friday, november 21, 1975
page 10
daily nebraskan
By Pete Wegman and Scott Jones
Husker Tony Davis isn't one to dodge
questions about the importance of
Saturday's UNLrOklahoma (OU) football
game.
"It's the whole season, the most
important game of my career," said the
senior fullback. "There are 12 steps to the
national championship, and we've gone
10."
The Huskers, 100 and ranked second
nationally, are riding an 1 1 game winning
streak, dating back to the 13-10 Sugar
Bowl win over Florida. .
Oklahoma's Sooners are 9-1 and ranked
seventh. A 23-3 loss to Kansas (KU) two
weeks ago broke Oil's 37 game unbeaten
string.
Besides playing for the Big 8 champion
ship (Nebraska has already garnered at
least a share of the title), the game winner
got a team of workers willing to pay the
has a spot in the Orange Bowl New Year's
Day in Miami against the loser of the Ohio
State-Michigan game Saturday.
The UNL-OU game will be an
opportunity for Davis and his Huskers
teammates to give Nebraska its eighth out
right conference title, in what Sports
Illustrated had called a rebuilding year for
Nebraska.
Bundle up!
If you're going to be in
Norman, Okla. Saturday, better
take your heavy coats. The U.S.
Weather service predicts rJoudy
skies and temperatures in the
upper 40s to lower 50s at game
time. Rain is not mentioned in
the forecast.
Photo by Tad Kirk
UNL's defense, leading the Big 8 in four statistical categories, will be the key for the Huskers against Oklahoma
Saturday. Dave Butterfield, (34), Bob Martin (87) and Ray Phillips (80) stop Cyclone quarterback Mike Try on
during last week's 52-0 win.
Ton of supplies tackles emergencies
By Jim Hunt
With about one ton of equipment for
each away football game, the UNL equip
ment and medical training staff wants to be
prepared for any emergency.
For Gib Babcock, in his eleventh year as
UNL's equipment manager, most of the
work is done before the first road game.
Before that game, he packs four large
red trunks with everything from extra
game pants to chin straps to remain there
throughout the season.
The 43 players who make a trip pack
their own equipment the night before they
leave which, Babcock says, saves a lot of
sports sliofls
Four openings still remain for the UNL
Recreation Dept. canoe trip to the
National Scenic River System in the Ozark
Mountains in Missouri, Nov. 26-30.
According to Mark Ebel, coordinator of
the trip, cost will be $35 and includes
equipment, , meals, transportation and
loding.
Contact Ebel at the Office cf
Recreation and Intramurals, 1740 Vine
St. or 472-3467, for additional
information. ,
work.
The team always carries an extra set of
jerseys in case it is too cold to wear the
mesh ones, and a few extra sweat suits are
taken for the coaches.
No extra helmets
No extra helmets are taken because of
the different shapes and sizes, Babcock said.
"Usually I can fix It and if 1 can't, we
use another player's," he said.
"We don't take as much stuff as a lot of
schools," he said. "One year 1 think Wis
consin brought more equipment down here
than we own."
Lately the team has taken its own head
phones, Babcock said, because they fit over
the ear and muffle sound better than most
other phones.
The morning the team is scheduled to
leave, Babcock and Bill Shepard (UNL's
grounds keeper who helps on road trips),
take the equipment to the airport.
When the team travels by bus, Babcock
and Shepard drive a van to the game.
Last year when UNL went to the Sugar
Bowl, the airline left behind 26 bags with
players equipment in Lincoln, he said, and
players had to borrow sweat clothes for
practice until their equipment arrived that
night.
Packing, unpacking
For the medical training staff, preparing
for a game is a constant case cf packing
and unpacking.
On Wednesdays, student trainer Scott
Cook receives a seven-p.ige list of medical
supplies needed for a road game. Cook is
helped by seven other student train r to
pack two large silver trunks, he said,
which usually takes about IS hours.
The trunks are loaded into a student
trainer's car and arrive at the game site
about one hour before the team.
Upon arrival, the trainers unpack, after
the game, the supplies are repacked and on
Sunday mornings, once again unpacked.
The team takes between 400450 rolls
of different kinds of tape on road games,
Cook said, most costing more than SI a
roll.
1 2 -person medical staff
Usually a 12-person medical staff ac
companies the team on the road, including
orthopedic surgeons Pat Gare and Chuck
Neuman.
On game days, the trainers tape the
players ankles at the hotel where they are
staying and special taping (knees, hands,
shoulders, etc.), is done at the stadium,
Cook said. The trainers usually have about
90 minutes to complete the taping.
In the Big 8, training staffs agree to help
each other out, Cook said. At home games,
UNL has one student trainer on the visiting
team's sideline and the visitors can request
the help of one UNL doctor.
"There hasn't been i situation that we
couldn't handle yet," Cook said.
"We might not have superior talent,
but we've got guts," Davis said. "We've
price to win. We know how to compete."
Davis is 101 yards short of the all-time
career rushing mark of Nebraska, held by
Jeff Kinney (1969-70-71), with 2,420
The Sooners, four point favorites by
one chart, also have a runner nearing a
career rushing record. His name is Joe
Washington, ail-American and Heisman
trophy candidate.
Owens mark endangered
Washington, who gained 142 yards on
21 carries against Nebraska last year, is
82 yards shy of the Big 8 career rushing
mark, currently held by Oklahoma fullback
Steve Owens (1967-68-69), with, 4,041
yards.
Sooner coach Barry Switzer, with a
30-1-1 mark at OU, hasn't lost to UNL.
"They (Nebraska's Comhuskers) are
some team," Switzer said. "Those
defensive linemen are awesome. Are
they from Mars?
"Ferragamo is a great quarterback and
their runners are class. Well have to play
our best game to even stay with them. I
mean that."
Conference statistics back-up Switzer's
comments.
Defensive kingpins
Nebraska leads the Big 8 in four
defensive categories: rushing, passing, total,
and scoring defense.
Oklahoma's defense, led by tackle
Leroy Selmon,. middle guard Dewey
Selmon and end Jimbo Elrod, is second in
rushing and total defense, fifth against the
pass and third in scoring defense.
Hie Huskers also lead the conference in
total offense and scoring offense, while
the Sooners, traditionally leading the
conference offensively, are second in scor
ing offense and fourth in total offense.
The game, to be played before 63,000
plus spectators at Owen Field (the snake
pit), is a sellout. Ticket officials estimate
about 4,000 Nebraska fans will attend.
Unlike previous years when the
undefeated Sooners had a chance at a high
national ranking and the Huskers were
forced into the spoiler role, the situation is
reversed this year.
OU title hopes dim
OU's loss to KU virtually killed any
hope the Sooners had of repeating as
national champions, with the exception of
a "back door championship."
Nebraska, however, has been gaining in
the polls each week and is now within
striking distance of the top-ranked Ohio
State Buckeyes.
As one writer said, "Nebraska's got
more on the line while Oklahoma's got
nothing to lose."
It will be the fourth shootout between
the schools since the 1971 Game of the
Century.
The national championship was on the
tine in the 1971 game, also called the Game
of the Decade. Nebraska and Oklahoma,
both undefeated, were ranked first and
second, respectively.
The Huskers rallied twice from four
point deficits and won the game 35-31
with a 12-play, 74-yard drive late in the
fourth quarter.
... v. im m ivn
In 1972 the Sooners came to Lincoln
with an 8-1 mark and were rated fourth
nationally. Nebraska, number five with an
8-1-1 record, was favored by the odds
makers. The game was the last regular season
home game for Husker Coach Bob
Devaney. The Sooners spoiled it for
Dcvaney, however, with a 17-14 victory.
The Huskers traveled to Norman again
in 1973 to face the third-ranked Sooners.
The Huskers, 8-1-1 and ranked fifth,
already had accepted a bid to play Texas
in the Cotton Bowl.
The afternoon turned into a long one
for the Huskers as OU held the visitors to
10 first downs, enroute to a 27-0 win.
Last year, a Memorial Stadium
attendance mark was set when the Sooners,
number one in the nation, invaded Lincoln.
Nebraska led briefly, 14-7, early in the
third quarter when I-back John O'Leary
hit quarterback Dave Humm with an 11
yard scoring pass.
The Sooners stormed back, however,
and scored three more touchdowns, taking
home a 28-14 win.
The two teams have met 54 times with
OU holding a 28-23-3 edge over the
Huskers.
