1899 Nebraska Bugeaters football team

1899 Nebraska Bugeaters football
Conference	Independent
1899 record	1-7-1
Head coach	Alonzo Edwin Branch (1st year)
Home stadium	Antelope Field

The 1899 Nebraska Bugeaters football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1899 college football season. The team was coached by Alonzo Edwin Branch and played their home games at Antelope Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska's football team began its history as the "Old Gold Knights", and was also sometimes known as the "Tree Planters", "Nebraskans", "The Rattlesnake Boys", "Red Stockings", "Antelopes" or "Goldenrods" in their early years.

Before the season

Nebraska's high level of turnover at the top continued as yet another new head coach arrived. Coach Branch was recently finished with school, and the Nebraska appointment was his first college head coaching position.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance
September 30*	at Lincoln High	Lincoln, Nebraska	W 6-0	-
October 6	at Iowa State	State Field • Ames, Iowa	L 0-33	-
October 14	KC Medics	Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska	T 6-6	-
October 21	Missouri	Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska	L 0-11	-
October 28	at KC Medics	Kansas City, Missouri	L 0-24	-
November 4	Iowa	Omaha, Nebraska	L 0-30	-
November 11	at Drake	Des Moines, Iowa	W 12-6	-
November 18	Kansas	Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska	L 20-36	-
November 24	at South Dakota	Vermillion, South Dakota	L 5-6	-
November 30	Grinnell	Omaha, Nebraska	L 0-12	-
*Exhibition Game.

Roster

Bell, Johnny HB Benedict, Raymond HB Brew, Fred T Carver, Fred FB Cortelyou, Spencer E Crandall, Harry QB Dasenbrock, John G Drain, Ralph QB Gordon, Anthony FB Hunter, Fred HB Kingsbury, Raymond FB Koehler, John C Pearse, Arthur RT Ploughead RG Reasoner, Ira T Ringer, John LG Tukey, Harry QB Tyson C Wallace LT Westover, John LT Williams, Charles Erwin HB

Coaching staff

Name	Title	First year in this position	Years at Nebraska	Alma Mater
Alonzo Edwin Branch	Head Coach	1899	1899	Williams
Jack Best	Trainer	1890	1890–1922
Austin Collett	Manager
Fred Williams	Captain

Game notes

Lincoln High

Nebraska at Lincoln High

1 2 Total • Nebraska 6 Lincoln High 0 Date: 1899-09-30 Location: Lincoln, Nebraska

The University met the Lincoln High School football team for the second time in this exhibition game, and came away with a 6-0 win although it did not count towards the season record. There does not seem to be a historical record to indicate that the score was the result of a close fought game or the Bugeaters not pushing as hard as they could have, though the way the season went perhaps credit is due to the high schoolers. Nebraska was now 2-0 against Lincoln High School.

Iowa State

Nebraska at Iowa State

1 2 Total Nebraska 0 0 0 • Iowa State 28 5 33 Date: 1899-10-06 Location: State Field • Ames, Iowa

Nebraska suffered its worst ever defeat to open the official slate for 1899, falling behind at Iowa State by 28-0 at halftime. The ineffective Bugeater offense was never able to come up with anything all day, and the preparation of the Cyclones showed the value of the practices they had been getting in since August. Nebraska slipped to 2-2 all time against Iowa State.

KC Medics

KC Medics at Nebraska

1 2 Total KC Medics 0 6 6 Nebraska 0 6 6 Date: 1899-10-14 Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

The first half remained scoreless as both teams fought to gain a foothold. Nebraska's defense had improved over the previous week, but only enough so that the teams were merely evenly matched. Both squads managed a second half touchdown each but could do nothing further to decide the match, fittingly leaving these squads with an evenly divided 1-1-1 all-time record, as well as one recorded cancellation from 1897.

Missouri

Missouri at Nebraska

1 2 Total • Missouri 11 Nebraska 0 Date: 1899-10-21 Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

See also: Missouri–Nebraska rivalry

Nebraska's offensive woes and ineptitude continued as Missouri walked all over the Bugeaters in Lincoln. The Bugeater defense remained stout, however, keeping the scoring from getting out of hand. Without any offense, however, Nebraska suffered their second shutout loss of the season as Missouri drew closer to Nebraska in the series by pulling up to 3-5.

KC Medics

Nebraska at KC Medics

1 2 Total Nebraska 0 0 0 • KC Medics 12 12 24 Date: 1899-10-28 Location: Kansas City, Missouri

The Kansas City Medics brought Nebraska to their home field and proceeded to demolish the Bugeaters, settling the issue of the tied game from two weeks prior. The Medics pulled ahead on the series 2-1-1, and the Nebraska season began to spiral downhill.

Iowa

Iowa vs. Nebraska

1 2 Total • Iowa 30 Nebraska 0 Date: 1899-11-04 Location: Omaha, Nebraska

The struggles of the team under coach Branch continued as Nebraska suffered their third straight shutout defeat and fourth shutout of the season as Iowa romped over the Bugeaters in Omaha.

Drake

Nebraska at Drake

1 2 Total • Nebraska 6 6 12 Drake 0 6 6 Date: 1899-11-11 Location: Des Moines, Iowa

At last, after four losses and a tie to start the season (excluding the exhibition game), Nebraska finally managed to put up a 'W' on the books with a close win at Drake, getting out of Des Moines with a one-score margin of victory and evening the Drake series at 1-1.

Kansas

Kansas at Nebraska

1 2 Total • Kansas 24 12 36 Nebraska 5 15 20 Date: 1899-11-18 Location: Antelope Field • Lincoln, Nebraska

The 1899 Nebraska collapse finally became serious enough to warrant media attention that survives to the present day, as speculation regarding team captain Williams and his leadership swirled amongst rumors that he might quit the team. Nebraska did manage to outscore Kansas by 3 points in the second half, but coming after a 24-5 first half deficit, it was of no value. Kansas increased their series lead to 5-3.

South Dakota

Nebraska at South Dakota

1 2 Total Nebraska 5 0 5 • South Dakota 0 6 6 Date: 1899-11-24 Location: Vermillion, South Dakota

It may have seemed like the light was shining on Nebraska briefly, as they pulled ahead 5-0 in their first ever game against South Dakota. The Bugeaters drew as close as South Dakota's 5-yard line later on, but failed to score before the half and never put any more points up. South Dakota's 6 points in the second half brought defeat upon the Bugeaters yet again. Following this game, Captain Williams did in fact leave the program.

Grinnell

Grinnell vs. Nebraska

1 2 Total • Grinnell 12 Nebraska 0 Date: 1899-11-30 Location: Omaha, Nebraska

The indignity of the 1899 season fittingly ended on a muddy, wet field in Omaha with Grinnell's 12-0 shutout defeat of the Bugeaters to close out what was by far the worst season in program history. Nebraska fell to 1-2 against Grinnell all time.

After the season

The disastrous 1899 season was Nebraska's first losing season. Coach Branch departed after his one and only season. His single-season record of 1-7-1 (.167) was the worst single season record in program history until 1957, and brought Nebraska's overall program record down to 41-25-4 (.614).

1899 was the first year that the nickname "Cornhuskers" was used to identify the team, used by Charles "Cy" Sherman in one of his pieces written for the Nebraska State Journal, and it was adopted as the official team name beginning next season.