You have heard of Lou Holtz, right?
If not, here’s some background.
Holtz was born on January 6, 1937 — one month, three weeks and three days before Tom Osborne.
He attended college and played linebacker for the Kent State football team.
Following college, he was an assistant coach at Iowa, Williams & Mary, Connecticut, South Carolina and Ohio State before serving as the head coach at William and Mary, North Carolina State, the New York Jets, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame and South Carolina.
While at Notre Dame, his 1988 squad won a national championship.
He enjoyed 249 wins as a college head coach.
Following his football coaching career, he was a football analyst for CBS and ESPN.
Truly, a college football legend.
50 years ago, on September 22, 1973, Holtz stood on the east sideline of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and coach his North Carolina State Wolfpack against Tom Osborne’s Nebraska Cornhuskers.
It was Dr. Tom’s second game as head coach.
Final score: Nebraska 31, NC State 14.
But the game was much closer than the final score would indicate.
North Carolina State led Nebraska, 14-10, at the end of the third quarter.
On this sundrenched Saturday afternoon, I had been walking around the stadium listening to Lyell Bremser described the action on my portable radio. Prior to the game, I had hoped to find someone wanting to sell a ticket. No such luck. In addition to Lyell’s magnificent voice, I could hear the groans and cheers flowing over the stadium’s walls. I so desperately wanted to get inside this 50-year-old cathedral of college football.
In the good old days of my childhood, fans were allowed to enter the stadium at the conclusion of the third quarter.
As the stadium’s gatekeepers abandoned their posts, I walk in one of the east stadium gates and found an empty seat on row 20 near the north 10-yard-line.
Nebraska then dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring NC State, 21-0.
As a 14-year-old diehard Husker fan, I felt the turning point was when I entered the stadium.
I was confident that NU would have lost had I not been present.
Instead, it was win number two for Tom Osborne.
The Nebraska legend would enjoy 253 more.