Mike Babcock is in his 47th season covering Nebraska football. Babcock also covered most other Husker sports at some point in his journalism career. Mike earned his undergraduate degree in English from Cal State-Chico and Masters in English (teacher preparation) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Babcock spent seven years teaching English and Introductory Literature at Parkland Community College. Mike wrote sports part-time at the Champaign-Urbana Courier as well as for Lincoln Journal and Star for 17 years for the sports department covering Nebraska as a sports columnist. Babcock then wrote for Huskers Illustrated before Hail Varsity and Hurrdat Sports.
A century ago, Ernie Bearg’s first game as head coach of Nebraska football was against Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Legendary All-America running back Harold “Red” Grange, nicknamed “the Galloping Ghost,” led the Illini. Illinois won the previous two meetings. But...
As noted last week, George Flippin was the first Black athlete at Nebraska, playing for the football team in the 1891 game against Iowa. He was a groundbreaker beyond that. According to Arthur Ashe’s "A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete:...
The focus of the next couple Hail Varsity Historical installments will be on other Nebraska football topics rather than past game recaps. Nebraska football’s oldest rivalry is with Iowa, its first out-of-state opponent. That’s probably appropriate now, given the...
Depending on the poll, Nebraska football was first (Coaches) or second (Associated Press) going into the Orange Bowl game against Florida State, second or first, on January 1, 1994. And the scoreboard would tell the tale: Florida State 18, Nebraska 16. The previously...
Nebraska football went into the Oklahoma game at Memorial Stadium on Thanksgiving Day 1993 ranked first nationally in rushing offense and 14h in total offense. So these numbers didn’t add up. The Huskers rushed for 122 yards and finished with 179 total-offense yards....
Two minutes, 54 seconds into the game, Nebraska football led Iowa State 14-0 on the way to a 49-17 victory at Memorial Stadium in mid-November 1993. The AP fourth-ranked Huskers improved to 10-0. It happened this way. Mike Minter forced a fumble on the opening...
Nebraska football's 21-20 victory at Kansas the first Saturday in November 1993 came down to one play, a Jayhawks 2-point conversion attempt with 52 seconds remaining. “Basically, I think they were lucky,” Kansas guard Hessley Hempstead said of the Huskers. You can be...
Nebraska football scored 21 points, Colorado managed a field goal, in the first quarter of the eighth game of the season, on a cold day at Folsom Field in Boulder, October 30, 1993. Couldn’t ask for a much better start, right? But the Huskers wouldn’t score again,...
The Hail Varsity Historical series focusing on Nebraska football during the 1990s, suspended when the baseball season began, resumes today. Nebraska led Missouri 21-7 at halftime of the seventh game of the 1993 season. But Husker defensive coordinator Charlie McBride...