Nebraska 28

Rutgers 0

Nebraska’s first East Coast game was played on Election Day of 1920. Warren G. Harding and the Corn­huskers both emerged victorious.

Huskers dominant
in East Coast debut

In Nebraska’s first-ever football game east of Michigan, the Cornhuskers shut out Rutgers while scoring by ground and by air in a 28-0 victory at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

Though the size of the visitors from the Midwest caught the attention of the New York press before the game, it was the Huskers’ quick-paced attack that got noticed once the opening whistle blew.

Nebraska held Rutgers to just one first down in the first half while building a 14-0 lead. A four-yard touchdown run by Harold Hartley on the first play of the second quarter opened the scoring, and Ernest Hubka hit Clarence Swanson with a 15-yard scoring pass later in the period.

After a stalemated third quarter, Vern Moore’s punt return of roughly 35 yards set up Nebraska on Rutgers’ 15 yard line in the fourth quarter. Moore scored five plays later on a one-yard run to make the score 21-0.

Moore later intercepted a Francis Maloney pass on Rutgers’ 43 yard line. Several running plays, including an 18-yarder by Fred Thomsen, moved the ball to the 15. From there, Swanson got his second touchdown of the day, snaring a deflected pass from Thomsen and taking it into the end zone.

Swanson

Thomsen

Schulte

NOTES

• Nebraska wore scarlet jerseys, while Rutgers wore black instead of the school’s customary red. That confused some Rutgers fans, who mistakenly cheered the Huskers’ advances in the game’s early stages.
• The New York Evening Telegram was less than impressed with the Huskers, calling the game “weirdly played” and “full of fumbles, blocked kicks, intercepted forward passes and all sorts of wild and slipshod football.”
• Despite its glowing initial account of the game, the New York Times just two months later referred to the Huskers’ performance as a “doubtful showing” that was contributing to the pressure to have Henry Schulte ousted as coach. (Fred Dawson would replace Schulte in March of 1921.)
• Rutgers would finish the season 2-7.
• Nebraska would play again four days later at Penn State, with an almost completely opposite result that came as predicted by the Evening Telegram.
• Traveling by train, the Huskers were gone for a week and a half and visited Niagara Falls during the trip.

Coverage