Appropriately, perhaps, Tom Osborne’s 250th career victory leading Nebraska football came against Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium, November 1, 1997. A no-question victory, 69-7.
“I think after a few bad things happened, they maybe lost heart a little bit,” Osborne said.
The victory was the most-lopsided in the series, which began in 1912 and became annual in 1928. The previous record was 73-29 by Nebraska the year before.
As for appropriate, the Sooners, under Barry Switzer, had been the bane of Nebraska’s existence during the early seasons under Osborne, whose record against Switzer was 5-12. Osborne’s first five teams lost to Oklahoma. The sixth won, only to lose a rematch in the Orange Bowl.
The 1997 victory evened Osborne’s record against the Sooners, 13-13.
Osborne dismissed the appropriateness, sort of. “I hadn’t thought about that,” he said post-game. “But I guess it is a little bit ironic. I’m not a big one on sentiment. I’m not really big on looking back in the past. I guess I’m so busy right now just trying to figure out what to do (on) Saturday.
“I don’t have time to reflect.”
Next up for the Huskers was Missouri in Columbia.
As for victory 250 itself, “maybe there will come a day when I’ll sit back and think about all the times that were,” said Osborne. “But right now I don’t think about it very much.”
Nebraska wasted no time taking charge of the game. The Huskers recovered 4-of-7 Sooner fumbles in the first half and led at intermission 34-0. The lead increased to 55-0 when fullback Joel Makovicka scored his third touchdown, on a 32-yard run with 5:09 remaining in the third quarter.
Oklahoma finally scored its lone touchdown 3 minutes later.
Makovicka carried 10 times for 101 yards and the touchdowns, the others coming on runs of 5 and 37 yards. Ahman Green carried 18 times for 105 yards, Scott Frost eight times for 66 yards and a touchdown. Frost also completed 6-of-10 passes for 107 yards, 40 yards on a touchdown to Bobby Newcombe.
Correll Buckhalter ran for two touchdowns, Lance Brown for one.
Kris Brown kicked field goals from 24 and 42 yards in the first quarter.
Nebraska finished with 552 yards of offense, including 409 rushing.
The Grant Wistrom-led defense held Oklahoma to a net of 154 yards. Wistrom finished with 10 tackles and two of the Huskers’ five sacks. Mike Rucker, Tony Ortiz and Jason Peter had the others. Wistrom also forced three of the fumbles.
Even though Oklahoma went into the game with a 3-5 record, “for whatever reason, I felt a little bit more on edge going into this game,” Osborne said. “I guess maybe it’s just kind of the trigger of so many times in the past. Even though you know that probably they didn’t have quite the same record and maybe it wasn’t quite the same magnitude of a game, they still have some really good athletes, and I think emotionally, it still impacted me much the same way … it always does.”
Osborne reached 250 victories in 302 games, the fastest a coach at any level had reached the total. The game ended the annual series with the teams’ inclusion in the Big 12 Conference. Nebraska and Oklahoma would not play again until 2000.
“It’s kind of sad,” Osborne said. “But life goes on.”
The Huskers moved to the Big Ten in 2011, Oklahoma to the SEC in 2024.
A note on how times have changed: the 1997 game lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes.
