Lesson 4
The Great Depression of the 1930's
Overview:
The only bowl the Huskers were familiar with in the 1930's was the "dust bowl." As if low farm prices were not enough, Nebraska farmers had to endure a drought as well. Nebraskans found themselves at the mercy of shifting weather patterns and plummeting commodities prices. They were tested physically and mentally as they had not been tested since the early pioneer days. While crops and farmers alike were having difficulty maintaining their footing, football remained firmly rooted in the Great Plains soil.Nebraskans did not have any control over the weather or farm prices, but they found they did have some control over their football coaches and football teams. A successful football program was important to people who faced a bleak economic landscape throughout much of the 1930's. Fans wanted heroes who reflected their ethics and values and could strive against adversity and be successful. Players such as George Sauer and Lloyd Cardwell and coaches such as D.X. Bible and Major Lawrence "Biff" Jones became those heroes. "Biff" Jones was the personification of values that most Nebraskans cherished. A former Army Major, he was ethical, hard working, and well disciplined.
The football team was just as poor as the rest of the state and could not offer its students scholarships, kickbacks or in Forrest Behm's case, even a pair of shoes. But the team that emerged from the economically battered state became the pride of the plains. It produced All-Americans by the handfuls, reaped Conference Championships and grew strong enough to be invited to the Rose Bowl in 1940. The team comprised largely of home-grown farm boys applied the same grit, work ethic and tenacity to the game that was getting their families and friends through the Depression.
Hard work and discipline may have characterized the team but it lacked the diversity that had made the team so successful and representative of Nebraska during the team's early period. By 1938, not a single African-American had played for Nebraska since Clinton Ross in 1913. Some teams refused to play Nebraska if Blacks were on the team. From first decades of Nebraska football to the 1920's and 30's racial and ethnic attitudes shifted dramatically. George Flippin, an African-American half-back was the star of the team during the 1890's, but after Ross, who played through 1913 the football team, the university and much of the state adopted a "Jim Crow" separate but equal stance on race and inclusion. The 1919 Omaha lynching and Notre Dame debacle of the mid 1920's further exemplified the rising influence of the Klu Klux Klan in Nebraska and shifting attitudes about race and ethnicity in the state.
Objectives:
1. To identify the values that Nebraskans of the first three decades of the twentieth century thought were important.
2. To compare and contrast the values Nebraskans deemed important in the 1920sand 1930's with the values viewed as important by the Nebraska football team.
3. To analyze how the experience of living through the Great Depression shaped thevalue system of the Nebraska people.
1. Why weather related problems did people living in Nebraska experience in the 1930's?
2. Did Nebraskans support their football team in the 1930s? Why or why not?
3. Who was "Biff" Jones?
4. Did Nebraska recruit African American football players in the 1930's?
5. Why was the railroad important to both the football team and the Nebraska communities?
6. How did the Great Depression affect people living in Nebraska in the 1930's?
7. What values did people living in Nebraska believe were most important?
Post viewing Video Questions:
1. What were the causes and effects of the Great Depression? Did the people livingin Nebraska experience more or fewer problems during the Great Depression? Explain.
2. How were the values that Nebraskans felt were most important, influenced by the Great Depression?
3. How did the Nebraska football team reflect the values deemed important by people living in Nebraska?
4. Why were their so few African American players on the Nebraska football teamduring the 1930's? Did many African Americans move to Nebraska during the1930's? Why or why not?
5. Explain how the Great Depression affected the Nebraska football team.
6. Are Nebraska football players given scholarships today? Should they be given scholarships? Why or why not?
7. A Nebraska State Senator has proposed that football players at the University of Nebraska should be paid to play. Do you agree or disagree. Explain your position.
These activities are offered as suggestions to help you learn more about the material presented in this lesson.
Activity 1: The Great Depression
Access the following web sites:
Library of Congress American Memory Collection. "Lessons" at:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.htmlThen access the links listed with the topic "Great Depression
Answer the following questions:
1. What values can you infer the Great Depression instilled in Nebraskans living in the 1930s?
2. Do Nebraskans still view those values as being important today?
3. Does the current Nebraska football team share any of the values stressed during the Great Depression?
4. Do you think Americans living during the Great Depression shared a common set of values? Why or why not?
Activity 2: The 1930's
Access one or more of the following web sites, and their related links, and answer the questions that follow the web site addresses:
EdSITEment. Scroll to the heading titled "History and Social Sciences and then scroll to the subheading "The Great Depression"
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplans.html
Kingwood College Library. American Cultural History 1930-1939 http://www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/lrc/kc/decade30.htmlFranklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/Library of Congress. American American Collections: All Collections. Scroll to the title "Depression Era to World War II ~FSA/OWI~Photographs~1935-1945" and click on the title
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
/S?ammem/collections:Questions:
1. Access the National Archives "Photograph Analysis Worksheet "at: http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/analysis/photo.html
Select five or more photographs depicting scenes of the 1930's and answer the questions listed on the "Photograph Analysis Worksheet."
OR
2. Access The Library of Congress American Memory Fellows Program "Photo Study Guide" at
Select five or more photographs depicting scenes of the 1930's and answer the questions listed on the "Photo Study Guide."
OR
3. Select three or more photographs, stories, etc. about life during the 1930's and explain how they empasize values deemed important to Nebraskans living during the same time period.
Suggested correlations with Nebraska Standards:
Activity 1:
Social Studies/History Standard 8.2.7. Students will develop skills for historical analysis, such as the ability to a. Identify, analyze, and interpret primary sources, such as artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, art, documents, newspapers, contemporary media, and computer information systems.
Social Studies/History Standard 12.3.17. Students will develop skills for historical analysis, such as the ability to: a. Analyze documents, records, and data, such as artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, journals, newspapers, and historical accounts.
Reading/Writing Standard 12.1. By the end of the twelfth grade, students will locate, access, and evaluate resources to identify appropriate information, i.e. electronic resources such as CD-ROM and online resources; using software programs such as word processing and multimedia presentations to synthesize, and present information.
Activity 2:
Social Studies/History Standard 8.2.7. Students will develop skills for historical analysis, such as the ability to a. Identify, analyze, and interpret primary sources, such as artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, art, documents, newspapers, contemporary media, and computer information systems.
Social Studies/History Standard 12.3.17. Students will develop skills for historical analysis, such as the ability to: a. Analyze documents, records, and data, such as artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, journals, newspapers, and historical accounts.
Reading/Writing Standard 12.1. By the end of the twelfth grade, students will locate, access, and evaluate resources to identify appropriate information, i.e. electronic resources such as CD-ROM and online resources; using software programs such as word processing and multimedia presentations to synthesize, and present information.
Web Sites:
Discover Omaha. News Great Depression named Nebraska's top news story of the century.
http://www.discoveromaha.com/news/1999/12/17/top_century_story.htmlEdSITEment. Scroll to the heading titled "History and SocialSciences and then scroll to the subheading "The Great Depression"
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplans.htmlFranklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/Husker Century. The Events.
Click here
Kingwood College Library. "American Cultural History 1930-1939."
http://www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/lrc/kc/decade30.html"Depression Era to World War II ~FSA/OWI~Photographs~1935-1945"
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
Library of Congress. American Memory Collection. "Lessons" on the Great Depression.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/index.htmlLibrary of Congress American Memory Fellows Program http://learning.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/index.html
Library of Congress. Media Analysis Tools.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/media.htmlPrinted Materials:
Davis, John Kyle. Nebraska Studies. Lincoln: The Nebraska Department of Education, 1983.
Larsen, Lawrence H. and Barbara J. Cottrell. The Gate City A History of Omaha. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Olson, James C. and Ronald C. Naugle. History of Nebraska. 3rd Edition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1997.
Walsh, Thomas R. Changing Nebraska. Lincoln: Instructional Materials Council,1986.
"Documentary Tells Gridiron History." Omaha World Herald. August 2000.
"Sports Fans' Loyalty a Deep-Rooted Study." Omaha World Herald. August 12, 2000
Video:
"Gridiron Generals": The History of College Football. History Channel
Nebraska Educational Television. Heritage Library Tapes"Plowing Up A Storm"
NETCHE. Instructional Videos.
"Dust and Drought"
"The Great Depression"
"Legacies of the Depression on the Great Plains"
http://netdb.unl.edu/NetcheVideo/
January 1, 1990
