Nebraska 14

Minnesota 9

HUSKERS TAKE DOWN
NATIONAL CHAMPS
IN BIFF JONES’ DEBUT

It was an upset that “rocked the gridiron world,” as the Associated Press put it. “Astonishing,” the wire service added in its game dispatch.

Minnesota, on a quest for a fourth consecutive mythical national championship, met its match on an 82-degree October afternoon in Lincoln. Playing tough and opportunistic football, the Cornhuskers stunned the Gophers, 14-9, in the Nebraska coaching debut of Maj. Lawrence McCeney “Biff” Jones.

Minnesota ran up a three-to-one advantage in yardage, but Nebraska kept the Gophers out of the end zone for the final 55 minutes and cashed in on two key turnovers.

Nothing about the game’s opening minutes portended trouble for the visitors. Minnesota marched 63 yards in 4½ minutes for a touchdown and a 6-0 lead. That, however, would be the last of the easy going for the Gophers. Jones changed the Huskers’ defensive alignment, moving tackle Fred Shirey off the line and into an extra linebacker position. On offense, Nebraska played it cautious and frequently punted before fourth down.

Early in the second quarter, one of those punts paid off in a big way. Gopher safety Bill Matheny coughed up the ball on a hit by Husker end Lloyd Grimm, and center Charley Brock recovered on the Minnesota 24. Quarterback John Howell connected with Grimm for a key first down at the 13. Facing fourth and a foot moments later at the Minnesota 4, Howell followed the blocking of Brock and guard Lowell English into the end zone. After English’s conversion kick, Nebraska led 7-6.

To the delight and amazement of the frenzied home crowd, that’s how the score stood through the second and third quarters, but the third period ended with the Gophers deep in NU territory. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Horace Bell’s field goal from the 23 put Minnesota back on top, 9-7.

Dreams of a Nebraska upset faded as NU’s next possession went nowhere, but again it was a punt that changed the Huskers’ fortunes. Minnesota’s Harold Van Avery fumbled the Nebraska kick, and Husker fullback Bill Callihan recovered at the Minnesota 40.

Straight to the air went the Cornhuskers. First came a 20-yard strike from Harris Andrews to Elmer Dohrmann, then an incompletion, and then the clincher: Andrews dropped back to the 35 — 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage — and fired a deep pass over the middle. Callihan caught the ball in stride behind a leaping Gopher defender at the 10 and scooted into the end zone untouched. With English’s PAT kick, it was NU 14, Minnesota 9.

As the game clock ticked down, Minnesota desperately went to the airways, but Andrews twice picked off Gopher aerials to end Minnesota’s threats. The second interception came with 5 seconds left, and Lincoln erupted in revelry that would last all night long.

McILLRAVY

ELDON McILLRAVY, NU’s starting fullback, was in critical condition after suffering a fractured skull. He recovered but would never play football again. Minnesota’s Rudy Gmitro was carried from the field on a stretcher after the same play but was back in action the next week against Indiana.

COACH JONES praised QB John Howell, the game captain, for his “faultless” generalship. “We had just two scoring chances and Howell took complete advantage of both.”

HOWELL

HOWELL’S PUNTING also drew rave reviews from the coach. A primary goal was to prevent any big returns by Andy Uram, whose long runback in the final minute gave Minnesota a 7-0 win over Nebraska in 1936.

CALLIHAN

BILL CALLIHAN might have been America’s most famous second-string fullback after the game. Not only did he score the winning TD, but he was also identified as the Husker delivering a big hit in an eye-catching Associated Press photo that got prominent play in a number of newspapers (and a few weeks later in Life magazine). However, the player in the photo was probably Jack Dodd, as the caption in the Omaha World-Herald indicated.

THE TURNING POINT, Jones said, came “when we took a punt on our own three-yard line and made a triple lateral that got the ball out to the 20. From that point our boys took an extra hitch in their belts, rolled up their sleeves and went to work.”

IT WAS THE OPENER for Nebraska, but the Gophers had a tune-up a week earlier, winning 69-7 against North Dakota State. The point total was Minnesota’s highest in 21 years.

NEBRASKA FINISHED 11th and the Gophers fifth in the final AP rankings. The Huskers had two ties but just one loss, a 13-7 defeat at Pittsburgh, which finished No. 1.