Todd Millikan

[knapplc]

I was discussing Ken Clark with RED STEEL today and I posted a video of the 1988 NU/OSU game, which prominently featured Todd Millikan, then I see this article today and I thought it was cool that he got elected into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.

 

When Millikan caught it, he made it count

 

Todd Millikan came home from work two weeks ago, opened his mailbox and found an interesting envelope from the University of Nebraska.

 

Millikan played his last football game in Lincoln in 1988. Coaches have come and gone. Championships won and lost. Even two conference changes.

 

A parole/probation officer in Shenandoah, Iowa — even one who still owns Nebraska's record for career touchdowns by a tight end — starts to feel a little old after all these years.

 

Millikan opened the envelope and — “Holy cow!” as he put it — old No. 43 had been elected to the Nebraska football hall of fame.

 

“I thought they done forgot about me,” Millikan said.

 

Millikan joins former Huskers Ndamukong Suh, Dan Alexander, Steve Lindquist, Ed Periard, Bob Pickens, Carlos Polk and Chris Spachman in the 2010 class, announced this week.

 

Millikan isn't the biggest name in the bunch. He wasn't much of a star during his heyday, either. He caught only 40 balls his entire career. But 14 went for touchdowns, an astounding 35 percent.

 

He earned first-team All-Big Eight honors as a senior in 1988.

 

Not bad for a guy who didn't catch passes in high school.

 

Nebraska recruited Millikan as a linebacker out of Shenandoah. That's where he played on the freshman team in 1984. The next summer, Tom Osborne suggested that he switch to tight end. Whatever gets me on the field the quickest, Millikan said.

 

As a sophomore, Millikan emerged in the 1986 season opener against Florida State. Under the lights at Memorial Stadium, Nebraska rolled over Deion Sanders and the Seminoles on national TV, 34-17.

 

The fresh face at tight end caught his first touchdown pass that night, a 12-yarder from Steve Taylor.

 

“I just remember catching that ball, going to the sideline and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, everybody back home was watching that,'” Millikan said. “I probably had a good game because I was running scared.”

 

 

Check the link for bios of all of this year's inductees, plus a great pic from that 1988 NU/OSU game where Millikan is BLOWING UP some DB from the Pokes.