It’s the Nebraska Cornhuskers hosting Michigan State this Saturday in what should be another exciting Big 10 football game!
As of this writing, the Corncobs are 11-point favorites.
Both teams sport records of three wins and one loss.
The series dates to 1914 and Nebraska leads it with nine wins against four losses.
My earliest memory of Nebraska’s ties to Michigan State came as a child, when I learned that Bob Devaney was a Spartans assistant coach from 1953 to 1956.
Devaney, an incredible storyteller, credits some of his banquet circuit speaking success to his then boss, Duffy Daugherty.
If you read the book, Devaney, which was published in 1981 and co-authored by 1967 Alliance High School graduate Randy York, Devaney shares several of Duffy’s stories.
Here is my favorite.
“Did you hear the poem story? Keats and Shakespear died the same day and went to heaven. St. Peter met them and said, ‘What makes you have the idea that you have the right to enter?’ They said, ‘Why, we’re famous poets.’
St. Peter said, ‘As you know, everyone must pass a test to enter. If you had said you were poets, I would have you write me a simple poem. But since you claim to be famous poets, I’m going to make it tougher. Your poem must include the word Timbuktu.’
Keats found that to be no problem. His poem read:
‘I took upon the burning sand,
And looked across the barren land.
A caravan came into view,
destination Timbuktu.’
St. Peter said, ‘Very good,’ and he let Keats into heaven. Then he looked at Shakespear and said, ‘How about you?’
Shakespeare was annoyed at having to go through such a mundane exercise. But he wanted to enter heaven, so in his own particular style he wrote this poem:
‘Tim and I a hunting went,
We spied three ladies in a tent.
Since they were three and we were two,
I bucked one and Tim bucked two.”
My guess is that in football heaven, Bob and Duffy have some of the gods discipling these late Spartan icons by making them run stadium steps — without a drink in their hands!
My first memory of an NU vs. Michigan State game is that of September 9, 1995, in East Lansing, MI.
Nebraska pounded the Spartans, 50-10.
Bob Devaney, who was 80 years old at the time, was publicly recognized during the game as he viewed the contest from a press box suite.
Husker back Lawrence Phillips ran wild, rushing for 206 yards and scoring four touchdowns.
After rushing for 153 yards and scoring three touchdowns the previous week at Oklahoma State, the question floating around the college football world was: Could Phillips be the recipient of the 1995 Heisman Trophy?
It was not to be. Nebraska’s shining star lost his glimmer a few hours after his stellar performance. After returning to Lincoln, Phillips assaulted his girlfriend and would not play again for several weeks.
The national media attacked Tom Osborne for keeping Phillips on the team and did their best to tarnish TO’s reputation.
21 years later, Phillips would die in a California jail cell.
He committed suicide.
Phillips went to prison in 2008 on a sentence of more than 31 years after he was convicted of twice choking his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego and of driving his car into three teens later that year after a pickup football game in Los Angeles.
Phillips was the poster child for possessing the darkest and brightest sides of life.
It’s easy to remember his darkest days.
It’s also simple to remember his brightest day.
With a nationwide television audience and Bob Devaney looking on, Phillips’ 1995 shredding of Michigan State tops the list.
Maybe Lawrence Phillips is in heaven. Maybe he’s not.
If he is, maybe St. Peter heard him recite the following poem:
“I was an abuser which landed me in a cell,
some think I deserve heaven, others the devil’s dwell.
Each person has their reasons for stating their case,
I simply ask for mercy and God’s wonderful grace.”
Bob Devaney’s smile would be as wide as a Michigan mile.