The Huskers Saved Wisconsin Football

R

Roundball Shaman

Four-Star Recruit
Wisconsin Badger fans should have great appreciation for the Huskers. But maybe not the kind of respect you’d want them to.

Snips from an article by Gary D’Amato of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“1974 win over Nebraska kicked off new era for Badgers - Wisconsin provided a stunner when Cornhuskers visited. Throughout the 1960s, football was an afterthought at the University of Wisconsin...From 1964-73 the stumbling, bumbling Badgers compiled a pitiable 27-72-5 record, including winless seasons in 1967 and '68. Slowly and marginally, things started to change in the early 1970s under coach John Jardine, who recruited heavily in Chicago and brought a new breed of rough, tough, take-no-prisoners player to Madison.

Still, almost no one was prepared for the lightning bolt that struck Camp Randall Stadium on Sept. 21, 1974. Little Bucky, for so long the laughingstock of college football, shocked No. 4-ranked Nebraska and a disbelieving regional television audience with a come-from-behind, 21-20 victory... the Badgers' upset of perennial powerhouse Nebraska, a victory so unexpected that it unleashed a different kind of mob scene in Madison, with giddy fans rushing the field and thousands of revelers partying through the night...The Badgers were laughingstocks no more.

"I think that game helped turn around Wisconsin's program," said Terry Buss, who made his first start at safety for UW that day. "I think they were able to recruit a little bit because that was a televised game and back then there wasn't a game on every channel."

So... maybe the Cheese State's major university would have gotten good on their own eventually. Or, maybe not. Either way, some of them feel that the Huskers gave them their turnaround.
And who will be the opponents that now return the favor to recharge the Huskers?

Found at: http://archive.jsonline.com/sports/badgers/74-win-over-nebraska-kicked-off-new-era-for-badgers-130823483.html

 
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BoNeyard said:
You completely left out the part about Barry Alvarez going to Wisconsin and installing the Nebraska culture.
Click to expand...


Alvarez had a far greater impact than a single upset win in 1974.  The Badgers still pretty much sucked for another 15 years after that upset.  Right up until about the time Alvarez was named HC.  Before Alvarez they hadn't won a Big X title since 1962 (wiki tells me).  Since Alvarez they've won six.  

 
Sort of scratching my head, because Wisconsin football was arguably as bad in the late 80s as anybody else. They wouldn't want to be reminded of the Don Morton era.

We moved from Lincoln to a town near Madison in 1984 when my dad started a new job, and one of his bosses would give him grief about the 1974 game. This of course is just months after we missed out on a national championship by one effing point.

I don't have much love lost... that's kind of the attitude I got for a long time. Even in the 90s, right before we hit it huge, everyone would kind of give me a nice patronizing "oh that's cute" about my college team of choice.

Now it's kinda like "oh, you were good once?"

 
Shamman should stick to round ball. He does this a lot. Making stories/threads based on others’ talking points. 
 

wisc owes nooothing to Nebraska except Alvarez, and even then he just built something...out of nothing...and has continued that success for a long time. 
 

stop posting crap about what we used to be and what’s wrong w us now. Just your OWN opinion for once without the extra 250 words from someone else. It’s a passive aggressive form of negativity on the Cornhuskers, just be there for the team, In your OWN voice, or not. 

 
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