Omaha Exploration

With a decisive win against the Wisconsin Badgers last week, Nebraska ended several streaks: its seven-year streak in which they failed to play in a bowl game; its eight-game losing streak when it was one win away from bowl eligibility; and its 10-game losing streak to the Badgers. For its final regular season game, the 6-5 Nebraska Cornhuskers travel to Iowa City to play the 7-4 Iowa Hawkeyes the day after Thanksgiving.

The series between these two teams dates back to Nebraska’s second-ever season in 1891. While Nebraska was coached by Dr. Langdon Frothingham in 1890, it didn’t have a coach for its first two games which wasn’t uncommon at the time. Despite playing and coaching for Iowa College (later named Grinnell College), Theron Lyman crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska to tutor the young team in its game against Iowa in order to make it more competitive.

Nebraska entered the game with a 1-1 record having split a series with Doane. The Hawkeyes, meanwhile, entered the game with a 1-2 record with its win coming against Cornell College and losses to Minnesota and Iowa College. Lack of experience and substandard equipment made the Old Gold Knights (the teams nickname before becoming the Bugeaters and later the Cornhuskers) heavy underdogs. Iowa also deployed formations, strategies and plays that Nebraska had never seen before. This included pre-play signal calling by the quarterback and its wedge or “V” tactic which they used to score all of its points. Despite a strong defensive performance, Iowa shutout Nebraska 22-0 in Omaha.

Nebraska would finish the 1891 season with a win against Doane, its third contest of the season against the university located in Crete, NE. As a result of its win, Nebraska won the unofficial state championship for a second year in a row. Interesting to note is that during its first two seasons, the Knights played Doane four out of seven times. Nebraska finished its second season at 2-2 while Iowa finished 3-2.

The two teams would play each other annually through the 1899 season and a total 54 times overall. Nebraska’s first win against Iowa was in Omaha during the 1893 season. While Iowa has dominated the series after Nebraska joined the Big Ten winning nine out of 13 games, Nebraska leads the overall series 30-21-3. The Huskers lost 13-10 last season in Lincoln but won 24-17 in Iowa City in 2022.

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

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