Sports & Recreation

When Matt Davison made a diving catch on the famous "flea-flicker" play against Missouri in 1997, securing Nebraska's perfect season, the Husker faithful were in football nirvana. And that memorable play was preceded by over a century of Nebraska Football greatness. The team was winning conference championships back in the 1890s, and was an established national powerhouse by the time they joined the Big Eight (later Big Twelve) in 1928. Even the mediocre years brought excitement, such as the stunning 25-21 upset of the "unbeatable" Sooners in 1959. Five National Championships (1970, '71, '94, '95, and '97) under the coaching of Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne, when the Huskers won at least 9 games per season for over 30 straight years, is an accomplishment of which most collegiate football programs can only dream.

Professional baseball history in Omaha began in 1869 when the Cincinnati Red Stockings came to town, besting local teams 65-1 and 56-3, and touching off a barnstorming tradition that would bring Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and others over the years to League Park, Brown Park, and Municipal Stadium (later rededicated as Rosenblatt Stadium). Omaha became part of the Western League in 1895. William "Pa" Rourke's League Park at 20th and Vinton became Omaha's first municipal ballpark in 1911 and the center of professional Omaha baseball until its destruction by fire in 1936. The 1940s and early 1950s saw the Omaha Cardinals play as part of the Western League and American Association, with the Dodgers appearing briefly in the early 60s. Since 1969, Omaha has been home for the Kansas City Royals AAA team. Since 1950, Omaha has hosted the NCAA College World Series. But Omaha baseball is also about the sandlots and games played at Riverview Park, Benson Park, Fontenelle Park, Brown Park, Athletic Park, and Burdette Park; about the Packing houses, breweries, restaurants, car dealerships, and insurance companies that have sponsored teams; and about neighborhood teams battling for bragging rights and the high school players who were immortalized in Robert Phipps' columns in the Omaha World Herald.

Since 1950, Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium (formerly Municipal Stadium) has hosted the nation's top college baseball programs in the College World Series. Baseball fans from every corner of the country have taken the annual "Road to Omaha" and packed the seats to see championship baseball at its best. In 1954 thousands saw Jim Ehrler of Texas toss the tourney's first no-hitter en route to the Longhorns winning back-to-back CWS championships. Fans at the 1970 tournament saw Southern Cal defeat Florida State in the midst of their unmatched five-year championship run. In 1996 Rosenblatt's faithful took in the dramatic bottom-of-the-ninth, two-out, two-run homer by Louisiana State's Warren Morris, giving his team a 9-8 upset victory over powerhouse Miami.

For more than 100 years, students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (formerly Kearney State and the Nebraska State Teachers College) have worn the blue and gold of the Antelopes. Within these pages are more than 200 photographs that chronicle the storied history of athletics at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Legendary coaches such as Fred Fulmer, Charlie Foster, Al Zikmund, and Jerry Hueser are highlighted along with the star athletes they coached, including Pat Panek, Frank Lydic, Larry Snell, Randy Rasmussen, Tom Kropp, and Bart Kofoed.
Also appearing in these pages are coach George Van Buren, who, beginning in 1910, helped shape the early sports program, and lesser-known but equally important athletes such as multisport standouts Earl "Irish" Carrig, Ronald "the Farnam Flash" Lewis,
and Ray Adams. Besides athletes, coaches, and championship teams, the intense rivalry with Hastings College is highlighted throughout. A Century of Sports at the University of Nebraska at Kearney offers a compelling visual history that will take the Antelope faithful on a journey back to the glory days of the school's athletics.

From its inaugural season in 1911 through its final season in 2011, the University of Nebraska-Omaha football team always faced an uphill struggle in terms of resources. The program reached a pinnacle in 1954 with its lone unbeaten season. Many other teams and individuals also found great success, winning conference titles and bowl games and moving onto professional careers. Just because the school no longer offers football, it does not mean that the thousands of men who played for the Mavericks from 1971 to 2011, the Indians from 1939 to 1971, and the Cardinals and the Maroons before should not be remembered and honored for the years they poured their hearts and souls into the Omaha football program.