1899 Nebraska Bugeaters football team

1899 Nebraska Bugeaters football
Conference Independent
1899 record 2-7-1
Head coach Alonzo Edwin Branch (1st year)
Home stadium Antelope Field

The 1899 Nebraska Bugeaters football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1899 college football season. The team was coached by Alonzo Edwin Branch and played their home games at Antelope Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska's football team began its history as the "Old Gold Knights", and was also sometimes known as the "Tree Planters", "Nebraskans", "The Rattlesnake Boys", "Red Stockings", "Antelopes" or "Goldenrods" in their early years.

Before the season

Nebraska's high level of turnover at the top continued as yet another new head coach arrived. Coach Branch was recently finished with school, and the Nebraska appointment was his first college head coaching position.

Schedule

[1]

Date Opponent Site Result Attendance
September 30* at Lincoln High Lincoln, Nebraska W 6-0 -
October 6 at Iowa State State Field • Ames, Iowa L 0-33 -
October 14 KC Medics Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska T 6-6 -
October 21 Missouri Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska L 0-11 -
October 28 at KC Medics Kansas City, Missouri L 0-24 -
November 4 Iowa Omaha, Nebraska L 0-30 -
November 11 at Drake Des Moines, Iowa W 12-6 -
November 18 Kansas Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska L 20-36 -
November 24 at South Dakota Vermillion, South Dakota L 5-6 -
November 30 Grinnell Omaha, Nebraska L 0-12 -
*Exhibition Game.

Roster

[2]

Bell, Johnny HB
Benedict, Raymond HB
Brew, Fred T
Carver, Fred FB
Cortelyou, Spencer E
Crandall, Harry QB
Dasenbrock, John G
Drain, Ralph QB
Gordon, Anthony FB
Hunter, Fred HB
Kingsbury, Raymond FB
Koehler, John C
Pearse, Arthur RT
Ploughead RG
Reasoner, Ira T
Ringer, John LG
Tukey, Harry QB
Tyson C
Wallace LT
Westover, John LT
Williams, Charles Erwin HB

Coaching staff

Name Title First year
in this position 		Years at Nebraska Alma Mater
Alonzo Edwin BranchHead Coach18991899Williams
Jack BestTrainer18901890–1922
Austin CollettManager
Fred WilliamsCaptain

[3][4]

Game notes

Lincoln High

Nebraska at Lincoln High
1 2Total
• Nebraska 6
Lincoln High 0

The University met the Lincoln High School football team for the second time in this exhibition game, and came away with a 6-0 win although it did not count towards the season record. There does not seem to be a historical record to indicate that the score was the result of a close fought game or the Bugeaters not pushing as hard as they could have, though the way the season went perhaps credit is due to the high schoolers. Nebraska was now 2-0 against Lincoln High School. [5][6]

Iowa State

Nebraska at Iowa State
1 2Total
Nebraska 0 0 0
• Iowa State 28 5 33
  • Date: 1899-10-06
  • Location: State Field • Ames, Iowa

Nebraska suffered its worst ever defeat to open the official slate for 1899, falling behind at Iowa State by 28-0 at halftime. The ineffective Bugeater offense was never able to come up with anything all day, and the preparation of the Cyclones showed the value of the practices they had been getting in since August. Nebraska slipped to 2-2 all time against Iowa State. [5]

KC Medics

KC Medics at Nebraska
1 2Total
KC Medics 0 6 6
Nebraska 0 6 6
  • Date: 1899-10-14
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

The first half remained scoreless as both teams fought to gain a foothold. Nebraska's defense had improved over the previous week, but only enough so that the teams were merely evenly matched. Both squads managed a second half touchdown each but could do nothing further to decide the match, fittingly leaving these squads with an evenly divided 1-1-1 all time record, as well as one recorded cancellation from 1897. [5]

Missouri

Missouri at Nebraska
1 2Total
• Missouri 11
Nebraska 0
  • Date: 1899-10-21
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

Nebraska's offensive woes and ineptitude continued as Missouri walked all over the Bugeaters in Lincoln. The Bugeater defense remained stout, however, keeping the scoring from getting out of hand. Without any offense, however, Nebraska suffered their second shutout loss of the season as Missouri drew closer to Nebraska in the series by pulling up to 3-5.[5]


KC Medics

Nebraska at KC Medics
1 2Total
Nebraska 0 0 0
• KC Medics 12 12 24

The Kansas City Medics brought Nebraska to their home field and proceeded to demolish the Bugeaters, settling the issue of the tied game from two weeks prior. The Medics pulled ahead on the series 2-1-1, and the Nebraska season began to spiral downhill. [5]

Iowa

Iowa vs. Nebraska
1 2Total
• Iowa 30
Nebraska 0

The struggles of the team under coach Branch continued as Nebraska suffered their third straight shutout defeat and fourth shutout of the season as Iowa romped over the Bugeaters in Omaha. [5]

Drake

Nebraska at Drake
1 2Total
• Nebraska 6 6 12
Drake 0 6 6

At last, after four losses and a tie to start the season (excluding the exhibition game), Nebraska finally managed to put up a 'W' on the books with a close win at Drake, getting out of Des Moines with a one-score margin of victory and evening the Drake series at 1-1. [5]

Kansas

Kansas at Nebraska
1 2Total
• Kansas 24 12 36
Nebraska 5 15 20
  • Date: 1899-11-18
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

The 1899 Nebraska collapse finally became serious enough to warrant media attention that survives to the present day, as speculation regarding team captain Williams and his leadership swirled amongst rumors that he might quit the team. Nebraska did manage to outscore Kansas by 3 points in the second half, but coming after a 24-5 first half deficit, it was of no value. Kansas increased their series lead to 5-3. [5]

South Dakota

Nebraska at South Dakota
1 2Total
Nebraska 5 0 5
• South Dakota 0 6 6

It may have seemed like the light was shining on Nebraska briefly, as they pulled ahead 5-0 in their first ever game against South Dakota. The Bugeaters drew as close as South Dakota's 5-yard line later on, but failed to score before the half and never put any more points up. South Dakota's 6 points in the second half brought defeat upon the Bugeaters yet again. Following this game, Captain Williams did in fact leave the program. [5]

Grinnell

Grinnell vs. Nebraska
1 2Total
• Grinnell 12
Nebraska 0

The indignity of the 1899 season fittingly ended on a muddy, wet field in Omaha with Grinnell's 12-0 shutout defeat of the Bugeaters to close out what was by far the worst season in program history. Nebraska fell to 1-2 against Grinnell all time.


After the season

The disastrous 1899 season was Nebraska's first losing season. Coach Branch departed after his one and only season. His single-season record of 1-7-1 (.167) was the worst single season record in program history until 1957, and brought Nebraska's overall program record down to 41-25-4 (.614).

1899 was the first year that the nickname "Cornhuskers" was used to identify the team, used by Charles "Cy" Sherman in one of his pieces written for the Nebraska State Journal, and it was adopted as the official team name beginning next season.

References

  1. ↑ "Football - 1899 Schedule/Results". University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletics Department. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  2. ↑ "Nebraska Football 1899 Roster". University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletics Department. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  3. ↑ "Nebraska head coaches". HuskerMax. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  4. ↑ "1988 Coaching Staff". Husker Press Box. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 "1899 Game Recaps". Husker Press Box. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
  6. ↑ "the 1890s". HuskerMax. Retrieved 2009-11-11.