Body Count

In 1991, Colorado State came to Lincoln to play the Huskers. My brother and I were both in school at UNL at the time and we, of course, had season tickets. This was before they shoved the students into the south stadium and we had great seats in section 3 about 20 rows up. The game wasn't pretty for the Rams; the Huskers were exceptionally conditioned and superbly talented. There were numerous official time outs for on-field injuries--for the Rams players. I took note. At the end of the game there were 4-6 players hobbling off the field with crutches--Colorado State players, that is. The Huskers suffered possibly only bruises during the 71-14 victory and certainly didn't have any injury time-outs.

The Body Count was born.

After that game I kept a tally of the body count--a measurement of how we were better conditioned than the teams we played. If I had the kinds of electronic tools at my disposal at that time, I would have recorded the body count for each game and now could chart it to show the decline in our conditioning. Instead, you'll have to take my word for it. During the Solich years we frequently lost the body count and shortly after Boyd Eppley (considered the father of modern football conditioning) was demoted. I gave up counting once Callahan showed up--the official end of Power Football at Nebraska.