DN file photo
Former Nebraska All-American linebacker Broderick Thomas signals to a
Memorial Stadium crowd. , „ **
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involving No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2
Oklahoma on Nov. 25 in Norman,
Ok la.
The game, which had been moved to
Thanksgiving to get a national television
audience, featured a 72-yard punt
return for a touchdown by Nebraska’s
Heisman Trophy wingback, Johnny
Rodgers, and a 74-yard Husker drive in
the final seven minutes that ended with
the go-ahead touchdown.
The victory enabled an undefeated
Nebraska team to represent the Big
Eight in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1,
1972. Then when Colorado, Nebraska
and Oklahoma all won their bowl
games and Stanford upset previously
undefeated Michigan, it prompted new
Big Eight director Chuck Neinas to hand
out bumper stickers that said, “1+2 + 3
= Big 8.” It was the first and only time
that one conference had had three
teams at the top of the national poll.
Duke, who had resigned in November
1971 as commissioner, said he had no
regrets about not being in charge at the
end of the 1971 season.
“I often tease Chuck about coming
in and getting “The Game of the
Century,” plus the three teams
finishing atop the polls,” Duke said.
“But I agree with something Dan
Devine said. It was a DC-3 conference
when I went into it, and it was a four
engine jet when I left.”
Oklahoma again would lead the Big
Eight to the top of the polls as it won
back-to-back championships in 1974
and ’75.
But the ’70s weren’t just about
national champions. In 1978,
Oklahoma’s Billy Sims captured the
Heisman Trophy just as Rodgers had
in 1972. Also in the decade, the Big
Eight produced four Outland and two
Lombardi trophy winners.
The parity the conference saw in
the ’60s, however, ended in the ’70s.
Either Nebraska or Oklahoma
finished atop the conference every
un me pnoio
Former Nebraska l-back and Fleisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier escapes a
Kansas tackier, while quarterback Turner Gill watches. Rozier ran for 285
yards in the game in 1983.
season except 1976, when Oklahoma
State, Colorado and Oklahoma all
shared the crown.
That dominance continued through
out the 1980s as Nebraska and
Ok lahoma either won or shared the
crown until 1989, when Colorado
emeiged as champion.
Even though the national champion
ships diminished in the 1980s, with
Oklahoma winning the league’s only
crown in 1985, the
conference
Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth,
better known as “The Boz.” Despite his
spiked and colorful haircut, Bosworth
won the Butkus Award in 1985 and
1986. But after testing positive for
steroids and being banned by the NCAA
from the 1987 Orange Bowl, Bosworth
forfeited his senior year of eligibility and
jumped to the pro ranks.
The low point of the decade for the
Big Eight, however, was the demise of
the Kansas, Kansas
State and Missouri
conunuea to snine.
Nebraska finished
the 1980s with a
103-20 record, the
nation’s best record
over the 10 years.
The Huskers had
arguably the best
team of the decade
in 1983, but a failed
two-point conver
sion prevented the
Huskers from giving
I he conference
literally changed from being
known as Oklahoma and
the seven dwarfs to one
where five different teams
won conference titles in the
1960s.
Former Big Eight commissioner Wayne Duke ^ (
programs. In 1988
and 1989 the three
schools won a
combined 11 games
while losing 54.
Each school had at
least three different
coaches in the
decade.
The end of the
’80s sparked the
emergence of the
Colorado program.
lom Osborne his first national crown.
The conference, however, was
highlighted throughout the ’80s by
individuals more than teams.
Triplets emerged in 1983 when
Nebraska’s offense averaged 50 points a
game and boasted three Heisman
candidates, including quarterback
Turner Gill, wide receiver Irving Fryar
and running back and eventual
Heisman winner Mike Rozier.
The triplets re-emerged in 1988 at
Oklahoma State, when the Cowboys
had quarterback Mike Gundy, All
American wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes
and running back Barry Sanders, that
year’s Heisman winner. The Cowboys
finished the '88 season with a 10-2
record, the third time in the 1980s that
Oklahoma State had won at least 10
games. During the ’88 season, Sanders
set an NCAA record by rushing for
2,628 yards, including four 300-plus
yard games.
But the most visible player in the Big
Eight in the 1980s may have been
as the Buffaloes won the conference
crown in 1989 for the first time since
1961.
The first half of the 1990s has started
again with the Big Eight Conference
making runs at the national title.
Colorado won the conference and
national crown in 1990, and Osborne
won his first crown last year with
Nebraska.
But possibly the biggest highlight of
the 1990s may have been the
resurgence of the Kansas and Kansas
State programs. The Wildcats, who
won just 21 games in the 1980s,
finished the 1995 season with its third
straight nine-win season.
With four conference teams going
to bowl games, current Big Eight
commissioner Carl James said that the
Big Eight’s final year could top its
glory year of 1971.
But as the sun sets and the lights are
turned off at Sun Devil Stadium on
Jan. 2 after the Fiesta Bowl, so will end
the Big Eight football conference.
