1892 Nebraska Bugeaters football team

The 1892 Nebraska Bugeaters football team represented the University of Nebraska in the 1892 college football season. The team's head coach, J. S. Williams, coached only one game. The Nebraska Bugeaters played their home games at Lincoln Park, 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

After completing the previous season without a head coach, Nebraska appointed Omaha attorney J. S. Williams to the position, but he did not finish the year.

Nebraska entered conference play for the first time this year, as the University joined with the University of Iowa, the University of Kansas, and the University of Missouri to form the new Western Inter-State University Football Association prior to the start of the 1892 season.^[1][2]

Schedule

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Roster

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Coaching staff

Game summaries

Illinois

This was Nebraska's first game against another major university program, and the Bugeaters secured the season-opening victory with just a single touchdown produced as a result of a fumble recovery. Both the fumble recovery and the winning touchdown were accomplished by African-American med student George Flippin, Nebraska's first black player and only the fifth black athlete to play at a major predominantly white college nationwide.

This was the first game in which Nebraska appeared in what would later become the University's permanent official colors, scarlet and cream.

Historical sources disagree on the status of the team's head coach for this game. Some show that J. S. Williams left the post after this game, while others show a different coach recorded only as Mr. Baldwin was expected to fulfill that role but did not follow through, and therefore that Williams did not arrive until after this game before subsequently leaving after the second game of the season.^[2][5][6]

Denver Athletic Club

Although Nebraska had played an out-of-state team for the first time in 1891, this was the first time Nebraska actually had played an out-of-state game, traveling to Colorado to face the Denver Athletic Club squad.

The Bugeaters were entirely overmatched by the professional-grade Denver AC team, although Nebraska did manage a single touchdown to avoid a shutout loss.^[5][6]

Missouri

This game was to have been Nebraska's first ever conference game, however the University of Missouri squad refused to take the field, protesting the presence of African American George Flippin on the Bugeater squad. As the Tigers refused to play, the game was ruled as a forfeit and the score officially recorded as 1-0. This unfortunate event resulted in the new conference establishing a rule that prevented member teams from refusing to play scheduled matches.^[5][6]

University of Missouri records indicate the score of this game was a 6-0 forfeit Nebraska victory.^[7]

Kansas

Both Kansas and Nebraska entered the game with a victory, so even though it was only the second of three games each would play on the conference slate this year, enough football had been played to make the outcome of this game decide the league championship.

The Bugeaters fought for a time and thwarted early attempts by the Jayhawks to score, but also were unable to ever get points of their own as Kansas eventually wore Nebraska down and posted 12 points for the day to claim the first WIUFA football title.

This was the first of what would eventually become one of the longest continuous annual series between teams, as Kansas and Nebraska would subsequently meet every year after this game for over 100 years, but ended when Nebraska officially changed conference affiliations to the Big Ten after the 2010 season.

Iowa

Nebraska's hopes to avenge the loss suffered with their first meeting with Iowa were dashed when the game was called on account of darkness with the score tied 10-10, the first tie in school history.

Bugeater George Flippin started the game with a 40-yard run around the right end. Four plays later, Nebraska's Albin Jones scored from less than a yard out, though Oliver missed the two-point field kick. Iowa would score two touchdowns during the rest of the first half, with one successful field kick, pulling ahead 10-4. During the second half, Flippin recorded multiple runs of ten yards or greater, and one touchdown with a successful extra kick from Oliver, to tie the game up at 10-10 by the time it was called. With the tie finish, Nebraska remained behind in their series 0-1-1 and finished 2nd place in the conference.^[5][6]

After the season

The program's overall record after this season was 6-4-1 (.591). There was much displeasure regarding the lack of a permanent head coach for the second consecutive season. The University newspaper opined "We are thoroughly disgusted with the cheap-John plan of amateur coaches". By the beginning of the 1893 season, Nebraska would successfully land their first paid football coach.^[2]

References