1905 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

The 1905 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1905 college football season. The team was coached by Walter C. "Bummy" Booth and played their home games at Antelope Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Before the season

Coach Booth, after the extremely successful 1902 and 1903 seasons, sought to return to dominance after the relatively disappointing 7-3 1904 season. Last year's roster of 30 was reduced somewhat, with 26 players appearing in 1905.

Schedule

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Roster

^[2]

Coaching staff

^[3][4]

Game notes

Grand Island

The Cornhuskers opened the season without Coach Booth on the sidelines, as he was recovering from illness. It seemed to matter little, as Nebraska rolled to their third win in three games against Grand Island in the last time these teams would meet. ^[5][6]

Lincoln High

Ending another series, the University team defeated the Lincoln High School team for the 8th time in eight games, in this final exhibition game between the teams. ^[6]

South Dakota

South Dakota's only points came on a fumble lost by Nebraska that the Coyotes returned the length of the field. Except for that moment of excitement, the day belonged to the Cornhuskers, who pulled ahead of South Dakota 2-1 in the series. ^[5][6]

Knox

Knox didn't put up much fight, but neither did Nebraska expend much effort in what was described as another early season walk through warm up game. Nebraska's record over Knox advanced to 4-0.^[5][6]

Michigan

Nebraska met Michigan for the first time in Ann Arbor, in the last season that the Wolverines played at Regents Field. This game had additional meanings, as it was Michigan who had been named Western Champion in 1902 over Nebraska, despite the Cornhuskers finishing the season with a perfect record of shutout victories. In addition, former Cornhusker head coach Fielding H. Yost was at the helm of the Michigan team. This was the first time Nebraska had faced one of its own former head coaches. Any hopes held by the Cornhuskers to settle its affairs against Michigan were silenced, as both teams fought to a draw in the first half only for Michigan to break through and run up 31 unanswered points against the Cornhuskers in the second half.^[5][6]

Creighton

Coach Booth allowed the Cornhuskers to absolutely smash Creighton in the week after the crushing loss to Michigan. Not holding back at all, Nebraska used trick plays and kept the pressure on throughout the entire game, scoring half again as much in the second half as the first. This game set new records for total points scored and largest margin of victory, displacing the 76-0 downing of Hastings in 1898, as the Cornhuskers moved up to 2-0 against Creighton. ^[5][6]

Iowa State

After a three-year break, Nebraska renewed the series with Iowa State when the Cyclones traveled to Lincoln. The heavy rains kept scoring to a minimum, certainly there were less points scored by Nebraska than the previous week, but Iowa State scored no points at all and fell farther behind in the series, 2-5. ^[5][6]

Colorado

The 4,000+ crowd counted at this game set a record for a non-Thanksgiving Day game crowd, as the Cornhuskers battled a determined Colorado team to emerge with the shutout win and move up in the series to 4-1.^[5][6]

Minnesota

Nebraska again traveled to Minneapolis to challenge the superiority of the Golden Gophers, who seemed to generally have Nebraska's number. The same was true today, as the Minnesota squad blanked the visiting Cornhuskers and improved their series lead over Nebraska to 4-1. ^[5][6]

Doane

Doane arrived in Lincoln after a two-year break in facing the Cornhuskers, but it was more of the same as Doane fell 5-43. Nebraska had run out ahead by 37 before the half, and though Doane figured out the Cornhuskers enough to play them to a second half draw, those early points were of course far too much to overcome. To Doane's credit, it was the first time in five games against Nebraska that they avoided the shutout. Nebraska's daunting record over Doane was stretched to 9-2. As Nebraska finished with wins against all in-state competition for the season, they recorded their second consecutive and sixth overall state championship. ^[5][6]

Illinois

Nebraska again closed the season with a win against Illinois. The Fighting Illini of 1905 were demoralized at this point, having been shut out in three of the previous four games, and did not put up a serious fight. Still winless in the series, Illinois was now down 0-4 against Nebraska. ^[5][6]

After the season

Coach Booth finished the year at 8-2, an improvement over 1904's final tally, and compiled a Nebraska career record of 46-8-1 (.845), which was a slight drop in percentage from the previous year, but which improved the program's overall record to 87-33-5 (.716). Coach Booth departed the program at the conclusion of the 1905 season, and does not appear to have continued his coaching career elsewhere. After the high turnover of the early years, Nebraska had enjoyed success with a stable coaching staff over the past six years, but once again was in search of a head coach to lead the football team.

References