I.M. Hipp Remembers The Titan: The Bear Himself

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A few days after a national television commentator invoked I.M. Hipp’s name to describe 119 galloping yards from Ameer Abdullah at UCLA last fall, Nebraska’s famous walk-on received home-page Facebook visits from all kinds of former Huskers – Johnny Rodgers, Roger Craig, Terry Luck, Tony Davis, Rod Horn, Anthony Steels, Craig Johnson, Tim Wurth, Dan Hurley, Tim Hager, Rodney Lewis, Percy Keith and Oudious Lee.
“I watched the game and heard them mention my name,” Hipp said with a laugh from his home in Virginia Beach, Va. “I was surprised, but to be honest, I was more focused on winning the first flight in my club (golf) championship the next day.” And he did, shooting a 71 after a 72 the before.

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Really takes me back. Hipp's name on the radio is still fresh in my mind. His teams were my first years of following the Huskers while in grade school.

 
That is such a kick a$$ story....can some of the more "experienced" members of our board offer up a story about IM Hipp? Just don't hear that much about him.

 
Definitely takes me back as well. Some of those guys, Rod Horn, Craig Johnson, Rodney Lewis, Anthony 'Slick' Steels. Nice to hear those names again.

I.M. Hipp was a stud.

 
Exciting runner, broke off a bunch of long TD runs, especially his soph year. He and Rick Berns made a great 1-2 punch. Plagued by turf toe almost his whole senior season.

Hipp probably did the most in promoting our walk on program of any walk on player. Not only was he one of the best walk-ons, but he was in a glamour position with a catchy name and had some huge games almost from the beginning. And coming from South Carolina, it really drew attention that there must be something special with our walk-on program, which the media picked up on. In turn the walk-on program expanded beyond just Nebraska high schoolers.

The story is a bit off though. Hipp's first playing time on varsity was in 1977, not 1976, and his first carries came in that Alabama game, when he came in as an unknown sophomore. I'm surprised Bryant knew his story then. I wonder if the meeting actually came the next year when we played them (and lost) in Birmingham, as Hipp;s story was well-known by then. The huge Indiana game was the 4th game of the season, all at home. Not that my memory is that precise, but the story was disjointed and I went to the huskermax "all the games" link to piece it together.

 
If I remember right he was a beast in the weight room too. He could squat something like 480lbs, which in those days was unheard of for a lineman let alone a running back.

 
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