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.
Following Nebraska football's 24-3 victory at California on Sept. 12, 1998, Husker Coach Frank Solich said he knew quarterback Monte Christo, a senior walk-on, could get the job done — as long as he was healthy. Christo had dealt with injuries during his career. He...
Two games. Two first-time starting quarterbacks. That’s how Frank Solich’s time as Nebraska football’s head coach began. Oh yes, and two wins. Redshirt freshman Eric Crouch started the second game of the 1998 season at quarterback because sophomore Bobby Newcombe, the...
Hail Varsity Historical's next subject is the 1998 Nebraska football season, game-by-game, the first for Frank Solich as head coach. When Frank Solich ran onto the field before Nebraska’s 1998 opener against Louisiana Tech in the Nebraska Genuine Eddie Robinson...
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...