Bob Devaney: The Beginning of Nebraska's Dynasty

Before the 1962 season, the Nebraska coaching job went to the wispy, charismatic Irishman named Bob Devaney, who had no links to the Cornhuskers state. But Devaney had an attractive résumé because he had made a winner of a downtrodden Wyoming football program in the western frontier of America after spending his early years in Michigan.

Bob Devaney was a Midwesterner through and through, but not a Nebraskan. He was a football end at Alma College in Michigan in the 1930s, graduating in 1939. During the next decade he was a Michigan high school football coach at such places as Big Beaver, Keego Harbor, and Saginaw before a seven-year stint at Alpena High School (52–9) earned him a spot as an assistant on Biggie Munn's staff at Michigan State.

"Devaney played college football, but he was probably a better baseball player and boxer than he was a football player," said Adrian Fiala, who played at Nebraska from 1967 to 1969. "Being a boxer, that's where his toughness came in. ... Bob wasn't very big. But he was a kind of a stocky guy. There are some guys you can just kind of look at and say, you don't want to fool with them."

In 1957 Devaney could have wound up as the Missouri head coach. He had been considered for the Missouri post when Don Faurot retired from coaching following the 1956 season and slipped into the Missouri athletics director's chair exclusively.

"At the time, Bob Devaney was going to Wyoming [from Michigan State] and Frank Broyles was an assistant at Georgia Tech under Bobby Dodd," said Dick Tamburo, who was an assistant football coach in those days and later the Missouri athletics director. "Bob called me and asked, 'If I get the Missouri job, will you come as line coach?' Shortly after that, Frank Broyles was named Missouri's head coach."

By the time Devaney took the Nebraska head coaching job, Missouri already was a national power under Dan Devine.

In 1957 Devaney's first Wyoming team was 4–3–3. But in 1958 Devaney took Wyoming to the Sun Bowl, where his Cowboys beat Hardin-Simmons 14–6. His 1959 Wyoming team (9–1) would have gone to the Gator Bowl if it hadn't been on probation for a recruiting violation.

"That Wyoming team was one of his favorites," said Jim Walden, who was Devaney's quarterback then at Wyoming and later an assistant coach at Nebraska. "It was a catalyst team. It was his first big winning team. They loved him at Wyoming. Bob, keep in mind, spent 14 years in high school football and had been an assistant at Michigan State. He was not some wide-eyed graduate assistant type. He was in his forties when he took the Wyoming job. It was a different environment [in Wyoming].

"The media was, like, the play-by-play guy on the radio, the sports editor of the Cheyenne paper," Walden continued. "The Laramie Daily Boomerang had one guy. There was no TV to speak of. A press conference at Laramie was him and a couple of guys going down to the bar and having a beer. Everything was looser and everything more fun. He enjoyed it immensely. And he transferred it to us. He took chances on guys from Wyoming. He had a great staff. I was amazed how much he demanded of you. He wasn't Bear [Bryant] and tried to kill you. But he demanded a lot from you. We maybe were not as good as the players Nebraska had. But we were going to be as good as we could be."

Walden, playing in the Canadian Football League, visited his former coach in 1961 at Wyoming before Devaney took the Nebraska job following that football season.

At Wyoming, Devaney compiled a 35–10–5 record in five seasons and had won or tied for four Skyline Conference titles. His 1960 Wyoming team led the country in total defense (149.6 yards allowed a game). And in 1961 Wyoming finished ranked 17th in the final United Press International Poll.

Devaney had requested and received a new five-year contract. So when he made the decision to leave, he created quite a stir and drew resentment in Wyoming.

"I was sorry to see him leave Wyoming," Walden said. "But I was happy for him. I wasn't sure it was such a great move, looking at Nebraska's record. And he was leaving a good football team. ... I wished him well and thanked him for him what he had done.

"I could only surmise that any player at Nebraska, brace up, because he will coach you to the bone," Walden continued. "His assistants at Wyoming — John Melton, Carl Selmer, Mike Corgan, and Jim Ross — they understood him and they were a nice team together. If it was any way possible to be good at Nebraska, help was on the way. Coach Devaney was such a good communicator. He would nudge you or pull your aside and said you were not doing enough, and say, 'You can do better.'"

Devaney's First Season

In the early 1960s Nebraska's program was in a state of disrepair and in a 20-year drought. Devaney's predecessor at Nebraska, Bill Jennings, had a 15–34–1 record from 1957 to 1961. He was the seventh straight NU head coach to have an overall losing record at Nebraska since Biff Jones had a winning mark of 28–14–4 from 1937 to 1941.

When Jennings was fired at Nebraska, he made the statement: "There is an intense desire to do something good in this state, like elect a president or gain prominence in politics. But we can't feed the ego of the state of Nebraska with the football team."

Jennings was about as adept at knowing what ultimately would feed Nebraskans' egos as he was at coaching football. Devaney, hand-picked by Nebraska athletics director Tippy Dye, put together a football program that would rise to national prominence, even beyond what he had done in Laramie.

Nebraska hadn't won more than two league games since the 1956 season, but Devaney won five in his first season, and the Cornhuskers, third-place finishers in the Big Eight, became a bowl team in 1962.

Nebraska's only two losses in 1962 were to powerhouse Oklahoma and to Missouri. Guard Bob Brown, Devaney's first All-American at Nebraska, was a star on that team. Warren Powers, later a Nebraska assistant coach (1969 to 1976) and Missouri head coach (1978 to 1984), was a senior defensive back for these Cornhuskers before playing six years for the Oakland Raiders.

Nebraska hadn't even scored on Missouri in the previous four seasons, all under Bill Jennings, losing 10–0, 28–0, 9–0, and 31–0. In 1962 the Cornhuskers at least broke that streak in scoring a touchdown in a 16–7 loss to the Bluebonnet Bowl–bound Tigers. A 34–6 loss...