Has it really been 52 years?
The calendar notes that it has.
Please allow me to share with you my memories of the greatest day in the history of University of Nebraska Cornhusker football.
November 25, 1971.
By the time my seventh grade Thanksgiving vacation started, Bob Devaney’s Big Red had won ten straight football games, was ranked No. 1 in all of college football, and was ready to battle undefeated and second-ranked Oklahoma in Norman on Thanksgiving Day.
I’d gotten into a fight with one of my brothers the night before the game, and Mom sent me to my room, warning me that I wouldn’t be able to watch the big NU/OU game on TV the next day if I continued my intense sibling disputes.
While incarcerated, I began to dissect the Sunday newspapers I had collected that fall that detailed all of Nebraska and Oklahoma’s games.
With pencil and paper, I added up the season’s statistics of both teams and determined their offensive averages for rushing, passing, scoring, and turnovers. I did the same for each team’s defense and determined Nebraska would win the game, 42-31.
It was the only time in my young life I found math useful.
As I sat in solitary confinement, I also experienced one of the few times I found poetry useful. After determining NU would beat the Sooners by 11 points, I began memorizing the following poem my Aunt Sally (mom’s youngest sister) had given me the previous week:
“Thanksgiving Day on a field in Norman,
Nebraska’s Blackshirts will come a stormin’.
The end result of strength and skill,
Will be three graves upon a hill.
Greg Pruitt runs with such desire,
But Rich Glover will surely put out his fire.
Joe Wylie will run the end around,
Until Willie Harper puts him underground.
At last when Jack Mildren’s had all he can hack,
The Blackshirt front four will put him in the sack.
Three graves on a hill in the Oklahoma sun,
Will prove that Nebraska is Number One!”
The poem turned out to be somewhat prophetic!
As I watched the game the next day on our humble black and white television, Nebraska jumped to a 14-3 lead, and I was feeling very astute about my 11-point victory margin prediction.
But my confidence in my prediction quickly faded when OU scored two touchdowns and took a 17-14 lead at halftime.
I was stunned to see Nebraska blow an 11-point lead. Nebraska hadn’t trailed in a game all year, and I was genuinely concerned Nebraska might lose the game.
However, between Mom’s screaming, my brother Blaine’s cursing, and Dad’s constant reminders that Nebraska could lose the game, the Cornhuskers came back and won, 35-31.
As the poem predicted, the Blackshirt front four (actually, Nebraska ran a five-two defense) led by Willie Harper, Rich Glover, and Larry Jacobson, contained Mildren in the final minute, and Nebraska took over the ball on the Oklahoma 15-yard line.
The clock ran out with Nebraska three yards away from scoring another touchdown — a touchdown that would have produced my predicted 42-31 victory.
The statewide celebration began, and I joined in by scarfing down several mouthfuls of turkey. Pre-game nerves had killed my appetite, and I hadn’t eaten much during our noon Thanksgiving meal. As much as I loved extended vacations from school, I couldn’t wait to get back and rub Nebraska’s victory in the faces of my classmates who had proclaimed a sure Cornhusker loss.
Beneath our 1971 Christmas tree, my family gifted me with numerous Cornhusker football memorabilia items, including a ceramic Nebraska football mug with the 1971 schedule embossed on it from Grandma Farnham, and a red and white ceramic Nebraska football player from my mother.
Mom had used the picture from the cover of my Nebraska vs. Utah State game program to paint an exact replica of one of the Cornhuskers.
Mom nailed it perfectly: a white helmet with a red N, a red jersey with white stripes on the shoulders, white pants with red stripes down the side, and black shoes with white shoelaces.
On this Thanksgiving Eve, 2023, I well remember the 1971 Nebraska football prayer that many a Husker fan recited:
Our Father, who heads the athletic department,
Devaney be his name.
Our kingdom comes,
If the touchdowns be done,
On grass as well as Astroturf.
Give us this year our dozen wins,
And forgive those who score against us.
Lead us not into Oklahoma,
But deliver us the Orange Bowl.
For thine is the stadium, sellout crowds, and the National Championship,
Forever and ever.
Amen!