D.X. Bible arrived in 1929, just a few months before the stock market crash that plunged the nation and much of the world into a decade long depression. Nebraska suffered as a hard hit agricultural state, grain prices dropped, crops withered in the fields and top soil dried up and blew away. Nebraskan's found themselves at the mercy of weather shifts, a plummeting dollar and government imposed grain prices. Football, however remained firmly rooted in the plains soil and flourished as one of few things that Nebraskan had control over. The state had hired a top coach and was committed to their football program.
Bible delivered. By 1936 the Cornhuskers had won six Big Six Conference Championships in eight years. But Bible's first years were tough ones. His record for 1929 was 4-1-3 the next year a dismal 4-3-2. Most of the big players who had taken the team to the threshold of the Rose Bowl in 1928 had graduated. But Bible took the young recruits, began turning scores around and molded one of the strongest teams in the nation. His reign produced a number amazing talented players. Many like Lloyd Cardwell, Ron Douglas and All-Americans Dan Mc Mullen, George Sauer, Sam Francis, Ray Richards, Hugh Rhea and Lawrence Ely have become celebrated figures of Nebraska football history.
By 1931 Bible's team was starting to really perform, they finished the season with an 8-2 record, their only losses to the invincible Pittsburgh and old rival Minnesota. With the return of Minnesota and Iowa and the new additions of Pittsburgh and Indiana to the regular schedule "The Little Colonel" had rustled up some tough competition. The team played full schedules against the regular conference teams as well as the new, nationally recognized contenders. The next five years were joyous ones for Nebraska fans.
The Cornhuskers and Bible became dustbowl heroes. They took the agriculturally depressed and economically floundering state to new heights of football glory. For six straight years the team dominated the Big-6 conference championship. While Nebraska reigned over the region, Pittsburgh and Minnesota remained thorns in Bible's side for the duration of his career at Nebraska. Never able to beat either, the Huskers occasionally held the two powerhouses to scoreless ties. But it was against the great opposition of the regular national champion contenders of the 30's that Nebraska's individual players shined. Nebraska boys rose out of the withering cornfields to become regional and national heroes. Players like Lloyd Cardwell, the "Wild Hoss" of the plains, known for his amazing runs and All-American George Sauer were revered by fans statewide. In 1932 Sauer was central to the Husker's stellar record of eight wins and only one loss. That solitary loss was to undefeatable Pittsburgh. The Husker defensive line, led by Sauer, held off the steeltown squad until the slashing Panthers scored the game's only touchdown in the fourth quarter.
While the team often lost against Pittsburgh and Minnesota, Husker players became stars for their valiant efforts.
Cardwell and Sam Francis both ran for the Husker track team and it showed. At the time, substitutions in football games were a rarity. Endurance was mandatory.
During their last game against Minnesota in 1936, Cardwell played the entire 60 minutes and Francis nearly did the same. Stopped only by a head injury, he had to be carried off the field in the fourth quarter. With 58 seconds remaining in the game the score was a dead tie at 0-0 when Bible decided in a last ditch attempt to punt. Francis, the star kicker was incapacitated, so Ron Douglas took his place. Not the kicker that Francis was, the ball went just short of out of bounds and the Gophers were soon running the ball back through the exhausted Husker line. Minnesota Coach Bierman was so excited by the touchdown that he threw a full water bucket over his own head!The next week Nebraska played Indiana. Francis, recovered from the previous week's beating, scored two touchdowns to win the game.
By the end of the season he was hailed as the best player of the year. Of 127 polled opposing players, all but one named him the best they had played. He had a 97.85 efficiency rating among his peers, the top in the nation and numerous sports writers tapped him as their number one choice for the Hiesman Trophy. But the award narrowly went to Yale End Larry Kelly. It would be another 36 years before a Husker actually received the award when Johnny Rodgers won it in 1972.
In addition to the disappointment of Francis's close run for the Hiesman the 1936 season marked the end of the Bible era when D.X. left for Texas. But by no means was it the end of Husker success. If anything, the team grew stronger under Bible's replacement, "Biff" Jones. An Army Major, Jones, was recommended by Bible who was lured by the prospect of returning to his native Texas and a $4,000 raise. Jones' tenure was a short five years, as he was ordered back to West Point at the start of World War Two. His accomplishments in that short time have placed him among the great coaches of college football.
Biff's arrival marked a turning point in Husker football history. His first game in 1937 was against arch-rival the Minnesota Gophers. To the surprise and delight of Nebraskans the Huskers, for the first time since 1913, beat Minnesota. The Gophers led the charge by returning the kickoff for a touchdown. Nebraska retaliated with a touchdown supplied by Johnny Howell with blocking from Brock. English who kicked for the extra point. The Huskers held off the Gophers until the final quarter when Minnesota's Horace Bell scored a field goal bringing the score to 9 to 7. NU's Harris Andrews fired the ball to Elmer Dohrmann for 20 yards. The next pass was too high over Dohrmann's head, but the third one went right to "Wild Bill" Callahan who ran the ball in, English kicked the extra point for a final score of 14-9. In the locker room, following the game, some Nebraska players wept with joy over their long-awaited victory.
Jones took the team to a 6-1-2 season end. Minnesota had finally been vanquished but Pittsburgh ran through the Nebraska team that year. Two years later even the Panthers fell to Biff's new improved Huskers. In 1939, Jones began working his team into two squads, the nascent predecessor of the now familiar starting, second and third string football teams. But it was still the stars -- Vike Francis, Fullback Henry Rohn and Wingbacks Bob DeFruiter and Butch Luther-- who split the Pittsburgh line in the 1939 game that spelled the end of Panther dominance over the Huskers. But the best from Jones and the new split squad Huskers was yet to come.
