Conference Timeline - Big 8

Teams: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma State

 

Football

• 20 Conference Titles
• 60 First-Team All-Americans
• Two Heisman Trophy winners: Mike Rozier (1983) and Johnny Rodgers (1972)
• Four National Championships (1970, 1971, 1994, and 1995)
• Sellout stream starts on Nov. 3, 1962 when 36, 501 fans attended the Homecoming game against Missouri
• Huskers first home night game comes during the opening game of the 1986 season with a 34-17 win over Florida State
• Four undefeated seasons
• Capacity of Memorial Stadium grew to 53,000 in 1965; 65,000 in 1966; 73,650 in 1972
• HuskerVision boards installed in 1994
• Nebraska won its first bowl game with a 36-34 win over Miami at the 1962 Gotham Bowl
• South end zone section of Memorial Stadium installed, making the stadium a horseshoe, raised capacity to 53,000
• 261 All-Conference Selections

 

Men's Basketball

• 18 All-Conference Picks
• Andre Smith is named 1981 Big Eight Player of the Year
• Erick Strickland is named 1993 Big Eight Freshman of the Year
• 6 Big Eight Coaches of the Year
• One All-American
• Rich King is the 14th overall pick by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1991
• Eric Piatkoswski is the 15th overall pick by the Indiana Pacers in 1994
• Make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1985
• Huskers win the NIT in 1995-96

 

Baseball

• Four Huskers are named to the first-ever All-Big Eight team; Larry Lewis, Gene Torczon, Jim Kane, and Dwight Siebler
• Stan Bahnsen is selected in the eighth round of the first-ever Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the New York Yankees in 1965
• Reached the 30-win mark for the fist time in school history with a 36-20 overall record in 1978
• Had seven straight 40-plus win seasons from 1979-1985, including back-to-back 49-win campaigns in 1979 and 1980 to qualify for the NCAA Tournament both years
• On May 3, 1980, Cliff Faust tosses a perfect game in a 3-0 seven-inning victory over Kansas
• A school-record nine players are selected in the 1983 MLB Draft, including two-sport star Turner Gill
• Darin Erstad was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1995 MLB Draft by the California Angels.  Erstad earned All-America honors in 1995 and was named the Big Eight Player of the Year, NU's first conference player of the year award in school history

 

Wrestling

• Won 25 total individual titles
• Brothers Bill and Jim Scherr became the first Huskers to claim a conference championship and national title in the same season in 1984
• Jason Kelber, the school's fourth national champion, won the 126-pound conference title in 1991
• Bill Scherr claimed a FILA World Championship in 1985, which was the first by a Husker wrestler
• Never finished lower than third-place in the last seven years of the Big Eight, winning two team titles in 1993 and 1995

 

Track and Field

• Won 18 men's conference titles
• Women's track and field starts at Nebraska in 1976
• Won 17 straight women's indoor titles and 16 straight outdoor titles, swept women's indoor/outdoor titles from 1980-1995
• Merlene Ottey is the first NU women's track athlete to win an indoor national title with a win in the 300-meter dash at the 1980 championsihps, went on to win 14 national titles
• Won three straight indoor national titles from 1982-1984
• Charlie Greene wins the men's first indoor national title in 1965, winning his first of three straight titles in the 60-yard dash

 

Cross Country

• Ray Stevens becomes the first Husker to run at the NCAA Championships in 1962, finishes 27th
• Five conference titles
• 14 All-Americans
• Women's runner competes at the NCAA Championships for the first time in 1975, Cindy Dixon finishes 74th
• Women's team qualifies for the NCAA Championships for the first time in 1984 and finishes 11th
• Women's team posts back-to-back 3rd place finishes in 1988 and 1989 with a pair of third-place finishes
• Sammie Resh earns the women's first All-America honor in 1987 and repeats in 1988
• Women's team wins back-to-back NCAA District V Championships in 1988 and 1989
• Women's team wins its first Big Eight Conference Title in 1985
• Men's team wins the 1988 NCAA District V Championship

 

 

Men's Golf

• Nine top-three finishes in the conference championship
• Two NCAA Championship Appearances
• Four Huskers on the PGA Tour through 1996

 

 

Softball (began in 1960)

• Six regular season and six tournament titles
• Five trips to the College World Series
• First College World Series win came in 1982 at the first College World Series with a win over Creighton, 3-2
• Finishes second at the 1985 College World Series to UCLA
• 1985 Honda Award Winner - Denise Day
• Lori Sipple was the softball Academic All-American of the Year in 1988
• Eight NFCA All-Americans

 

 

Men's Gymnastics (began in 1964)

• Eight National Titles, including five consecutive from 1979-83 (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1980, 1994)
• 16 consecutive NCAA appearances from 1979-1994
• 18 total NCAA apperances
• 33 individual national champions
• 140 All-America honors from 34 student-athletes
• 13 Conference championships
• Three Nissan-Emery Award winners; Jim Hartung in 1982, Wes Suter in 1986, and Tom Schlesinger in 1988
• Nine Olympians

 

Women's Swimming and Diving (began in 1975)

• Eight Conference Championships
• 120 Conference Individual Championships
• 152 All-Americans
• Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Penny Heyns - First woman in Olympic history to sweep the breaststroke events, 1996 Swimming World Swimmer of the year, 1996 Big Eight Femal Athlete of the Year, 10-time First-Team NCAA All-American, First Husker swimmer to win a national championship in 1996, 14-time Big Eight Champion, 1995 Big Eight Femal Athlete of the Year
• Eleven Olympians through 1996
• 12 NCAA Meet Apperances

Women's Golf (began in 1975)

• Current Head Coach Robin Krapfl takes over in 1987-88
• Joanne Brooks is the first Husker to earn All-America honors in 1992 as an honorable-mention pick
• Kari Mangan is named NU Student-Athlete of the Year
• 21 All-Big Eight Selections
• Jan Stanard is the first Husker to compete at the NCAA Championships in 1982
• Two conference titles, 1976 and 1983

 

Women's Gymnastics (began in 1975)

• Michele Bryant is the Huskers' first national champion winning the vault in 1990
• Patty Carmichael-Gerald is the Huskers' first First-Team All-American in 1979
• 11 All-Americans
• Huskers win first Big Eight title in 1978 and then win in both 1979 and 1980
• 12 Big Eight titles
• Current Head Coach Dan Kendig takes over for the 1993-94 season
• Huskers place 8th at their first NCAA meet in 1982

 

Volleyball (began in 1975)

• Huskers play their first match against COncordia on Sept. 20, 1975 and win in two sets
• Allison Weston is 1995 AVCA National Co-Player of the Year
• 28 AVCA All-Americans
• 19 Big Eight Championships, including 17 straight from 1976-1992
• Win first national title in 1995
• Terry Pettit takes over starting in 1977
• First All-American is Terri Kanouse in 1980

 

 

Women's Basketball (began in 1976)

• 1988 Big Eight Conference Champions
• Three NCAA Tournament Appearances; 1988, 1993, and 1996
• Three Big Eight Players of the Year; Martice Ivy in 1988, Karen Jennings in 1992 and 1993
• One National Player of the Year; Wade Trophy, Karen Jennings in 1993
• Eight CoSIDA Academic All-Americans
• 24 All-Big Eight Players

 

 

Women's Tennis (began in 1976)

• Two conference championships
• Two All-Americans (Cari Groce and Liz Mooney, No. 1 Doubles in 1984)
• Seven conference singles and doubles champions

 

Soccer (no conference affiliation 1994-1995)

• Nebraska finishes its inaugural 1994 season with a 14-4-0 record, including its first win in program history on Sept. 9, a 2-1 victory at Arizona
• Danielle Boswell achieves the first hat trick in school history by scoring three goals in a 7-1 win over Westmar on Sept. 30, 1994
• Nebraska goes 24-12 over its first two seasons, including a 15-4 record at the Abbott Sports COmplex
• On Oct. 28, 1994, the Huskers defeat future conference foe Texas in Austin, 3-1
• During the 1995 season, Nebraska puts together a seven-match winning sreak, including shutout wins over Arkansas, Iowa State, Florida State and Northwestern

 

Rifle (began in 1998)

• First competition held on Oct. 24, 1998 against Austin Peay and Missouri in Kansas City

 

Men's Tennis

• Ridge Smidt wins the Huskers first individual conference title in 1983
• Par Carson and Mike Marsh win the first doubles conference title in 1986
• Steven Jung is the Huskers' first All-American in 1989
• Current Head Coach Kerry McDermott takes over in 1982