Shields? Halloween Trick Capped Buff-Bashing Treat

YouTube: Relive '92 Halloween Fumblerooskie

Nebraska Travels to Purdue

Huskers Meet Boilermakers

Randy York N-Sider

Official Blog of the Huskers

Since Saturday is a ghoulish holiday, Nebraska needs a feel-good story that harkens back to the most historic, hallowed, Husker Homecoming Halloween ever…October 31st, 1992, a day that will live in infamy for Colorado football fans, and one that will warm the heart of every Big Red fan who saw Nebraska use a Will Shields’ trick to cap a Buff-bashing treat inside Memorial Stadium.

Through the years, Nebraska has won 17 of its 18 Halloween games, including a 25-21 homecoming upset of Oklahoma to end the Sooners' national record 74-game conference winning streak. NU and CU were tied for the No. 8 position in the weekly Associated Press college football ranking in 1992. The Buffs had a 25-game unbeaten streak against Big Eight Conference opponents, the longest league winning streak in school history. Nebraska had gone four years without beating a top 10 team and had defeated only two of its last 11 ranked opponents. AP national football writer Rick Warner predicted a 24-21 Colorado win in Lincoln.

Final score: Nebraska 52, Colorado 7…a Husker mismatch made in heaven. Calvin Jones scored three first-half touchdowns, including a 47-yard TD run. The Blackshirts limited Koy Detmer and Kordell Stewart to a combined 146 yards passing, far less than the Buffs' 334-yard average. CU was unbeaten in its first seven games in 1992, but the Huskers outrushed the Buffs, 373 yards to eight yards and controlled 42 minutes and 10 seconds of the game clock.

That Halloween Showcased a Legend – Touchdown Tommie Frazier

Husker fans remember who directed Nebraska’s offense in that memorable Halloween massacre…freshman quarterback Tommie Frazier (pictured above in 1995 Orange Bowl against Miami). He led the charge, restoring the order and laying the groundwork for a five-year stretch that would feature five conference championships, 60 wins in 63 games and three national titles.

On that particular Husker Halloween in 1992, the goal posts came down and Big Red fans celebrated the changing of the guard back to what it had been for decades. Virtually everything Colorado did 23 years ago went wrong on that Halloween and virtually everything Nebraska did worked, including a successful Fumblerooskie play that showcased Shields, a premier offensive guard who rumbled 16 yards on a third-down-and-four play.

The play became a game-breaker, allowing the Huskers to score its third first-half touchdown with one second remaining before halftime and expanding a 17-7 lead to 24-7. Watch Will’s run on YouTube. No. 75 was a big load that day and is now enshrined in both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. Please use this link and join 178,000 others who enjoy going back to the most memorable Halloween in Nebraska football history.

We end this history lesson with an unfortunate footnote and cautionary tale. The only Halloween loss in Nebraska football history was unranked Texas' 20-16 upset of No. 7-ranked Nebraska in 1998. That's spooky for anyone who's superstitious and double trouble for the favored team that will play without its injured three-year starting quarterback.

Isn't it crazy how the darkest, most frightening things live inside us all?

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Voices from Husker Nation

I was at the game, playing in the band. What a play. What's great is there's another play that stands out in my mind: Travis Hill's stripping the ball from Detmer. Never heard the crowd at Memorial Stadium louder. Later, I heard the radio call from Kent Pavelka, who said "Listen to that crowd!" after the play...a wonderful memory, that's for sure. Kind regards, Jeff Jackson, Lincoln, Nebraska