Nebraska...not feeling Frosty anymore

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[SeanB]

That's a great picture with all the fans in red. Do they even allow visiting fans in?! Sure doesn't look like it!

I'm very excited to make the trip to Lincoln for M/Neb 2010. Hopefully it will work out. Might be a tough ticket.

[lineygoblue]

Those east side seats on the top look like they're about 1000' agl.

[geo weidl]

Those east side seats on the top look like they're about 1000' agl.

that will probably be where your seats will be Liney, when you get to lincoln.

[lineygoblue]

I can deal with that. I'll bring my binoculars and a really big parachute!

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LJS

The life of Ron Douglas, 96, has been colorful and productive — two sons, a marriage that spanned decades, a prosperous business and a golf game that still shows promise.

Through all that, one of the oldest living former Husker football players — he played during the leather-helmet days — still remembers his days on the field, playing for the famous Dana Xenophon Bible from 1934 to 1936.

In 1936, Nebraska earned its first national ranking (it was the first year of The Associated Press ratings), boasted a defense that was unscored upon in Big Six Conference play and won the conference title for the second straight season.

The Huskers were helping take Nebraskans' minds off the terrible Dust Bowl days and the overwhelming day-to-day pressure of the Great Depression.

Bible's 1936 backfield of left halfback Douglas, quarterback Johnny Howell, All-America fullback Sam Francis and the famous Lloyd Cardwell ran behind a line led by future All-American Charles Brock, end Les McDonald, tackles Fred Shirey and Ted Doyle, and guard Bob Mehring.

"The players are bigger and faster now, but I don't know they are better at football," Douglas said in a recent interview. "We had a good bunch then. We won a lot of games. Saturday was football around here. It was just like now, big crowds, a lot of excitement and a lot of activities."

A recruit out of Crete High, where he was a star for coach Pop Klein, Douglas helped the Cardinals to two state championships and victories against powerful Lincoln High.

"They even plowed up the field at the Oval for one game," said Douglas, who also played defensive back.

Eventually, Bible recruited Douglas to Nebraska.

"There were no scholarships, but I got a job … working nights until 10 p.m. as a grease monkey at a garage," said Douglas, who would go on to run Douglas Manufacturing in Crete.

He worked through the ranks and became a starter as a sophomore in 1934. The Huskers finished 6-3. In 1935, NU was 6-2-1, with an impressive victory against Chicago and famed back Jay Berwanger, who went on to win the first Heisman Trophy.

"We schemed for him and did pretty well," Douglas said.

Finally, in 1936, as a privileged senior — one who got a lower bunk on train trips to Minnesota, Oklahoma and Oregon State — Douglas was part of one of NU's best teams in 20 years.

"I got my first touchdown pass from Johnny Howell … he could throw and we did pass more than you'd think," Douglas said. "I kind of lumbered out of the backfield and got behind the guys, and there was the ball and there was the end zone.

"No. I don't think I did an end zone dance."

Still a golfer, and able to do a mean crossover step, Douglas is as limber and active as he can be. He was married to Jean Willis Douglas until her death 10 years ago and has two sons, Ron Jr. and Roger.

On living a long life, he said, "Maybe it was good stock. Actually, I've been very fortunate. Very lucky. Look at my family."

He still attends Husker football games.

"I have my criticisms but I keep them to myself," he said. "I admire Tom Osborne. Bob Devaney, he was a different kind. A good coach, I thought. I played on a golf course one time with Bo (Pelini). I think he'll do fine."

As for the Huskers moving to the Big Ten Conference, Douglas said it will be fine as long as the Huskers win.

"I understand it's a money thing," he said. "If they win, they can rule the roost."

On the three Husker Heisman winners — Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch — and other NU greats since he played, Douglas said, "They were good. I was jealous. They were all deserving."

Kansas State was the dirtiest team in the old Big Six, he said.

"I never suffered from it, but our linemen said Kansas State linemen used to bite them."


The punt: Nebraska All-American Sam Francis was "bunged up," and Ron Douglas, an All-Big Six back, was sent in to punt against highly ranked Minnesota.

"It was 0-0 and 58 seconds left," Douglas said. "We were on the side and I kicked it down the middle. Bud Wilkinson (yes, that Bud Wilkinson of OU fame) caught the punt and lateraled the ball to Andy Uram. Sixty-five yards later, he scored and they won, 7-0. I don't know where I was. I don't know where our tacklers were."

The punt, Part II: Nobody seems to remember NU's 1935 game with Minnesota when Douglas punted near the end of the game and the Huskers recovered a fumble on the return at the Gopher 2-yard-line. "An announcer said it was a great kick," Douglas said. Problem was, Nebraska couldn't punch the ball in after two tries by Sam Francis and a sweep by Lloyd Cardwell.

The trip: Nebraska's longest road trip in 1936 to Oregon State included stops in Idaho for a workout and at a national forest to cut down Christmas trees on the way back.

The Huskers: Coached by Dana X. Bible in the 1930s, NU was thrust onto the national scene for the first time in school history. All-Americans and all-around great players helped NU dominate the Big Six Conference. "It was great to see all the fans at the train stations when we came back home."

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http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=597347&SPID=76795&DB_OEM_ID=100&ATCLID=205137039

It'sthe day before Nebraska's annual Red-White Spring Game, and after a long fall, a grueling winter and an inspiring spring that brought major change, renewed spirit and greater chemistry to his team, Nebraska Head Football Coach Bo Pelini shared a little bit about a lot of things with the N-Sider in the following Q&A format

[Dr. Strangelove]

http://huskerextra.com/sports/football/article_18a1466a-5b4a-522a-88a6-3773c4596af5.html

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Tom Shatel article






It's been 15 years. And Tom Osborne can still see the remnants of the Piper Cub plane, in a small pile, burning. He can still recall that awful smell.

“That wreck was hard,'' Osborne said. “I went out there and it was still burning. Pretty hard.''
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Fifteen years. Osborne remembers that they had to retrieve Brook Berringer's mouthpiece, the one he used as a football hero, to make the dental identification.

“There was a fire,'' Osborne said. “There was no hope of recovery.''

April 18, 1996. Osborne doesn't remember where he was going that Thursday afternoon. But he was in his car. This was before many had cell phones. He had the radio on. This just in: there's been an accident, a plane down, near Raymond, Neb. A Nebraska football player may be involved.

Osborne turned the car that way. He found a phone. He remembers calling Jan Berringer, Brook's mother, in Goodland, Kan. Osborne doesn't remember what he told her.

Fifteen years later, Jan remembers exactly.

“He told me there had been an accident,” she said. “He wanted me to be prepared in case Brook was involved. My first thought was, ‘He didn't throw out his elbow, did he?' He'd been throwing for NFL scouts. It was two days before the draft.

“Tom said, ‘No, I'm out here in the country.' And I said, ‘Was it a hunting accident?' Tom said, ‘No, there was an airplane involved.' When he said that, my heart sank to my big toe.''

Fifteen years. I was at the Scorecard, in west Omaha, appearing on a sports talk show with Gary Java and Randy Eccker. It was a Thursday afternoon. The Nebraska spring game was two days away. So was the NFL draft. The Huskers were coming off back-to-back national championships. Berringer was among those waiting to be chosen in the draft. Life was good. And then all of a sudden it wasn't.

I drove back to the World-Herald to start writing. But what? The words didn't flow. Tears did. Hardest column I ever had to write.

Two days later, the spring game turned from festival to wake. No one knew what to say. If Nebraska football is a family, it became tightknit that day. Lots of hugs. Crying.

Then, before the game, they played a tribute video to Berringer's career at Nebraska. The Wyoming game, where he suffered a collapsed lung. The Colorado game, where Bill McCartney dared Tommie Frazier's backup to beat his No. 2 Buffs and Berringer did just that. The Orange Bowl against Miami.

Finally, there was a video of Brook, making one of his many grade-school appearances, reading “Green Eggs and Ham'' to a circle of first-graders. That's how the tribute ended. People in the press box were sobbing. Nobody there that day will ever forget that video. Nobody around then will ever forget this kid from Goodland, Kan.

The statue

The question is, why?

Why is there a statue of him outside the Osborne Athletic Complex? Why is there an annual citizenship award in his honor? Why are athletes who never met the young man and never saw him play honored to get the award? Why does Jan Berringer still have people tell her that they named their baby after her son?

What is it about Brook Berringer's legacy that's worth preserving?

Start with death. Right or wrong, tragedy has a way of immortalizing an athlete or celebrity, especially one in his prime. Berringer was two days away from a bright future in the NFL. He was taken far too early, but the timing was especially cruel.

If you listed the top 10 all-time Nebraska quarterbacks, he doesn't make the list. But he certainly was one of the most important quarterbacks in NU history.

Berringer was the boy next door. Handsome, quiet, polite. He hailed from western Kansas, but this was a kid close to every Nebraskan's heart. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. He had a pilot's license. The son every Nebraska mother wanted. He had permission from every father in Nebraska to marry his daughter.

Mostly, I think that some of us still gravitate to Berringer because of his selflessness. He bounded off the bench and took the wheel of the 1994 national title season when asked and then handed the wheel back to Frazier in 1995 without a fuss. The portrait of the team player. Not the first or last to be a team guy at Nebraska. But he was the highest profile team player on the greatest teams of that era.

And he resonated with so many because, well, that's how we would like to think we would have done it. There was an ideal there, a standard, that most preach about. Berringer lived it. Until the end.

“His senior year was truly an indication of his character,'' Osborne said. “He certainly was as deserving as Tommie. Tommie won the job in fall camp. It was close. Tommie was given the ball and we had a great surrounding cast. I think we would have been undefeated no matter which one of them played.

“He (Brook) could have been divisive. He could have led a revolt. He always said the right thing, did the right thing, played his role. I admired that. For that reason, I've often referred to him as maybe not the best player we ever had here, but a player who really stood out in my mind representing what team play and teamwork is all about.''

Fitting choice

Most people knew that Berringer was one of Osborne's favorites. That apparently included the sculptor hired by former Athletic Director Steve Pederson to do a statue of Osborne for the new facility.

During construction of the Osborne Complex, Osborne was told about the statue. “I said, no, no. I don't want any statues. And then, I think the sculptor was fairly clever. He said, ‘What if we put up a statue of Brook Berringer?' I think he thought I might go for that.''

Clever indeed. And, as it turns out, a fitting choice for the identity of a Nebraska player to be immortalized with Osborne.

“In some ways, you'd like a statue that was kind of generic,'' Osborne said. “Someone that represented all the players. The reason I went along with it was I thought his spirit and his attitude and character had really represented the essence of so many of our players who enabled us to be successful.

“I think of him quite a bit, irrespective of the statue.''

Osborne stopped to gather himself. Fifteen years later, he still has a hard time talking about Berringer. But he smiled when he pointed out that if everyone who claimed to have hunted and fished with Berringer actually did so, Berringer never would have made it to class. Osborne talked about the bus ride to the funeral, in Goodland, and how people were standing on the side of the highway, waving Nebraska flags.

More than once, Osborne teared up talking about No. 18.

“I'm not a big weeper or wailer,'' Osborne said. “But, yeah, I cried. I still cry thinking about him. I think it was at that spring game, they had a tribute to Brook on the big screen. That was a very emotional moment for me.''

Jan was back in Lincoln on Saturday, helping give out the Berringer Award. She says she gets goose bumps every time they give out the award. Driving around Lincoln, with the memories swirling in her head and the images coming back, she says, “I get knots in my stomach.''

Fifteen years. Her husband, Warren, died 30 years ago on April 15. Fifteen years before Brook. Tough lady. Great lady.

I asked her what Brook would be doing today if he were still alive. She paused and said, “Well, he would have played for the Broncos. He wanted to play for them. I remember one time we were talking about what he would do one day. He got out a map and drew a line from Kansas City to Omaha to Lincoln, a triangle. He pointed to a spot and said, “That would be a good place for a Cabela's. With my connections, I could open one up.''

Both Jan Berringer and Osborne said they thought that Brook probably would have been a commercial pilot, his real dream. His dad's twin brother had been a pilot for Delta. Osborne said Brook would have gotten married and become a good family man and father. And Brook Berringer would have been living the life, the only way he knew how.

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http://youtu.be/__54nZB1ugY


big ten network review of nebraska's spring game