1941 Rose Bowl

P writes:

I have heard Stanford mentioned as a possible foe for the Huskers if Stanford gets a sixth win.  It would be in the Sun Bowl.

The "sixth win" will have to come against Cal in the Big Game, this Saturday, if it comes at all. Not long ago, Gloria told me about a passage in a book she was reading where the author described a college football game between Stanford and Nebraska, and I said, "well, they haven't played since the 1941 Rose Bowl, and Stanford won."  She thought I must be wrong; the book seemed to be describing a real event.

"If it was real, it was 1941," I said. 

When I was growing up in Kearney, Nebraska, Al Zikmund was the Athletic Director of Kearney State College [now the University of Nebraska at Kearney].  Zikmund seemed like a god---he had played in the 1941 Rose Bowl, against Stanford.

But they lost. 

Bob Devaney, Bill Walsh, and many others are gone.

But I'm still here (albeit born 20 years after that Rose Bowl), and I'm ready for the rematch.