Omaha Exploration

Following its bye this week, the Nebraska Cornhuskers will travel to Bloomington to take on the Indiana Hoosiers. This is the Huskers fourth Big Ten game of a season that has yielded a 5-1 record so far.

The two teams first played each other in 1936 in Head Coach Dana X. Bible’s eighth and final season as the Huskers head coach. The team dominated the Big Six Conference during his tenure finishing first in 1929, 1931-1933 and 1935. Up to this point, the Texas native was the longest tenured coach in school history.

On the left is Lloyd Cardwell. Head Coach Dana X. Bible is on the right.

Nebraska came into the game with a 1-1 record. It followed its season opening win against Iowa State with a loss to Minnesota. Nebraska was led by its backfield that consisted of All-Americans Sam Francis and Lloyd Cardwell.

The Hoosiers managed to score first while its defense shut out the Husker offense during the half. Trailing 9-0 going into halftime, Coach Bible’s squad score 13 straight point to take the lead. Nebraska walked away with a 13-9 win in front of the home crowd at Memorial Stadium. When the polls came out, Nebraska was ranked #15.

In the 1930s Nebraska only broadcast one game per year and it wasn’t Indiana. While the Huskers had success during the decade, they didn’t typically sell out the 31,000 seat Memorial Stadium. The team feared that broadcasting games would limit attendance and Nebraska wanted to ensure its facilities were paid off first. The one game they chose to broadcast was likely to be a sell out. It was a losing effort against #5 ranked Pittsburgh. The Huskers ended the season 7-2 with five shutouts and another Big Six championship.

Sam Francis would go on to become the first overall selection in the 1937 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. He was traded to the Chicago Bears and played four seasons in the NFL. He left the NFL to earn a master’s degree at Iowa before serving in World War II. Lloyd Cardwell was also drafted in the first round of the 1937 draft by the Detroit Lions. After playing seven seasons in the NFL, he became the head coach at the University of Nebraska at Omaha from 1947-1959. His 1954 team was undefeated and won the Tangerine Bowl.

Nebraska and Indiana, meanwhile, would become quite familiar with one another after that as they played annually from 1936-1947. They played three times in the 1950s and annually again from 1975-1978. From that point the series wouldn’t resume again until Nebraska joined the Big Ten. Indiana holds a 9-10-3 advantage as they dominated the series through the 1959 season. Since then, Nebraska has won six out of seven games with its last loss coming in 2019.

Please feel free to comment to share your thoughts and predictions for the game.

Until next time, keep exploring!

Nebraska Coach Matt Rhule on the left, Indiana Coach Curt Cignetti on the upper right and Nebraska Wide Receiver Jaylen Lloyd on lower right.

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