‘Let’s go out and do it’
Jeff Kinney grew up a Nebraska fan, then scored four TDs in its biggest game ever vs. Sooners
Jeff Kinney remembers Nebraska’s charter flight stopping on the tarmac well short of the terminal.
The problem?
Too many Cornhusker fans on the airfield.
“There were like 30,000 people there to greet us,” Kinney said of the scene in Lincoln that November day five decades ago. “So, they let us out, and we walked through a crowd of 30,000 to get to the buses.”
Kinney chuckled.
“It was exciting times.”
Earlier that day, Nebraska had gone to Norman and defeated OU in what had been dubbed the Game of the Century. The Huskers were top ranked, the Sooners were right behind them, and in the end, they played a game worthy of the hype.
But as the two programs meet again Saturday to not only rekindle their rivalry but also celebrate that magical game in 1971, there was no one more central to the outcome of the Game of the Century than Kinney. Many remember Nebraska star Johnny Rodgers’ punt return and OU quarterback Jack Mildren’s passing and Husker nose tackle Rich Glover’s tackles, but the Cornhuskers don’t win that game — or the national title a little over a month later — without Kinney.
His stat line in the Game of the Century: 31 carries for 174 yards and four touchdowns.
Yes, four touchdowns. Rodgers scored the most electric touchdown of the day, although Sooner fans still believe a clipping penalty or three was missed on his return, but Kinney scored the rest of the Husker touchdowns in a 35-31 victory.
In arguably the greatest game in college football history, Kinney had arguably the greatest performance.
But to hear him tell it all these years later, Kinney believes he was simply a cog in the Big Red Machine that day.
“Our offensive strategy was to control the football,” he said. “We knew that we had to do that, and playing a key position like tailback at Nebraska, you get a chance to do those kinds of things.”
And yet, what Kinney did that day was special to him.
Every day he spent as a Husker was. Born in tiny Oxford, Nebraska (population 727 at last count), Kinney was raised an hour west in McCook. He was only 15 miles from the Kansas state line and 80 miles from the Colorado state line, but like most kids growing up in the Cornhusker State, he was all about Nebraska.
“We would go out and go pheasant hunting in the morning” on Saturdays, he said, “then road hunt in the afternoon and listen to the Nebraska football game.
“I couldn’t wait to see the paper on Sunday morning to see all the color pictures.”
Kinney was a Husker fan long before he was a Husker player.
Still, plenty of college football recruiters tried to convince the all-stater to leave home. Kinney got scholarship offers from just about every major-college program, including Texas and UCLA. But he couldn’t pass on a chance to play for Nebraska.
He arrived in Lincoln as a quarterback. Apparently, lots of players did. There were more than half a dozen quarterbacks on the depth chart ahead of Kinney, so Bob Devaney, then the Husker head coach, switched him to Iback.
Good move.
By the time Kinney’s career was over, he had the most rushing yards (2,420) and the most rushing touchdowns (21) by a Husker. He was selected as a firstteam All-American by Time Magazine and was picked in the first round of the NFL Draft by Kansas City.
He played pro football for five years, then has had a post-football life mostly spent in insurance and finance, though he did spend a couple years on Jerry Pettibone’s coaching staff at Northern Illinois.
Still, Thanksgiving 1971 in Norman ranks high on the best days of Kinney’s life.
After OU rallied to take a 17-14 lead at halftime — the first time Nebraska had trailed all season — Kinney remembers the feeling in the Huskers’ locker room. Yes, they were disappointed, but they were resolved, too.
“Just felt a whole lot more determined to come out the second half and not let them stop us,” Kinney remembered.
But when Nebraska got the ball with a little over 7 minutes left in the game, it trailed 31-28.
In the huddle, Nebraska quarterback Jerry Tagge looked around at his teammates.
“You know what we need to do,” Kinney remembers Tagge saying. “Let’s go out and do it.”
And the Huskers did.
A pass from Tagge to Rodgers got them to the 15-yard line, and Kinney took care of the rest. Four consecutive carries, the last of which was a 2-yard plunge into the end zone for the goahead touchdown.
“Jeff was a workhorse,” Tagge told the North Platte Telegraph a few years back. “He always ran hard, and that day was no different.”
Kinney was wearing a tearaway jersey that day, designed to rip and let him get away whenever a defender grabbed hold. Images of that final touchdown show his jersey in tatters, his shoulder pads almost completely exposed.
What was left of Kinney’s jersey was taken by his dad when the two found each other on Owen Field as the Huskers and their fans celebrated after the win.
They knew that jersey was significant because of how big the game was.
How big Kinney’s role was, too.
But as he thinks back on that game, he is mindful of the team effort that the Huskers needed in order to win.
“Every play that happened that day had to happen for the results to be what they were,” he said. “I mean, I could have fumbled the ball one less time, we could have fumbled the ball one more time. There’s so many things that could’ve happened that could have changed the outcome but didn’t.
“But every play that happened had to happen.”
Jeff Kinney thought it fitting for the Huskers’ plane to land and find tens of thousands of fans waiting in Lincoln. It was Thanksgiving night. It was Nebraska in November. People had lots of reasons to stay home.
Instead, they were there for their team.
Kinney remembers it taking a long time to get through the crowd. It was a lot slower going than when he’d maneuvered through the Sooners earlier in the day.
“I was tired by that time,” he said, chuckling.
There was no better feeling for a Nebraska kid turned Husker legend.