Brichacek, McCord Helped Huskers To First No. 1

Two Nebraska natives who played on the first Nebraska football team to earn a No. 1 ranking and play for a national championship have died in the last week.
 
Gary Brichacek, an offensive guard from Schuyler, and Jim McCord, a defensive tackle from Fairbury, played on coach Bob Devaney's 1965 team that began the season No. 1 and became the first Husker team in the modern era to go unbeaten in the regular season.
 
Brichacek, 75, died Sept. 6 after a brief illness.
 
"Gary was just one of those guys from small town Nebraska that worked hard and became a pretty good football player," said Larry Wachholtz, a co-captain on the 1965 team.
 
Barry Alvarez last saw Brichacek and McCord at a Husker game in Lincoln in 2015 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the team that won the Big Eight championship before losing to Bear Bryant-led Alabama in the Orange Bowl.
 
Alvarez, a sophomore linebacker on that team, was especially close with McCord. They both lettered from 1965-67.
 
"Mac was just a lot of fun. Just a big old happy farm boy, but he was tough as nails and loved to play," said Alvarez, the former Wisconsin football coach who is now the school's athletic director. "Always happy."
 
Brichacek, whose cousin, Mel, also lettered at Nebraska from 1966-68, majored in physical education and joined teammate Frank Solich on the football coaching staff at Lincoln Southeast High School.
 
Brichacek then coached at Kearney High School, and later went into educational administration, working as a vice principal at Kelly Walsh High School in Wyoming, and later as head principal at East Junior High School. He eventually became athletic director for Natrona County School District No. 1, a position he held for 12 years before retiring in 2001.   
 
Brichacek lived in Republic, Missouri. He is survived by his wife, three children and two grandchildren.
 
McCord, who lived and farmed near Fairbury, died earlier this week.  
 
"Jim never had a lot to say or anything, but a fun-loving guy and stronger than an ox," said Wachholtz, a North Platte native who played safety. "He was pretty well put together. A pretty good football player. Wore a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Just a good, tough kid from Nebraska."
 
Carel Stith, a Lincoln native who played defensive tackle on the 1965 team, first remembers playing against McCord's Fairbury High School team, when Stith played at Lincoln Southeast. The two eventually became fraternity brothers.
 
"He came off the farm and the guy had been throwing hay bales around all his life. He just had a natural strength to him," Stith said.
 
"He was kind of an 'aw, shucks' guy off the field, but when he had his pads on, he was one tough individual."
 
Stith and Alvarez both said McCord, who lettered from 1965-67, did well to overcome a serious automobile accident his junior year in high school that left his lower leg impaired.
 
"I think that leg was an inch-and-half shorter than the other but that never bothered him," Alvarez said. "He'd just go 100 miles an hour."
 
Said Stith: "I don't think they ever thought he could do very much, but he hung in there with it."
 
Alvarez said he and McCord worked together in the police department together when they attended graduate school. Their wives became good friends, too, and they all remained close.
 
Services for McCord will be Friday, Sept. 20, at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in Fairbury. 
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter@GBRosenthal.