I will be describing the 1971 Nebraska-Oklahoma football game as seen through the eyes of a 20 year old die hard Nebraska football fan. I was born in Nebraska and spent my first 10 years there. In that time, my dad, who was a huge Nebraska fan from way back instilled what has lasted to this day a love for Nebraska football. In the late 50's we moved to Illinois and there was hardly any type of media coverage available for Nebraska football. By 1963 Bob Devaney had brought the Corhuskers to National prominence. By 1965 the cover of Sports Illustrated had Nebraska on its cover predicting them to finish number 1. Big Red fever was taking on a national fan base.
This trend continued, with a couple of lean years thrown in to become a stage setter for what was to be the 1971 game of the century.
The Oklahoma Sooners were good, really good. Their offense was nearly unstoppable, and they had a respectable defense. Nebraskas defense was considered excellent while their offense was quite good with Jerry Tagge, future Heisman winner Johnny Rodgers, and future first round draft pick Jeff Kinney. The Sooners had Jack Mildren guide the Oklahoma offense which ran a wishbone attack. It was a triple option offense that didn't rely much on the pass. It didn't need to, Mildren had rushed for over 1000 yards at this point an Greg Pruitt was averaging 9.5 yards per carry. The teams had been ranked 1 and 2 for the entire season and something had to give.
I remember listening to Howard Cosell do a 5 minute radio show every morning, and doing nothing but talking about the Nebraska Oklahoma game. Life magazines cover featured the game, along with Sports Illustrated. In 1971 there was usually only one game broadcast and the others you had to read about or try and catch some highlights on a Sunday morning college football show. I had seen Nebraska play Colorado earlier on television that year in which they won 35-7 and had gone to two other games in person (Missouri and Iowa St. where they won easily. They were now on the big stage. It was something I could have only dreamt about 10 years ago.
This football game itself ended up living up to all of its hype. Mildren who hadn't been much of a passer all year was killing Nebraska with his arm. Johnny Rodgers 1st quarter punt return for a touchdown was probably the deciding factor that couldn't be changed, as these two team competed evenly down to the final minutes.
After the game was over and Nebraska had prevailed by a score of 35-31 I felt a sense of pride and relief. I had just witnessed two great teams go at it for 60 minutes and my team came out on top. The 1971 Nebraska team regularly is ranked as the best college football team of all time, I'm always surprised Oklahoma wasn't usually ranked second. After the 1971 season concluded, Nebraska ended up with a unanimous number 1 ranking, followed by Oklahoma in second, and Colorado, which only losses came to Nebraska and Oklahoma as third in the polls.
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