I was a complete bum this past Sunday.
I slept until 9:10 AM.
Since my church’s service began 10 minutes earlier, I watched worship on my phone’s facebook page.
I fell back to sleep until my child bride awakened me at 11:45 AM.
My smarty pants phone then offered me the broadcast of a Husker softball game at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes prevailed, 12-6.
No big deal.
Then my phone provided me with a NU baseball broadcast.
In sunny southern California, the UCLA Bruins beat NU, 5-3.
Nebraska has now lost 11 of 18 baseball games.
I’m used to this. Nothing to bum me out.
Then I began thinking about how when NU loses any type of athletic event, it just doesn’t affect me as much as it did when I was younger.
Or any athletic team’s loss, for that matter.
So, I have decided to share with you the ten most bummer of losses I have experienced being a sports fan.
Heck, these were not bummers, they were devasting.
1. November 26, 1976 – Oklahoma 20, NU 17. (Football) The Cornhuskers let OU drive 84 yards during the games final three minutes, and OU scored the winning touchdown with 38 seconds remaining. The Sooners used two trick plays to move the football 79 of the 84 yards. As a 17-year-old high school senior, it was like watching my best friend get shot, stabbed, burned, and then buried.
2. December 5, 2009. Texas 13, Nebraska 12. (Football) I was driving my daughter and her District Champion One-Act Play team home from Sidney and listened on the radio to Nebraska duke it out with the Longhorns in the Big 12 championship game. I got home in time to watch the second half on television. Nebraska was leading, 12-10, when Texas quarterback Colt McCoy threw an incomplete pass. The clock displayed no time remaining. However, the officials reset the clock to one second and Texas kicker Hunter Lawrence booted the ball through the uprights from 46 yards. I had to take myself on a one mile walk to ease the pain.
3. October 13, 1973 – Missouri 13, NU 12. (Football) The Cornhuskers trailed 13-6 with less than two minutes to play but drove the length of the field and scored a TD with one minute remaining in the game. Nebraska’s attempt at a game-winning two-point conversion failed, and Tom Osborne’s first loss as head coach was too much for my 14-year-old psyche to handle. I cried for ten minutes.
4. October 12, 1974 – Missouri 21, NU 10. (Football) After a summer of verbal abuse from a co-worker who hailed from Missouri, the Cornhuskers were supposed to offer revenge. NU blew a 10-0 fourth quarter lead. As a 15-year-old, I felt like a dog left abandoned on a country roadside on a cold rainy night.
5. November 18, 1978 – Missouri 35, NU 31. (Football) Nebraska had beaten No. 1 Oklahoma the previous Saturday and simply had to beat Missouri to be invited to the Orange Bowl to play for the national championship. And then, the roof caved in.
6. March 15, 1974. Howells 42, Raymond Central 40. (High School Basketball State Tournament). I was a freshman at Mustang High and our team had qualified for the state tournament for the first time in (consolidated) school history. In the semifinals at the NU Coliseum, Raymond Central led Howells by 18 points early in the third quarter, only to lose the game by two points on a last-second shot. After I arrive home, I sat in my bedroom and cried.
7. October 23, 1976 – Missouri 34, Nebraska 24. (Football) In a seesaw affair on a rainy Saturday at Memorial Stadium, Nebraska had taken a 24-23 lead early in the fourth quarter. The stadium’s crowd was as deafening as any I had ever experienced. Minutes later, a Pete Woods to Joe Stewart pass that resulted in a 98-yard touchdown play for Missouri stifled us, and the party was over.
8. February 29, 1980. Kansas State 60, Nebraska 59. (Men’s College Basketball). I was in my second year at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. My roommate and I drove from Lincoln to Kansas City in blowing snow. The game was played at Kemper Arena. The Huskers had a one-point led with six seconds to play. Kansas State got a shot off with three second left. It missed. But then the ball was tipped in by KSU’s Rolando Blackman to win the game at the buzzer. The KSU fans, sitting to my right, were not gracious in victory. To ease my pain, I bought a Missouri basketball jersey at the Kansas City Union Station gift shop and wore it the next day just to aggravate Kansas State fans.
9. March 5, 1975. Kansas 79, Nebraska 77 in 2 OT. (College Basketball). My brother had bought me a reserved seat for this game for three dollars. I was a sophomore in high school. He was a sophomore at UNL. Nebraska had built a 19-point first half lead only to have 8,500 Coliseum fans watch it dwindle. Kansas made some incredible shots to force the two overtimes. I was simply stunned and couldn’t even talk to my family about the game when I arrived home.
10. June 21, 2005. Arizona State 8, Nebraska 7. (CWS in Omaha). It was a Tuesday afternoon, and the Cornhuskers were playing in an elimination game. Nebraska scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning and led the Sun Devils by two runs. However, ASU scored on a two-run homer in the ninth to tie the game, 7-7, and force extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, ASU manufactured one run and claimed victory. Nebraska finished its season with a school record 57 wins. And that helped me survive the devastation.
You’re probably wondering why I did not include the December 19, 2024, NU Volleyball collapse vs. Penn State in the NCAA Tournament. As a 65-year-old, I have learned to temper my expectations. The whole night just didn’t feel right.
It wasn’t devastating, but certainly was one step above a bummer.