1906 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

1906 Nebraska Cornhuskers football
Nebraska State Champions
Conference Independent
1906 record 6-4-0
Head coach Amos Foster (1st year)
Home stadium Antelope Field

The 1906 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1906 college football season. The team was coached by Amos Foster and played their home games at Antelope Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Before the season

New coach Foster arrived to replace previous coach Walter C. Booth, after compiling an 11-4 record in two years coaching for the University of Cincinnati.

New rules going into effect this year significantly changed the way the game was played, including an increase in the distance required to get a first down to ten yards, and also that an incomplete pass would be considered a turnover. Nebraska's existing schemes were not built around these new rules, and bringing in a new coach also unsettled affairs somewhat going into the season.

Schedule

[1]

Date Opponent Site Result Attendance
September 29 Hastings Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska W 56-0 -
October 6 South Dakota Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska W 4-0 -
October 13 Drake Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska W 5-0 -
October 20 Iowa State Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska L 2-14 -
October 27 Doane Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska W 28-0 -
November 3 at Minnesota Northrop Field • Minneapolis, Minnesota L 0-13 -
November 10 Creighton Omaha, Nebraska W 17-0 -
November 17 Kansas Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska L 6-8 -
November 24 at Chicago Stagg Field • Chicago, Illinois L 5-38 -
November 29 Cincinnati Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska W 41-0 -

Roster

[2]

Benedict, Maurice E
Chaloupka, William FB
Cooke, Harold QB
Cornell G
Craig, Hugh FB
Denslow, Lloyd E
Drain, Dale QB
Ewing, Henry LT
Harvey, James E/LT
Johnson, William E
Little, Ernest (Merle) E
Mason, John LT
Matters, Thomas LT
McDonald, Gil QB
Rice, John RT
Schmidt, Francis E
Taylor, Robert RG
Voss RT
Weller, John HB
Wilke, C.R. C

Coaching staff

Name Title First year
in this position 		Years at Nebraska Alma Mater
Amos FosterHead Coach19061906Dartmouth
Jack BestTrainer18901890–1922
T. M. StewartAssistant Coach19061906Michigan

[3][4][5]

Game notes

Hastings

Hastings at Nebraska
1 2Total
Hastings 0
• Nebraska 56

Nebraska opened the season under new coach Foster with a solid shutout performance against Hastings College in the first meeting of these teams. [6][7]

South Dakota

South Dakota at Nebraska
1 2Total
South Dakota 0 0 0
• Nebraska 0 4 4
  • Date: 1906-10-06
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

South Dakota seemed to have figured out how to shut down Nebraska's offense, forcing the Cornhuskers to win with field goals instead of touchdowns. The low-scoring affair was Nebraska's third win in four games against the Coyotes. [6][7]

Drake

Drake at Nebraska
1 2Total
Drake 0
• Nebraska 5
  • Date: 1906-10-13
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

For the second week in a row, as the offense struggled, the Nebraska defense came through and kept the other team off the board so that Nebraska's single touchdown was enough to get the win. It had been five years since these teams last met, and Nebraska extended the series lead to 3-1.[6][7]

Iowa State

Iowa State at Nebraska
1 2Total
• Iowa State 14
Nebraska 2
  • Date: 1906-10-20
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

Nebraska's home field winning streak of 38 straight games (including exhibition games) dating back to the beginning of the 1901 season was broken when Iowa State took advantage of the Cornhuskers' struggling offensive output. A late safety prevented Nebraska from being shut out, and Iowa State reduced their series deficit to 3-5.[6][7]

Doane

Doane at Nebraska
1 2Total
Doane 0
• Nebraska 28
  • Date: 1906-10-27
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

Nebraska again defeated Doane in Lincoln, in a shutout win, to try to erase the memory of the previous week's home field loss. Nebraska's lead in the series was increasingly getting out of reach at 10-2.[6][7]

Minnesota

Nebraska at Minnesota
1 2Total
Nebraska 0 0 0
• Minnesota 0 13 13

Nebraska's frustration with rival Minnesota was continued as the Golden Gophers again shut out the Cornhuskers in Minneapolis for the second year in a row, which was also Nebraska's third loss to Minnesota over the past three years. The defensive fight kept the scoreboard empty until the second half, when Minnesota again broke through and extended their lead over Nebraska to 5-1. Minnesota would go on to finish as Big Nine Co-Champion. [6][7]

Creighton

Creighton at Nebraska
1 2Total
Creighton 0
• Nebraska 17

Nebraska bounced back from the demoralizing loss at Minnesota by putting away Creighton in Omaha, notching another shutout win. This was the final time these teams would meet, the record ending with all three wins in the Nebraska column. Nebraska finished with wins against all in-state teams for the third year in a row to claim another state championship.[6][7]

Kansas

Kansas at Nebraska
1 2Total
• Kansas 8 0 8
Nebraska 6 0 6
  • Date: 1906-11-17
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

After a three year break, Kansas and Nebraska met on the field again. The series afterward would continue uninterrupted for over one hundred years, and as of 2009 is scheduled to continue at least through 2015 and likely longer. Multiple Cornhusker mistakes cost Nebraska the game on this day, resulting in the second home field loss for the Cornhuskers this season. Nebraska's lead in the series slipped to just 7-6. [6][7]

Chicago

Nebraska at Chicago
1 2Total
Nebraska 5
• Chicago 38
  • Date: 1906-11-24
  • Location: Stagg Field • Chicago, Illinois

Nebraska traveled to Chicago to meet the City's University squad for the first time. At that time, Chicago was a member of the vaunted Big Nine Conference. The conference reputation was apparently well-deserved, as the Cornhuskers struggled to make serious progress while Chicago rolled up 38 points and sent them home with their 4th loss of the season.[6][7]

Cincinnati

Cincinnati at Nebraska
1 2Total
Cincinnati 0
• Nebraska 41
  • Date: 1906-11-29
  • Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

Coach Foster's former team, Cincinnati, traveled to Nebraska for the only time to date that these teams would meet. It was a positive end to a season of some disappointment for the Cornhuskers, as the Cincinnati team was sent back home to Ohio smarting from a 0-41 blanking.[6][7]

After the season

Coach Foster only made it through this one year before moving on. His previous coaching job was again offered to him, but he instead passed that post up and went to coach for Miami University in Ohio, where he compiled a 13-1 record in his two years there.

Foster's one-year Nebraska record of 6-4-0 (.600) caused a slight drop in Nebraska's overall program record, which fell to 93-37-5 (.707).

References

  1. ↑ "Football - 1906 Schedule/Results". University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletics Department. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  2. ↑ "Nebraska Football 1906 Roster". University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletics Department. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  3. ↑ "Nebraska head coaches". HuskerMax. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  4. ↑ "118 Years of Cornhusker Football" (PDF). University of Nebraska Athletics Department. Retrieved 2014-05-27.
  5. ↑ "1907 Sombrero - University of Nebraska Yearbook". University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 "1906 Game Recaps". Husker Press Box. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 "the 1900s". HuskerMax. Retrieved 2009-11-15.