Sons Thankful for NU?s Oldest Living Letterman

KETV Video: Douglas Recalls 1930s Glory Years

Randy York’s N-Sider

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and a special shout out to 99-year-old Ron Douglas Sr. of Crete, Neb., the oldest living Nebraska football letterman. Ron was introduced last Saturday to 91,186 Big Red fans at Memorial Stadium. Flanked by two loving, faithful sons – Ron Douglas Jr. and Roger Douglas – Ron Sr. raised his arms high without a tear in his eye. Watching this humble man stand on Tom Osborne Field’s hallowed ground was an amazing sight.

That’s especially true when you hit the pause button and consider the news circulating around the globe when starting left halfback Ron Sr. played his last game at Memorial Stadium, a 40-0 Husker win over Kansas State on Nov. 21, 1936. That same month, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a landslide presidential winner over Alf Landon and RCA displayed the first TV for the worldwide press. Americans also bought the first issue of Life Magazine in the same month that Germany was bombing Spain. Last, but certainly not least in my quick-hitting research of November, 1936, American sportswriters were predicting that Yale University end Larry Kelley would be the runaway winner in the second-ever year of Heisman Trophy voting. Expectation became fact, but let the record show that Sam Francis, Douglas’ fellow Nebraska senior running back, finished second in the 1936 Heisman voting.

It’s important to know that Douglas played in the shadows of both Francis and Lloyd Cardwell in a Husker career that produced 19 wins, 7 losses and 1 tie in that three-year stretch under College Football Hall-of-Fame Coach Dana X. Bible. “We have scrapbooks of memories at home,” Ron Jr. told me last Saturday. “Dad did make first-team All-Big Six in his last year at Nebraska, but he was surrounded by very good players. He never really cared about getting attention.” Roger Douglas agreed with his older brother. “Dad would do anything to help the team,” he said. “If they needed a punter, he could punt. If they needed to go one-on-one against a good runner, they’d put dad on that guy and stop him. He could just about do everything.”

Dana X. Bible: Douglas Nebraska's Best Blocker, Tackler

Neither son heard those stories from their dad’s own lips. They learned those facts through their own research. The good thing about fathers and sons is one can’t hide the truth from the other. Once curiosity finds facts, it has the evidence to trump even the humblest man. “We found a quote in the Lincoln Journal-Star where Dana Bible said dad was the best blocker and tackler he ever coached,” Ron Jr. said. “We had our share of All-Americans, but dad led the team in touchdowns and scoring.” Nebraska shut out five teams in 1936 – Iowa State (34-0), Oklahoma (14-0 in Norman), Missouri (20-0), Kansas (26-0 in Lawrence) and K-State (40-0). We list every score because Nebraska won its second straight Big Six Conference championship without giving up a single point. The Huskers’ only two losses that season were 7-0 at Minnesota and 19-6 against Pittsburgh. The Golden Gophers were voted 1936 national champions. Pitt finished third and Nebraska ninth in college football's inaugural season-ending AP poll.

In 2011, I interviewed Ron Douglas Sr. at Memorial Stadium, where he confirmed wearing a leather helmet and traveling to road games by train. As a senior, he earned the privilege to sleep in the lower bunk on train trips to Minnesota, Oklahoma and Oregon State. The Huskers were a tight-knit group who helped Nebraska fans forget about the dreadful Dust Bowl Days and the pressure of living in the Great Depression. “We had a good bunch of players back then, and we won a lot of games,” Ron Sr. said. “Saturdays back then were quite a bit like Saturdays now…big crowds (30,000-plus), a lot of excitement, a lot of activity around football. We didn’t have scholarships, but I had a job working nights until 10 o’clock as a grease monkey at a garage.”

After football, Ron Sr. went on to build his own business – Douglas Manufacturing – in his hometown after leading Crete to two state high school  championships against powerful Lincoln High and completing a Husker career that he will always hold dear. “The passion for Nebraska football in the mid-1930s was the same kind of passion it is now,” Roger told me last Saturday. “I’ve read all the coverage in the Lincoln Journal Star. In fact, they covered Nebraska football back then just about like they cover it now. These guys were heroes, and whenever they’d come back home after a road trip, fans would be waiting for them at the train station.”

1935 Team Beat College Football’s First Heisman Winner

One of Ron Sr.’s fondest memories was Nebraska’s 28-6 season-opening 1935 win over the University of Chicago in Lincoln. It was memorable because Nebraska found a way to slow Jay Berwanger in a game where Bible’s team “schemed” to stop college football’s brightest star. Berwanger went on to win the first Heisman Trophy ever presented in 1935. What a flood of memories emerged from Ron Sr., Ron Jr. and Roger Douglas last Saturday.

“I had to fight back tears when my dad was introduced,” Ron Jr. said.

“I did, too, because of my dad’s humility,” Roger said while tearing up again.  “He’s never talked about his accolades. We’ve never heard him brag once. When we told him that he was going to be introduced at the Minnesota game, he said: ‘You mean I’m going to have to live another day?’ That’s dad.” That's dad the joker because, according to his youngest son, "he stays fit and has fun," Roger said. "I don't think he's even had arthritis yet." Ron Sr.'s hearing, however, is good enough to pick up that comment on a noisy Husker sideline. "I've had arthritis. I just don't talk about it," he said.

Ron Sr.'s two sons laugh at their dad's punch lines. They are, after all, so thankful to be with him on another special day that continues the countdown to Ron Sr.'s 100th birthday on March 23, 2015. If Thanksgiving unites families and reminds us all of what we have, two appreciative brothers are rightfully proud to turn back the calendar nearly eight decades to help tell the Ron Douglas Story. On the sidelines last Saturday, I asked Ron Sr. what his most memorable moment was as a Husker. “We could play with anybody and against anybody,” he said, staying true to his team-based nature in this the 125th anniversary of Nebraska football. The last of a dying breed doesn’t mind sharing what Husker fans have always known even before the 1930s and kept multiplying through Ron Sr.'s 1995 induction into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame  – Not the Victory but the Action…Not the Goal but the Game…in the Deed the Glory. Make no mistake. What is etched into Memorial Stadium’s walls will never go out of style.

Eichorst Honors Douglas in His Connecting on Campus Column

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