WINNING STREAK BEGINS
Nebraska and Rutgers first played at the Polo Grounds in New York City, on a Tuesday afternoon. That’s right, a Tuesday afternoon. As Casey Stengel said, “You could look it up.”
The date was November 2, 1920. Henry “Pa” Schulte, the Cornhuskers’ second-year head coach, scouted Rutgers’ game against Cornell in Ithaca, New York, the Saturday before. Schulte left the night before the team left for New York City, as did Husker freshman coach P.J. Schissler.
Schissler went to Philadelphia to scout Penn State against Pennsylvania, also on Saturday. Nebraska would play Penn State on the Saturday after the Rutgers game before returning home.
Again, you could look it up.
Rutgers lost to Cornell 24-0, foreshadowing a 28-0 Cornhusker victory. Nebraska almost covered its travel costs with its percentage of the gate—15,000 attended, according to newspaper accounts.
Nebraska’s travel roster included 25 players. Schulte wanted to take at least 30, but Athletic Director Fred Luehring was concerned about travel expenses, estimated at $7,500.
Rutgers reportedly offered a $2,500 guarantee, Penn State $4,000. Or Nebraska could receive a percentage of the gates.
End Clarence Swanson caught two touchdown passes. Chick Hartley and Verne Moore ran for touchdowns in the victory. Lincoln sports writer “Cy” Sherman, credited with giving Nebraska the nickname “Cornhuskers,” wrote in The Star, Rutgers’ defeat was “pulverizing.”
Interest in the game was such Sherman sent play-by-play details to Lincoln by wire, and the play-by-play accounts were announced by megaphone outside the newspaper office.
Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights, wore black jerseys instead of red to avoid confusion. According to The Star, students who attended the game were unhappy, no doubt even more so afterward.
Ironically, two days before departing by train for New York City, the Cornhuskers scrimmaged their freshman team and lost, allowing four touchdowns and scoring only one. There was optimism about the future, under Fred Dawson, who would replace Schulte after the 1920 season.
But optimism about the trip east? Not so much.
As it turned out, Nebraska’s shutout of Rutgers was the Scarlet Knights’ fourth in five games, the second of five in a row in a 2-7 season. The Cornhuskers lost to Penn State 20-0 and finished 5-3-1.
Dawson’s teams won three Missouri Valley championships in his four seasons. His 1921 and 1922 teams were 7-1. His overall record was 23-7-2.
Schulte stayed on staff and coached the line, which he also coached for Dawson’s successor Ernie Bearg, whose record over four seasons was 23-7-3. Seriously. Bearg’s teams tied for the conference title three times and won it outright in his final season, 1928.
Nebraska was an independent Schulte’s two seasons, forced to be for breaking a conference rule requiring home games to be played at home—Nebraska was scheduled to play Oklahoma in Omaha in 1919 and was immediately dropped from the Missouri Valley.
The Cornhuskers were reinstated in 1921.
With all conference teams except Kansas dropping Nebraska from their 1920 schedules, the Cornhuskers added opponents such as Rutgers and Penn State. According to Sherman, the trip east was a signature moment. Nebraska would “qualify as the only institution of the middle west which has sent its teams to both sea coasts of the American continent,” he wrote.
In 1916 the Cornhuskers played the Oregon Aggies—now Oregon State—in Portland. Before the trip to New York City, the farthest east Nebraska had played was Ann Arbor, Michigan, according to Sherman. The Cornhuskers played at Michigan in 1905 and 1917.
Nebraska wouldn’t play Rutgers again until 2014, the year the Scarlet Knights joined the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers lead the short series 6-0, the lone shutout in 1920.
[Note: As indicated, this story is based on Lincoln and Omaha newspaper accounts.]
Mike Babcock
