism, the country's mood is one of discontent.

(sirens blare) Civil rights demonstrations heat up across the nation.

(sirens blare) SHERWOOD: Black players, they were certainly aware of what was happening nationally in terms of civil rights and the whole struggle against segregation, but they never felt, certainly in the Devaney camp, if you will, evidence of that kind of discrimination.

Bob was truly color blind, I mean every player will tell you that, that what he cared about was your football ability, he didn't care about the color of your skin.

ALBERTS: Devaney's 1963 team is eight and one heading into its showdown with powerhouse Oklahoma.

Then on November 22, President John F. Kennedy visits Dallas.

REPORTER: The president passes right in front of a Dallas police officer, right in front of our cameras now.

Somebody patted his shoulder, Mrs. Kennedy coming along behind him, grinning all the while.

REPORTER: Pardon me, ma'am, I'd like to ask your reaction to the death of the president?

LADY: Well, anything like that is a terrible tragedy to a nation, whether you are for him or again' him makes no difference.

SHERWOOD: The assassination of John Kennedy brought the country to a standstill.

CLARIDGE: I remember hearing about it, I was in my fraternity house.

The initial shock and fear, and you know, what's going on?

SHERWOOD: Around the country various events were canceled, I mean most high school events, basketball, football were canceled.

The whole country literally stopped and said, what do we do now?

ALBERTS: The next day Nebraska is scheduled to play Oklahoma for the Big Eight championship.

BRYANT: And everybody's in shock about the president being shot, of course.

Bud Wilkinson was President Kennedy's head of youth physical fitness council, so he called Bobby Kennedy and got a hold of him.

And Bobby Kennedy urged him to play the game, said the president would want you to play the game.

ANNOUNCER: Memorial Stadium flags were at half mast on November 23 in memory of President John F. Kennedy, assassinated the previous day in Dallas, Texas.

The crowd stood for a moment of silent tribute.

CLARIDGE: Back then, Oklahoma was everything.

It was the most important game, to me, in the season.

I would've lost three or four other games if I could have beaten Oklahoma.

ANNOUNCER: Claridge calling the signals, handing off on the right side, and it's a touchdown for the Huskers, Rudy Johnson banging in over the right side.

DEVANEY: Denny Claridge just got better as the season went along.

He was a big, strong guy.

He was a good runner and a pretty good passer.

ANNOUNCER: Claridge diving, he's got the touchdown.

ALBERTS: Devaney's Huskers led, 17 to nothing, in the fourth quarter.

Oklahoma tried to come back, but the game ended in a 29-to-20 Husker victory.

ANNOUNCER: Claridge diving on the turf for the final play of the game.

It's a mob scene at center field.

The goal post at the south end going down.

ALBERTS: The Cornhuskers win their first conference title since 1940.

CLARIDGE: We were ecstatic, I mean we were thrilled to death.

The crowd and everything else, I think we capped off a great season, we were Big Eight champs first time in a long time.

Being at that age, 21 years of age, pretty selfish and self-centered, I would say we probably thought more about the game that we had won and what we had accomplished rather than thinking about the mood of the country and what had happened to the country.

I wish I could say it was different, but it probably wasn't.

ANNOUNCER: From across the nation and around the globe, the sports-minded and fun seekers come to enjoy everything under the sun in the playground of the world.

ALBERTS: The Huskers traveled to the Orange Bowl to face fifth-ranked Auburn.

CLARIDGE: It was fun practicing in a warm place, being able to go down there and be on a beach.

Gee whiz, a swimming pool.

(diving into pool) We had reached the big time.

ANNOUNCER: Dennis Claridge, the Cornhuskers great quarterback.

All-American Bob Brown, 272 pounds and rough.

So is Lloyd Voss at 247.

Nebraska's head coach Bob Devaney.

CLARIDGE: And for some reason in this particular time, I thought, what kind of play have we got, what can I do to maybe try something that'll catch 'em off guard.

ALBERTS: Claridge did just that on the second play of the game.

ANNOUNCER: Claridge keeps the ball, breaks off the right side, he's at the 40, he's at midfield, down to the 40, still on his feet at the 30, 25, 20, 10, he's over for a touchdown.

CLARIDGE: I had seen great runners run down the sidelines untouched, and it's almost like you're gonna stumble over your own two feet, 'cause you don't think this can happen to you.

People will talk to me or visit with me about athletics or football, that's the one thing that they remember, so I think I was fortunate to have that happen 'cause it gave people something to remember.

ANNOUNCER: And the Big Red of Nebraska will go back to Lincoln, Nebraska happy tonight because they have won the 30th annual Orange Bowl Classic.

ALBERTS: Nebraska wins the Orange Bowl, 13 to seven, ending Claridge's college football career.

CLARIDGE: His system utilized whatever talents and abilities I had.

His system let me grow in confidence in what I could do athletically.

As a person, I loved being around him.

He was funny, he was humorous.

He could be very critical of you and get your attention if you weren't behaving or doing something right, but he had a unique sense of people around him and taking care of 'em.

I think he was a very loyal person.

He several times told me this football, it sure is fun, but get your education, prepare for things after football.

Helped in a lot of ways beyond football.

I have the utmost respect and fond memories of him, he was a great, great man.

REPORTER: Bob, how do you feel about defending the Big Eight championship?

DEVANEY: Well, we're glad to have a chance to defend it, Bob, and we hope that we can make a good showing, and we're certainly not going to relinquish that championship without a real tough fight.

REPORTER: Bob, best of luck on behalf of everybody throughout Cornhusker land for a splendid '64 season.

DEVANEY: Thank you Bob.

REPORTER: Bob Devaney, the head football coach at the University of Nebraska.

SHERWOOD: Bob Devaney became coach at a time when football was in transition in a number of ways, both in terms of the commercialization of the sport, if you will, it was just coming into its own as a TV sport and so on, so the money involved with football was changing significantly.

JACKSON: Bob Devaney also knew what the media could do for him, and his program, and for the University of Nebraska, and for the state of Nebraska.

You can't just say, well, we've got this little tiny dot up here in the middle of the state, oh, no, no.

He sold Nebraska.

And that made the whole state red.

(upbeat swing music) SHERWOOD: One sportswriter described Bob Devaney as an old-time evangelist, spreading the gospel of Big Red football.

DEVANEY: So I asked John to send down a group of freshmen, and he sent me down 11 of the biggest, fattest, slowest kids he had, see.

(crowd laughs) DON BRYANT: He enjoyed going to fundraising events, he would sing that great song, it's better to give than to receive, oh yes.

And they'd just cheer him, and they'd reach for their pocketbooks.

ALBERTS: Bob Devaney would use his popularity and charm to convince boosters to fund improvements to the athletic facilities.

In 1964, a south end zone section is installed to Memorial Stadium, beginning a series of expansions.

SPOKESMAN: Jack, of course, we'll have about 13,800 seats in the new addition, not all of these will be available on a reserve seat basis, because we'll have to hold, oh, about five or 6,000 over in this end for our ever-expanding student needs.

FRANK SOLICH: If you look at the string that is intact right now for sellouts, it goes really back to when Bob first showed up in 1962.

And I used to try to kid Coach Devaney that it was me showing up in 1962 that started filling the stadium up.

ALBERTS: Fullback Frank Solich from Cleveland, Ohio is in Devaney's first recruiting class.

BRYANT: He's one of the toughest little guys I've ever known.

I'd put him as tough as Tom Novak, except their size is different.

DEVANEY: Well he only weighed about 150 pounds, you don't find many 150-, 55-pound guys at football, especially as short as he was.

He'd do various kinds of tricks to put a little more weight on him.

SOLICH: Well, that's kind of an old story I'd like to forget.

It really came down to not wanting to be the lightest guy on the team.

Paul Snyder, who was our athletic trainer in those days, this was his ingenious idea.

They issued sweats to you, and t-shirts and shorts to you, of course they're all one size.

So the t-shirt that I got was extra extra large or whatever, just like everybody else, and so it draped down to my knees, and so I was able to strap a few extra pounds of weight around me and cover it up with that to get on the scale, but it really didn't work, still ended up being the lightest guy.

DEVANEY: But he was fine little football player, a fine football player period.

ANNOUNCER: The ball is at the 45-yard line of the Gophers.

Preston Love split wide on the right side, Duda under calling signals, dropping back to throw at the 50, rolls out, he's chased, has to get it away, he's got Solich open, he's got it at the 12, the five, he's in.

Frank Solich took that ball on the dead run, and the Huskers are back in it.

Little Frankie Solich the fullback cut across, he took that ball on the run at the 10 and romped in.

ALBERTS: In '64, Nebraska finishes the season with nine wins and a trip to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

ANNOUNCER: Churchich leads the way with his passing.

First, he hits Solich with a screen pass and the plucky, 154-pound fu llback darts for three yards.

ALBERTS: The Huskers lead most of the game in a defensive struggle ending in an Arkansas 10-to-seven win.

The 1965 team went undefeated in the regular season.

In only four years at Nebraska, Devaney built up a remarkable record.

ANNOUNCER: Bob Devaney, winner of 38 games and only five defeats, and truly the nation's greatest football coach.

ALBERTS: In the Orange Bowl, Devaney's Huskers played Paul "Bear" Bryant's Crimson Tide for the first time.

The national championship is riding on the outcome.

ANNOUNCER: Suddenly and incredibly, at eight p.m. New Year's night, 1966, through a rare combination of last-minute upsets in football, the stage was set for deciding college football's 1966 national championship.

Coach Paul Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide, winner of the 1964 crown, faced coach Paul Devaney's Nebraska Cornhuskers, king of Big Eight football.

DEVANEY: They had a quarterback who wasn't supposed to be a great passer, but just threw the ball that day like he was Johnny Unitas.

ANNOUNCER: That super quarterback Steve Sloan is back in the pocket again, rushed hard, but gets the ball away, a long one, and watch this fingertip sensational diving catch by Ray Perkins at the 12.

DEVANEY: That was a good Alabama team and they were ready to play.

ANNOUNCER: After that conversion, Alabama kicks off to Nebraska's six where fullback Frank Solich receives it and watch him go for 67 yards into Tide land.

(crowd cheers) ALBERTS: Frank Solich remembers the thrill of playing his final game in front of Coach Devaney and Bryant.

SOLICH: A magic moment.

You look at two of the very best that there's ever been in college football battling against one another.

Even if you had just a small part in that, it made you feel great.

ANNOUNCER: The winner, the Crimson Tide of Alabama, again the country's national champion, and king of the college gridiron.

DEVANEY: In 1966, I got a call from Bryant, and he said, well, Bob, old friend, we had a great game last year.

And I says, well, yeah.

And he said, two fine teams we got this year, he said, I don't think the Orange Bowl wants us back, but the Sugar Bowl down in New Orleans is every bit as good of a bowl game and they really want us, that'll give you a chance to get even.

(dramatic music) ALBERTS: The classic rematch turned into a mismatch.

Alabama struck quickly, quarterback Kenny Stabler passes 45 yards to Ray Perkins on the first play of the game.

ANNOUNCER: Kenny "The Snake" Stabler keeps the ball, sweeps left end, 14 yards for the touchdown.

COACH PAUL "BEAR" BRYANT: We'd call the option play, Kenny would say, look at that block of Cecil Dowdy, nice play by their linebacker, you're a little late there partner.

(crowd noise) Stabler back to pass and he throws out to Dennis Homan, who's wide open, and you see they know something about the fundamentals of football because they really do tackle.

Here comes Les Kelley running with the football, Wayne Cook made a great block to the outside, their linebacker again makes a very fine play, you're a little late again, partner.

ALBERTS: Third-ranked Alabama defeats seventh-ranked Nebraska, 34 to seven.

DEVANEY: We got the shit beat out of us.

JACKSON: The reason Alabama could handle Nebraska at that particular time in the middle '60's was simply speed.

Everybody had a hard time beating Alabama, everybody.

ALBERTS: Losses to Alabama hurt Devaney's popularity.

In 1967 and '68, Nebraska has back-to-back six-and-four seasons.

Fans are restless, the expectations that Devaney created does not allow for four-loss seasons.

DEVANEY: And so, that's when we sat down as a group and talked about the things we were doing, and decided to try something different.

SHERWOOD: His willingness to experiment and his willingness to change, his adaptability to new conditions, and so he brought that to a program.

You take a Bill Glassford who said my way or the highway, and you take Bob Devaney who said, let's find a best way to work this.

COACH: Get up baller, get up baller, hurry on, move, get up.

ALBERTS: Nebraska concentrates on strength and conditioning, and works to match Alabama's team speed.

SHERWOOD: The rivalry with Alabama really proved to be a learning experience, it proved to be a turning point, a changing point for Nebraska football.

I don't care who you are, you can't be a highly successful football coach without having a tremendous competitive spirit and also an ego.

And Bob Devaney didn't lack either.

But then neither did Bear Bryant.

DEVANEY: In '69, I got a call from him again.

And he started through that same line, and he said, the Liberty Bowl's a great bowl.

He says, they'd like to have us over there, and we got two good teams, it'd be a good, great game for us and the fans would like it.

And I said, oh sure.

So just as soon as he called up, I called the Sun Bowl up that we were dickering and told 'em we'd be there.

ALBERTS: After two consecutive rebuilding years, Nebraska finishes the 1969 season with a nine-and-two record, and Devaney wins his 100th game as a head coach.

DEVANEY: The '69 team probably did more unexpectedly after the season got started than any team I've ever coached.

They come back and at the end of the year they were as good team we'd ever had.

ANNOUNCER: The spirit and determination of a senior-dominated club had proven Coach Devaney's often-told philosophy that be it in life or a game of football, you can never give up.

ALBERTS: Nebraska is back on track, helped by strength and conditioning and offensive play calling by assistant Tom Osborne.

DEVANEY: Tom, I found, had this real fine offensive mind, and I was not one inclined to throw the ball.

I'd come from the school where you jam it down their throat.

And I'd get some ideas as far as throwing the ball from Tom.

Tom was more pass-oriented at that time.

But it's easier when you're an assistant coach to throw the ball when you're a head coach.

You get more conservative as you get to be head coach.

COACH TOM OSBORNE: And I probably, because of having been a receiver in pro football and so on, liked to throw the ball a little bit more.

And yet, in that day and age, if you threw the ball 20, 24 times, that was quite a lot.

ANNOUNCER: Jerry Tagge quarterback, drops back, looking to throw, looking to throw long which he's gonna do way down, complete, touchdown.

(crowd cheering) Johnny Rodgers, a beautifully thrown pass, Rodgers touchdown.

(upbeat music) TREV ALBERTS: The 1970 outlook is promising, but little did the Huskers realize that something special is about to come.

(crowd cheering) Devaney recruited players that could execute Nebraska's new offensive strategy.

ANNOUNCER: First and goal on the five, Tagge with the ball, hands off, Orduna scores.

- [Trev] The offense is led by junior quarterback Jerry Tagge from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

JERRY TAGGE: Bob Devaney is a tremendous manager, Tom Osborne was a tremendous CEO of the football team.

And those guys had vision, they were always on the cutting edge from weightlifting, to nutrition, to best ways to work out, they were always on the cutting edge.

ANNOUNCER: The Big Red made their annual pilgrimage to Minneapolis to give Gopher coach Murray Warmath his annual stomachache, and that's just what happened.

Tagge option, pitches out to Orduna, who's throwing, wide open Ingles, touchdown.

Oh, ho, ho, wide open.

ALBERTS: Surprisingly, Nebraska is undefeated with one tie going into the annual showdown against Oklahoma.

The Big Eight championship is on the line.

ANNOUNCER: Tagge now drops back, looks, being rushed, throws into the end zone, touchdown Ingles.

ALBERTS: In a seesaw offensive battle, Nebraska scores a touchdown late in the game to take a 28-to-21 lead.

ANNOUNCER: Tagge with it, bowls over, touchdown.

ALBERTS: In the final seconds, the Nebraska black shirt defense steps it up.

ANNOUNCER: It's fourth down and five with five seconds left to go in the ballgame, and Oklahoma must do it right here.

And Mildren with the ball is dropping straight back to throw, he's got plenty of time, it's long, into the end zone, it's being battered around, intercepted in the end zone by Jimmy Anderson.

Jimmy Anderson just runs out of bounds and there's the ballgame.

ALBERTS: The regular season ends 10-oh-and one, Nebraska is ranked number three going into the Orange Bowl.

ANNOUNCER: New Year's night 1971, a truly big night and a big page in Orange Bowl history, as results received from the Cotton and Rose Bowls have put the national championship on the line here tonight.

It's the mighty Cornhuskers of Nebraska versus the powerful Southeastern champions Louisiana State Tigers.

SHERWOOD: Several of the teams ahead of Nebraska wound up losing in earlier games, we knew going into that night game that if we won, we'd be the national champion.

BRYANT: They get into the locker room for the last time before they go out to play the game, and they're yelling, we're number one, we're number one, we got it, we got it, we got it.

And Bob's saying, hold it, hold it, we gotta play a game.

No sweat, Coach, we got it.

And there was all that enthusiasm when they went out on the field.

ANNOUNCER: And the game is under way, Johnny Rodgers grabs the ball at the 12, swings to the 15, to the 20-- ALBERTS: The Huskers came out scoring with 10 points in the first quarter.

ANNOUNCER: Tagge hands off to Orduna, up the middle for a Cornhusker touchdown.

(crowd cheering) ALBERTS: In the third quarter, LSU scored on a 31-yard pass to cap a 75-yard drive to give the Tigers a 12-to-10 lead.

ANNOUNCER: LSU failed to ma ke the point after touchdown, but now leads, 12 to 10, as we go into the final quarter with undefeated Nebraska behind for the first time this season.

TAGGE: We had fallen behind, but there was still plenty of time on the clock.

SHERWOOD: When Jerry Tagge was the quarterback, it was Jerry Tagge's team.

I mean, there was no doubt in anybody in that huddle, it was Jerry Tagge's team and he was a leader.

ANNOUNCER: Jerry Tagge going back for another aerial in this Cornhusker drive.

It's a strike to Kinney, who moves for 17 big yards.

(crowd cheering) The great Cornhusker powerhouse moves in for the biggest touchdown in Nebraska history.

TAGGE: And I remember I had been through my mind so many times, score a touchdown on a quarterback sneak, and told myself if we ever got in that situation, by looking at the film, might need to take a step to the right and delay my lunge, and then reach the ball over the goal line.

ANNOUNCER: It's Jerry Tagge calling signals after a 67-yard march, and on a quarterback keeper he dives for the goal line, making sure his lunge is across the goal line, and it's 17 to 12, the final score and victory for the Cornhuskers of Nebraska.

And pandemonium Cornhusker style invades the gridiron.

TAGGE: We scored when we had to and our defense came up big when they had to, so it was a great football game.

ANNOUNCER: Coach Bob Devaney's unbeaten Nebraska Cornhuskers are number one, 1970 national collegiate football champions of America.

TAGGE: The fans had just been fabulous.

They went nuts, I mean they were just excited.

They went crazy, and I think they've just been crazy ever since.

PRES.

NIXON: The University of Nebraska 1970 football team, champions of the Big Eight conference, victor in the 1971 Orange Bowl, and picked by The Associated Press number-one team of the nation.

(crowd cheers and applauds) TAGGE: Hey, Richard Nixon said we were number one, so I guess we were number one.

(crowd cheering) ALBERTS: At a time when the nation is divided on the Vietnam War and racial integration, Devaney's team pulls together.

Now after 80 years of playing football, Nebraskans can take pride in a national championship.

SHERWOOD: Winning that national championship had a significance beyond a university in a major state winning a national championship, because so many people felt so involved with that program that each of those people then could take some sense of accomplishment from that, even if they were only a fan cheering in the stands.

(driving rock music) LYLE BREMSER: Their offense has been unmercifully used by the Nebraska black shirts this day.

I've never witnessed anything like the ferocious play of the Nebraska defensive unit.

ALBERTS: Now at the top of college football, Nebraska sets out to defend its championship in 1971.

BREMSER: Oh, what a magnificent kick, Rodgers fields the ball at the eight-yard line, he runs over to the left, they try to set up the wall, he's to the 20, the 25, he's to the 30, the 35, the 40, the 50, the 45, the 40, he's to the 35, 20, oh, he's going home.

(crowd cheering) And I know I keep saying how unbelievable this young man is, but wait 'til you see the film on that one.

JOHNNY RODGERS: I always had the green light, so it was always about scoring and keeping us at least in good field position, and we generally got that done.

BRYANT: He's the only guy I can remember that every time he touched the ball, the whole stadium got ready to stand up.

JACKSON: He never thought about it, he didn't know what the hell he was doing, he just did it.

It's like Gale Sayers, just like all the great runners.

They don't know what they're gonna do, they just do it.

BREMSER: And it's a good one into the wind.

Rodgers takes the ball at the 38-yard line-- ALBERTS: The Huskers drive through the season continuing their 29-game unbeaten streak leading to a showdown in Oklahoma.

BREMSER: He's to the 10, the 5, touchdown!

TAGGE: Oklahoma was, they were only that far behind us.

They were great.

It was a matchup that was built up before the season started, which was kind of unusual back then.

So the media jumped on it.

ANNOUNCER: NCAA college football, another exclusive presentation of ABC Sports.

JACKSON: Maybe the first time ever in college football that we were able to get promotions on in prime-time programming promoting that ballgame.

So we busted our chops at ABC to make sure everybody knew we had Nebraska and Oklahoma coming up.

CHEERLEADER: Football!

ANNOUNCER: College football 1971, the game for number one.

Unbeaten and untied Nebraska versus unbeaten and untied Oklahoma.

JACKSON: The nation stopped to watch that game.

ANNOUNCER: Today it's the showcase of college football as we look at the number-one ranked team in the nation in the white jerseys, the Cornhuskers from Nebraska, being intercepted by the Sooners of Oklahoma in the crimson jerseys, they are ranked number two.

ALBERTS: It's a cold Thanksgiving Day, November 25th in Norman, Oklahoma.

At the time, the game attracts the largest television audience in history to watch a college football game.

SHERWOOD: There were, what, a quarter of a million people who were actually in the stands that day, I mean everybody was there that day, or believes they were.

TAGGE: There was so much electricity in the air.

ANNOUNCER: At quarterback, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, number 14, Jerry Tagge.

Running back-- TAGGE: It was one of those games where your stomach was turned inside out, and you're nervous, but at the same time you're calm and relaxed and ready to play this game.

You've been building up and building up and looking forward to it, and you knew you were good, and they're good.

It was like a big heavyweight bout.

So I mean it was just awesome.

BREMSER: Joe Wylie in to kick, Wylie stands at his-- ALBERTS: One of the most exciting players ever to play at Nebraska, Omahan Johnny Rodgers ignited the crowd three minutes into the game.

BREMSER: It holds up there, Rodgers takes the ball at the 30, he's hit and got away, back upfield to the 35, to the 40, he's to the 45, he's to the 50, to the 45, to the 40, to the 35, to the 20, to the 10, he's all the way home.

(crowd cheering) Holy moly, man, woman, and child did that put 'em in the aisles.

Johnny "The Jet Rodgers" just tore 'em loose from their shoes.

RODGERS: Greg Pruitt was looking me right in the face right when I caught the ball.

When you start off, you really don't know what you're going to do until it comes time to actually do it.

So I remember going to my right, and the lineman got in my face, and so I broke back to the left, then down the middle, and then I ran into the referee, he gets into the way, blocks a man for me.

I break back again to the outside, I move to the sideline, 'cause I'm always trying to get back to the sideline so I can cut back again.

And then I started to hear that guy called rigor mortis set in, it gets a little tired going towards the end there, and I'm picking up speed as fast as I can, and we end up having one of the biggest plays in football.

DEVANEY: He had the greatest ability to change directions at a relatively top speed of anybody I've ever seen play football.

He'd be running right at you, it looked like full speed, and the next thing you know he'd be off right or left.

TAGGE: Pros, college, high school, he was the best, best of all time.

He could do everything.

ANNOUNCER: John Harrison at the bottom of your screen on a second down and seven.

Greg Pruitt showing you his style.

ALBERTS: Even with Johnny Rodgers' game-breaking talent, Nebraska's black shirt defense needs their best game of the season.

ANNOUNCER: From the wishbone, first and 10 from the 35.

Leon Crosswhite, the fullback, number-- ALBERTS: Oklahoma's Coach Fairbanks' wishbone offense leads the nation in rushing.

Devaney's strategy is to shut down the run and force quarterback Jack Mildren to throw the football.

ANNOUNCER: Going with a long ball here.

TAGGE: The game plan was Mildren's gonna have to beat us.

The big thing that surprised everybody was his ability to throw the ball the way he did, 'cause that's really what kept them in the game.

ANNOUNCER: First and 10 with the clock running and there is a touchdown, Oklahoma, Jon Harrison.

TAGGE: We were beat with a big play through the air, and Jack Mildren, he played his finest football game.

That tells you a little bit about the type of guy Jack was, when the chips were really down, when you really need something, Jack was a clutch guy.

ANNOUNCER: Needs six yards, Mildren busting one out here to a man who's open, it's a touchdown, Oklahoma leads.

ALBERTS: Mildren completes a touchdown strike, putting the Sooners ahead, 31 to 28 late in the fourth quarter.

BRYANT: And now Nebraska gets the kickoff, and starts down the field with Jeff Kinney, and I'm standing there and all I can think of was that I didn't wanna have a heart attack.

And I kept telling myself, Foxy, don't have a stroke, don't have a heart attack, calm down.

TAGGE: Our offensive line and Jeff Kinney took control.

And Jeff Kinney got stronger and stronger and stronger as the game went on.

ANNOUNCER: The slot man on second and three from the 15.

And that's the man to give it to, Jeff Kinney.

TAGGE: We just marched right down the field and shoved it right down their throat.

BREMSER: Tagge the quarterback calls his count at the line of scrimmage, taking a long time, Jerry gives to Kinney, Kinney over the left side, touchdown.

(crowd cheering) 74 yards on that drive and Nebraska forges into the lead, 34 to 31, oh man, woman, and child, I never thought I would live this long to see this kind of a football game.

1:38 left to play-- RODGERS: We were used to winning, we were educated, knowledgeable in what we were doing, we had all the utmost confidence in our coaching staff, and in the guys who were out there implementing the plays, so we knew we were gonna win.

I mean, it was just a matter of time.

BREMSER: Mildren fakes, he's back there to throw.

He got away from Jacobson, then the ball knocked down by Glover, and Jacobson's on it in the end zone, no good, but Nebraska takes over the ball.

What great play by big Larry Jac, he just won the Outland Trophy seven times over, and look at that sideline.

Look at that sideline go wild.

What magnificent defense.

And I am going out of my gourd, I just can't help it.

(cheering) PLAYER: I'm so happy, I don't know what to say, cry, or laugh so hard, I can hardly breathe I'm so happy right now.

RODGERS: I believe this here means more to us now than winning the Orange Bowl last year.

We were national champions then, so we feel we're national champions right now.

Right now, and ain't nobody stopping us.

This year, next year either.

DEVANEY: Well, I'm glad we had an opportunity to play against the wishbone offense, it should give us some help in preparing our defense for Alabama.

(fireworks exploding) ANNOUNCER: New Year's night 1972 in the Orange Bowl.

The absolute final battle to decide number one in college football.

Nebraska faces a final challenger, Coach Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide.

TAGGE: After that Oklahoma-Nebraska game, they saw us on film, I mean they were intimidated.

We came out on the field, and you could tell that.

You could tell emotionally, you could tell mentally, and you know when you have the upper hand, and we did right from the flip of the coin.

ANNOUNCER: Nebraska in white jerseys kicks off to Alabama in red jerseys.

Williams receives it at the Tide eight and returns to his 26.

SHERWOOD: In the early years when we played Alabama under Devaney, I mean Devaney hadn't yet established himself.

He hadn't achieved that same infallible status that Bear Bryant had.

ANNOUNCER: And it's Jeff Kinney going over tackle for Nebraska's first touchdown.

SHERWOOD: It was a whole different setting, it was a meeting of equals.

We could get out there and strut with the best of them, now we had proven we could.

ANNOUNCER: Observe closely as you will see the biggest play in this ballgame.

The Tide's punt by Gantt is received by Johnny Rodgers at the Nebraska 23.

Rodgers' dipsy doodles, faking, and speed is too much for Alabama.

JACKSON: It was very simple and easily forecast, because Nebraska simply had the best football team in the country.

And Alabama wasn't all that good.

Paul Bryant knew it, Bob Devaney knew it.

Bob went down there and just whooped him.

CROWD: 3, 2, 1!

ANNOUNCER: And right here in this Orange Bowl, the awesome Nebraska Cornhuskers prove to their great coach Bob Devaney and to the nation that they are the greatest national champions ever developed in the history of college football.

Truly, America's number one as never before.

(fireworks exploding) DEVANEY: After the game, I kidded about this later, he said that's the greatest group of football players I ever saw on a football team at one time.

He didn't say a damn thing about the coaches.

I kid him, I said, Jesus Christ, you sure didn't give any credit to us.

And he just laughed.

Damn fine trophy, and we appreciate it there.

I think I'll take that home and replace the picture that I have of my father-in-law sitting in the living room.

(audience laughs) I'll take that down and put it in the recreation room and if we lose one someday, I'll pour myself another drink and say, hell, we were pretty good one time.

(audience laughs) ALBERTS: Devaney returned in 1972 to try for an unprecedented third national championship.

He announced his retirement before the season and handpicked his successor, assistant coach Tom Osborne.

That year, Rich Glover earns Outland and Lombardi Trophies and Johnny Rodgers is the first Nebraskan to win the Heisman Trophy.

With two losses, there was no third championship trophy for Devaney, but in his last game, Nebraska beats Notre Dame, 40 to six in the Orange Bowl.

BREMSER: All the way in for a touchdown.

ALBERTS: Devaney ends his career as the winningest active coach in the nation, and helped restore a winning tr adition to Nebraska football.

(triumphant music) SHERWOOD: I don't think that you can take a look at the Nebraska football program under Bob Devaney and discount in any way the impact that he had on every aspect of the program.

Whether it was the material in terms of how better the athletic facilities were by the time he retired as coach than when he came in as coach, or whether it was just in the mental attitude of both the players and the fans, Bob Devaney touched everything.

SOLICH: Players come into this program understanding what the tradition has been all about.

They know that Nebraska has won, and won a lot.

They know about the national championship teams.

They may not know about the names of a lot of the players in the past, but they know that this program is steeped in tradition.

TAGGE: He built the program, he went out and sold his program.

(crowd cheering) PRES.

NIXON: You oughta run for something in this state.

(audience cheers and applauds) TAGGE: He was a genuine person, when he talked, you believed him, 'cause he was honest.

JACKSON: The best judgment of a coach is what his ex-players have to say about him.

And I can never remember an ex-player ever saying anything bad about Bob Devaney.

A football coach is like the pebble in a pond.

Take a pebble in a quiet pond, and throw it in the middle, and watch the ripples, and let each ripple be a generation.

Not just the guys he coached, but the generations that follow.

♪ Come a-running boys ♪ ♪ Don't you hear that noise ♪ ♪ Like the thunder in the sky ♪ ♪ How it rolls along ♪ ♪ In a good old song ♪ ♪ From the sons of Nebraska ♪ ♪ Now it's coming near ♪ ♪ With a rising cheer ♪ ♪ That will sweep all foes away ♪ ♪ So with all our vim ♪ ♪ We are bound to win ♪ ♪ And we're going to win today ♪ ♪ For Nebraska and the scarlet ♪ ♪ For Nebraska and the cream ♪ ♪ Though they go through many a battle ♪ ♪ Our colors still are seen ♪ ♪ So in contest and in victory ♪ ♪ We obey them for the team ♪ ♪ And it will always stir a Cornhusker ♪ ♪ The old scarlet and the cream ♪ Captioning by Finke/NET