He showed up in Lincoln unannounced from Chapin, S.C., in 1976 and went on to become an All-Big Eight running back the next year.
As a high school senior, he had received letters from a number of big football schools but he was not seriously recruited.
The only correspondence he had with Nebraska was with the admissions office, he said, and he's the one who initiated contact.
"I always was a Nebraska fan," he said. "Most people in the neighborhood, when the annual game was played on Thanksgiving Day against Oklahoma, rooted for Oklahoma. I always pulled for Nebraska. I believed in the tradition. I loved to win," Hipp said.
In the fall of 1976, Hipp traveled 1,800 miles to Lincoln. He said he was among 100 walk-ons who showed up for fall practice.
"When I went into the auditorium, all the blue-chippers and lettermen were there, and everybody walked up and asked, 'How can we help you?' " Hipp recalled. "I told him that I came to play football."
...The unknown player from South Carolina -- who came to Nebraska named Isaiah Moses Hipp -- achieved instant celebrity as I.M. Hipp in 1977. In his first start, he rushed for a then-record 254 yards against Indiana, the first of five straight 100-yard performances.
He was awarded a scholarship before his junior season. He still ranks sixth on the NU career rushing chart with 2,814 yards.
"I was a guy who, as Coach Osborne says, fell out of the blue," Hipp said.
Hipp said he wouldn't have had the opportunity if it hadn't been for the walk-on program fostered by Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne.
"Walk-ons have been part of the the essence of tradition and winning at Nebraska as far back as I can remember," Hipp said. "It proves that even though sometimes you're looked over and not given the blue-chip label, you can still play for whoever. If you have an aspiration or a dream, you can make it."
"I was a walk-on, and I'm still a walk-on, and I carry it with me in my heart."
