The bowl that started it all

In 2009, football bowl games, in which the Cornhuskers are one of the contestants, are pretty much of a given. Many fans plan vacations around the annual bowl game. On the rare occasion that the Huskers fare so poorly that they are not invited to a bowl, there is general discontent throughout the state. This was not always the case.

In all its storied history, dating back to 1890, the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team had never won a bowl game when the season began in 1962. Granted, bowl games were nowhere near as numerous in those days, as compared to now. And though Nebraska had formerly been known as a powerhouse in college football, in 1962 Nebraska fortunes had been in the depths of despair, really since the beginning of World War II. Then along came Bob!

Bob Devaney had played his football at tiny Alma College, in Michigan. He had been lured away from the University of Wyoming, as head coach, to rebuild a sad Nebraska football program, in 1962. Devaney essentially took over a rather poor team, which had gone 3-6-1 in 1961, and turned it into a Midwestern contender, at 9-2, in 1962. Nebraska had not won nine games in one year since Coach "Bummy" Booth's fourth year, in 1903, when that team went 10-0, outscoring its opponents 268-11.

The highlight of Devaney's first season was a 25-13 victory over perennial powerhouse, Michigan, in Michigan Stadium. That victory, quite literally, changed the Nebraska program overnight. It proved to the nation's sports writers that Nebraska football was a program to be taken seriously. Even more, that victory proved to Nebraska fans that their team could be successful -- and could win a big game.

The reward for Devaney's first, 9-2 season (we still lost to Oklahoma and Missouri) was an invitation to a bowl game. Nebraska had not been to bowl game since 1955, when the team lost, 34-7 to Duke. Before that game, Nebraska's only other bowl appearance had been in the Rose Bowl, against Stanford, a 21-13 loss, in 1941. That was one of the great games in Nebraska football history. Bob Devaney used to say, "Everyone delighted in telling me about that Rose Bowl game when I first came to Nebraska. It wasn't till I'd been here for a couple of years that I found out that it was Stanford that won that game." True, the Gotham Bowl was not the Rose Bowl, but, it was "A Bowl Game" and football fans throughout the state were delighted to be playing.

The Gotham Bowl was an ill-conceived Bowl that was in trouble from Day 1. The thought behind the bowl was noble -- it was designed to be a fund raiser for The March of Dimes, but through mismanagement and bad luck, the game never generated enough money to give to the charity -- in fact every year it lost money.

In 1960 The Gotham Bowl invited Oregon State to play in the game, but when no opponent could be found, the game was canceled.

In 1961 the Gotham Bowl found two teams to play in the game at the Polo Grounds -- Baylor and Utah State, but there was very little interest in the game. Baylor won, 24-7, in front of a crowd of only 15,000.

In 1962, the Gotham Bowl was successful in signing the Miami Hurricanes as one of their teams, but it was not until 11 days before the scheduled Dec. 4 date that they were able to get another team to agree to play -- Nebraska.

Even then, there was considerable doubt that the game would ever take place.

Bob Devaney and his coaching staff were against playing in the Gotham Bowl. They felt that the game was poorly organized, Nebraska was not ready to play a bowl game, and most of all, there was a good chance that they would never be paid. This reasoning was no match for the enthusiasm of Nebraska fans, including even the governor, who urged the Huskers to accept the invitation.

The team boarded a charter airplane flight from Lincoln to New York on Dec. 3, then waited for over two hours on the runway, until Devaney received word that the $30,000 check had cleared the bank. Devaney was taking no chances. (Miami had earlier demanded that their money be paid upfront before they signed their contract.)

On game day, the bad luck of the Gotham Bowl, at Yankee Stadium, continued. Everything seemed to go awry.

1. The game had to be played at 11 a.m. in order to avoid a conflict with the professional game between the NY Titans and the Houston Oilers, who were scheduled to play at 2 p.m. at nearby Polo Grounds.

2. Because of a newspaper strike, there was little or no advance publicity for the game.

3. The weather was dreadfully cold. (Most players wore tennis shoes, to gain traction on the frozen turf).

All of these negative factors added up to a dismal crowd. Though the officials claimed that they had sold 6,100 advance tickets, most observers estimated less than 1,000 spectators in the 63,000 capacity Yankee Stadium.

Note: An old friend, from Plainview, was living in Baltimore at the time and he and his wife drove to New York to attend the game. They said that they were the only two in their section, and perhaps the only NU fans at the game. They were dressed for a Midwestern blizzard and had a wonderful time.

On the plus side, for the Gotham Bowl, was the fact that ABC Wide World of Sports carried the game on nationwide television.

(Camera crews were under orders to keep their cameras on the field at all times -- to never show the empty stands.)

In Nebraska we thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle on TV, comfortable in our living rooms -- a wonderfully exciting, offensive game. Defenses for both NU and MU were suspect. The game went back and forth, each team scoring in every quarter.

Miami was the overwhelming favorite to win the 1962 Gotham Bowl. Their junior quarterback, George Mira, was considered as perhaps the best college quarterback in America -- and he did not disappoint his fans. That day Mira completed 24 of 41 passes, for two touchdowns -- 321 yards, at the time a Miami record performance.

But Nebraska had its heroes as well. Willie Ross scored two touchdowns, the first, a 92-yard kickoff return. "Thunder" Thornton scored two touchdowns and a two point conversion. Quarterback, Dennis Claridge, playing both offense and defense, connected with Mike Eger for one touchdown, scored a two-point conversion, and set up the winning touchdown by intercepting a George Mira pass in the fourth quarter.

Future All-American lineman, Bob Brown sealed the victory in the final minute, when he ended a potential Miami winning drive, by intercepting Mira's last pass.

At the end of the game officials took note of the plusses and the minuses of the 1962 Gotham Bowl. It was determined that the game had not only failed to make a profit for the March of Dimes, it had lost $50,000, ending the Gotham Bowl forever.

Miami showcased their star, George Mira (who was named "Most Valuable Player"), to a nationwide audience, and greatly enhanced Mra's professional prospects.

For Nebraska, the game was an overwhelming success for the fledgling, Devaney led program. The upset victory, over a fine Miami team, before a nationwide TV audience, brought the team to a new level of respect in college football -- an important early step in Devaney's quest to bring Nebraska back to football prominence.

Source: The Gotham Bowl 1962, Nebraska Football Legacy by Mike Babcock