1948 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

1948 Nebraska Cornhuskers football
Conference	Big Seven Conference
Record	2–8 (2–4 Big 7)
Head coach	Bernie Masterson (2nd season)
Offensive scheme	T formation
Home stadium	Memorial Stadium
Seasons ←  1947 1949  →

1948 Big Seven Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 5 Oklahoma $	5	–	0	–	0			10	–	1	–	0
Missouri	5	–	1	–	0			8	–	3	–	0
Kansas	4	–	2	–	0			7	–	3	–	0
Colorado	2	–	3	–	0			3	–	6	–	0
Iowa State	2	–	4	–	0			4	–	6	–	0
Nebraska	2	–	4	–	0			2	–	8	–	0
Kansas State	0	–	6	–	0			1	–	9	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1948 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 7 Conference in the 1948 college football season. The team was coached by George Clark.

Nebraska was ranked at No. 87 in the final Litkenhous Difference by Score System ratings for 1948. ^[1]

The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Before the season

Nebraska athletic director and one-time head football coach Adolph J. Lewandowski brought back the coach he initially chose as his own replacement for 1945, George Clark, who had departed Nebraska after just that one season. With the unsuccessful tenure of previous head coach Bernie Masterson ended, Lewandowski was able to turn to the last, most recent coach that had provided a glimmer of hope to the Cornhuskers in nearly a decade. So it was that after seven straight losing seasons, the coaching staff once again suffered a shakeup in hopes of ending the downward spiral of Nebraska football as the Cornhuskers entered their first-ever 10-game season.

The 1948 season was the first to see Colorado's athletic teams participate in conference play, as the Big 6 Conference subsequently became known as the Big 7 Conference. Nebraska and Colorado were set to meet again on the field for the first time since 1907, now as part of regular season conference play.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance
September 25	2:00 pm	Iowa State	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE	W 19–15	34,514
October 2	2:00 pm	at Minnesota *	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN (rivalry)	L 13–39	57,206
October 9	3:30 pm	at Colorado	Folsom Field Boulder, CO (rivalry)	L 6–19	19,516
October 16	2:00 pm	No. 2 Notre Dame *	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE (rivalry)	L 13–44	37,400
October 23	2:00 pm	at Kansas	Memorial Stadium Lawrence, KS (rivalry)	L 7–27	36,500
October 30	2:00 pm	UCLA *	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE	L 15–27	36,000
November 6	2:00 pm	Kansas State	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE (rivalry)	W 32–0	36,000
November 13	2:30 pm	at No. 9 Oklahoma	Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Norman, OK (rivalry)	L 14–41	28,000
November 20	2:00 pm	Missouri	Memorial Stadium Lincoln, NE (rivalry)	L 6–33	21,000
November 27	4:00 pm	at Oregon State *	Multnomah Stadium Portland, OR	L 12–28	13,000
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

Roster

Official Roster
20 Ackerman, Robert HB 13 Bauer, Arthur G 25 Bloom, Don HB 11 Bostwick, George E 62 Cochrane, Alex E 28 Collopy, Frank FB 12 Costello, Robert QB 21 Damkroger, Ralph E 29 DiBiase, Michael G 33 Dorn, Harold HB 33 Ferguson, Gerald HB 14 Fischer, Cletus QB 15 Fischer, Kenneth HB 34 Fletcher, Howard E 38 Godfrey, James T 49 Goeglein, Richard T 40 Golan, Fred T 39 Harkrader, James G 43 Hawkins, Fred G 51 Hazen, Jack E 63 Hutton, Richard HB 44 Lee, Kirk HB 27 Lipps, Robert G		45 Magsamen, Raymond E 43 McGill, Joe C 10 Means, Arden G 50 Meyer, Frank HB 42 Moomey, William HB 32 Moore, Gerald FB 23 Mueller, William HB   Mullen, Robert C 52 Myers, James FB 61 Novak, Tom C 53 Pizinger, Warren G 57 Reese, Herbert T 54 Sailors, Don E 18 Salestrom, Darwin G 55 Schneider, Don FB 36 Schneider, Robert E 24 Sedlacek, John T 16 Spellman, Walt C 60 Story, Charles HB   Strasheim, Don HB 64 Toogood, Charles T 41 Wiegand, Delbert QB 46 Young, Philip FB

Coaching staff

Name	Title	First year in this position	Years at Nebraska	Alma mater
George Clark	Head coach	1948	1945, 1948	Illinois
L. F. "Pop" Klein	Assistant coach	1945	1945–1958
Ray Prochaska	End Coach	1946	1946–1948, 1950–1954	Nebraska
Tony Blazine	Line Coach	1947	1947–1948
Dougal Russell	Backfield Coach	1947	1947–1948	Kansas State
Ike Hanscomb	Freshman Coach	1948	1948–1953
H. H. Miller		1948	1948

^{[2] [3]}

Game summaries

Iowa State

1 2 Total •Nebraska 19 Iowa State 15 Date: September 25 Location: Memorial Stadium • Lincoln, Nebraska Game attendance: 34,514

The Cornhuskers opened the season and welcomed Coach Clark back with a win, the third straight over the Cyclones. The home opening victory snapped Nebraska's six-season opening game losing streak, and the Cornhuskers improved over Iowa State to 33-8-1. ^{[4] [5]}

Minnesota

1 2 Total Nebraska 13 • Minnesota 39 Date: October 2 Location: Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis Game attendance: 57,206

Unsurprisingly, given Minnesota's historical dominance over Nebraska, even as the Cornhuskers continued to seek stability, the Golden Gophers had little trouble with Nebraska in Minneapolis. Minnesota had now defeated the Cornhuskers in nine straight games, and continued to pull away in the series, 24-4-2. ^{[4] [5]}

Colorado

1 2 Total Nebraska 6 • Colorado 19 Date: October 9 Location: Folsom Field • Boulder, Colorado

See also: Colorado–Nebraska football rivalry

Although Nebraska and Colorado had met on the field six times before, this was the first since a 22-8 Nebraska victory from 1907, and the first time the teams had met as conference foes. The Buffaloes sent Nebraska back to Lincoln with a 6-19 loss, but still lagged in the series at 2-5. ^{[4] [5]}

Notre Dame

1 2 Total • #2 Notre Dame 44 Nebraska 13 Date: October 16 Location: Memorial Stadium • Lincoln, Nebraska Game attendance: 37,400

When Notre Dame arrived in Lincoln, they brought with them a #2 AP Poll ranking and were probably not seriously worried about getting a fight from the Cornhuskers. Nebraska avoided the shutout, but allowed the Fighting Irish 44 points to take home a convincing win and improve over the Cornhuskers to 7-5-1. Notre Dame went on to finish the season undefeated at 9-0 and still at #2. ^{[4] [6]}

Kansas

1 2 Total Nebraska 7 • Kansas 27 Date: October 23 Location: Memorial Stadium • Lawrence, Kansas Game attendance: 36,500

Nebraska dropped a second straight game to Kansas for the first time since 1909, as the Cornhuskers continued to struggle for success. Although Nebraska still held a dominating 40-11-3 series lead over the Jayhawks, losses over the last several seasons were piling up everywhere. ^{[4] [6]}

UCLA

1 2 Total • UCLA 27 Nebraska 15 Date: October 30 Location: Memorial Stadium • Lincoln, Nebraska Game attendance: 36,000

After one year off, Nebraska and UCLA met again for their second-ever meeting, this time in Lincoln. The Bruins had been ranked #4 last time, as the Cornhuskers had been sent home smarting from a shutout loss 0-18. This time, UCLA came to Lincoln unranked, but the outcome was unchanged. Nebraska dropped another homecoming game, the fifth straight loss of the season, and fell to 0-2 against UCLA. ^{[4] [5]}

Kansas State

1 2 Total Kansas State 0 •Nebraska 32 Date: November 6 Location: Memorial Stadium • Lincoln, Nebraska Game attendance: 36,000

If there was any consolation to the Cornhuskers that things could be worse, it was the Kansas State Wildcats that continued to bring the good news. Amidst a record string of consecutive losing seasons, the Cornhuskers handed Kansas State a shutout. The 32-0 defeat of the Wildcats was Nebraska's sixth-straight victory over the team from Manhattan, and the Cornhuskers improved to 26-4-2 in the series. ^{[4] [6]}

Oklahoma

1 2 Total Nebraska 14 • #9 Oklahoma 41 Date: November 13 Location: Oklahoma Memorial Stadium • Norman, Oklahoma Game attendance: 28,000

See also: Nebraska–Oklahoma football rivalry

By the time the Cornhuskers arrived in Norman to face the #9 Sooners, there wasn't much to fight for. With only two conference wins so far, any chance of a league title was out of sight. Oklahoma rolled over Nebraska without much effort, but the 14-41 loss showed that the Cornhuskers were not completely out of the game. This was the sixth straight defeat of Nebraska in the series, and their all-time lead of 16-8-3 over the Sooners continued to shrink. ^{[4] [7]}

Missouri

1 2 Total • Missouri 33 Nebraska 6 Date: November 20 Location: Memorial Stadium • Lincoln, Nebraska Game attendance: 21,000

See also: Missouri–Nebraska football rivalry

In front of a crowd reduced by over a third from the last home game, Nebraska fell to Missouri to close out the 1948 home season. It was their fourth straight loss to the Tigers in a row, but Missouri still had some distance to cover to catch up in the series, as they still trailed the Cornhuskers 14-24-3. ^{[4] [7]}

Oregon State

1 2 Total Nebraska 12 • Oregon State 28 Date: November 27 Location: Multnomah Stadium • Portland, Oregon Game attendance: 13,000

The Cornhuskers brought the 1948 season to a close with a long road trip to Portland to face Oregon State. Nebraska historically dominated the Beavers, but had lost a decision against them in the last meeting of the squads last year. This year would come to the same result, as the Cornhuskers fell once again and allowed Oregon State to narrow the series to 2-5. ^{[4] [7]}

After the season

Coach Clark's return did not bring about the hoped-for results, though one year is hard to judge by. His return to program was cut short after this season, but he still holds the distinction of being the only Nebraska head football coach to serve at different times. Combined with his 1945 performance, his Nebraska career total was a disappointing 6-13-0 (.316), while his conference record stood at 4-7-0 (.374). With eight straight losing seasons now strung together, the Cornhusker football program fell to 120-37-11 (.747) against conference foes, and to 316-148-31 overall (.670). Once again Nebraska sought a head football coach, who would be the fifth over the previous nine years.

References

1. "Michigan, Irish Finish 1-2 in Litkenhous Ratings". Wilmington Morning News. December 15, 1948. p. 32 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Nebraska head coaches". HuskerMax. Archived from the original on July 19, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
3. "Assistant coaches". HuskerMax. Archived from the original on July 21, 2010. Retrieved July 12, 2010.
4. "1940s Nebraska football schedules". HuskerMax. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
5. "1949 Cornhusker - University of Nebraska Yearbook (Page 431)". Nebraska U – A Collaborative History. Retrieved July 11, 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
6. "1949 Cornhusker - University of Nebraska Yearbook (Page 432)". Nebraska U – A Collaborative History. Retrieved July 11, 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
7. "1949 Cornhusker - University of Nebraska Yearbook (Page 433)". Nebraska U – A Collaborative History. Retrieved July 11, 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}