Clip of the Great War
The optimism of the first decade of the 20th Century began to wane as the Great War in Europe dominated western thought from 1914-1918. The increased mechanization of war took more than 130,000 American lives, leaving many unsure of their faith in humanity. Following the terrible trench warfare, was a similarly destructive flu pandemic that enveloped the world by 1919. At home, American laborers were questioning their employers by joining unions and striking for better pay, shorter hours, and safer working conditions. Similarly, women continued to draw attention to their right to vote across the nation.
While the war was fought in the trenches of Europe, the repercussions were felt all the way to the plains of Nebraska. Thousands of Nebraskan men and women joined the war effort. Many, including some veteran Husker football players, were killed in battle. The thousands of German-Americans who made Nebraska their home became targets of war-time propaganda. German language classes were canceled, many German-Americans stopped speaking German outside the home, and some even changed their names.
During the Booth and Cole years, new records were set not only for the team and coach's winning potential, but also for the profitability of the football program and the coach's salaries. Booth had been started at $600 a year, but left the university with a record $2,000 salary; Cole was paid similarly. Students and fans had come to expect a winning team and were clamoring for games against powerhouse teams like Michigan, Iowa and the mighty Notre Dame. Ewald "Jumbo" Stiehm was hired with great expectations.
Stiehm delivered; proving over the next five years that Nebraska was a force to be reckoned with, both regionally and nationally. While his team was known as the "Stiehm Rollers" they were anything but massive crushers. Jumbo used a deceptive style of fake passes and handoffs performed by his smaller, faster players to beat everyone from Minnesota to Notre Dame.
Stiehm's rolling Cornhuskers continued Nebraska's successes. Cole's team claimed their second Missouri Valley Conference title in 1910, and Jumbo's teams held on to the title through 1911 and 1912. Despite the honor, the team's attempts to join the larger Western Conference were continually denied. Nonetheless, Nebraska continued to prove its mettle under Stiehm, who still holds the title of winningest coach in Nebraska football history with a .913 winning record: 35 wins, three losses and only two ties in five years.
The Cornhuskers dominated the region, but yearned for national recognition. In 1915, Nebraska hosted the top-ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The game was preceded with excitement on both sides. Nebraska would finally meet a big team, and Notre Dame's Assistant Coach Knute Rockne believed, having watched Nebraska in action, that he had pinned down Cornhusker virtuoso Guy Chamberlain's playing style. Rockne instructed his team that once in possession of the ball, Chamberlain never backtracked, but cut wide for the end, and that he always licked his fingers before passing.
But during the game, "Champ" Chamberlain baffled the South Bend team. He didn't lick his fingers once, and during an early run, he expectedly went wide, then suddenly reversed and headed down the middle of the split Irish defensive line for Nebraska's first touchdown. The two teams seemed equally matched as the game went right down to the wire. Each touchdown matched touchdown and every extra point matched extra point. The score stood at 20-13, Nebraska's favor, in the fourth quarter when Notre Dame made a final touchdown bringing the score to 20-19. The Irish kicked for the extra point and missed! The next day the New York Times noted, "Nebraska definitely has come of age. It must be ranked with the major powers."
The Cornhuskers didn't rest on their laurels long. They handily beat Minnesota and Kansas and finished the season with a 52-7 trouncing of Iowa rounding out another undefeated year. The team was rewarded with an invitation to the Rose Bowl, but the University's athletic board debated spending the money to send the team to California. They missed the acceptance deadline, and runner-up Brown University, went instead. Despite the unparalleled wins, the season's end was punctuated with disappointment when The Rose Bowl debacle was accompanied by Stiehm's resignation.
The next few years were rough ones for Nebraska. Three coaches rotated through from 1916 to 1920, and players were lost to the trenches of the Great War in Europe. After the middling 1916-17 seasons under "Doc" Stewart, the Huskers had one of their worst seasons in 1918 under Coach W.G. Kline. The season was truncated both by the war, which stripped colleges of able males like football captain Roscoe Rhodes who died on the frontlines, and the world wide Spanish Flu epidemic. The state Legislature prohibited group gatherings to quell the spread of the disease. Football games and even practices had to be canceled. A much-anticipated game with Notre Dame had to be rescheduled and when finally played was the only tie in the lackluster 2-3-1 season.
The rivalry between Rockne's Irish and the Cornhuskers continued to smolder, but Nebraska couldn't build a big enough fire to smoke the Indiana team. Notre Dame beat Nebraska on its own turf in both the 1919 and 1920 seasons. Coach Henry Schulte stepped down to Assistant Coach in 1921, and Fred Dawson began reviving the ailing team for the showdowns of the 1920s, especially against entrenched foe Notre Dame.
