1941 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1941 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 6 Conference in the 1941 college football season . The team was coached by Biff Jones and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . Nebraska was fresh off its first ever bowl appearance , a well - fought 21 - 13 loss to Stanford in the 1941 Rose Bowl , and started the 1941 season , the program ' s 50th year , as defending Big 6 champions , having surpassed 100 conference wins the previous year . The Cornhuskers lost nineteen seniors to graduation , and it was a tall order to hope for a performance to top 1940 . Prompted by the stunning success Stanford found by reviving the T formation offense , that was used to defeat the Cornhuskers in the Rose Bowl , coach Jones installed the same formations into the Nebraska offense schemes for 1941 . Game notes . Iowa State . A steady but light rain kept the Cornhuskers focused on the ground attack , and Nebraska quickly converted an early first quarter blocked punt into a touchdown . The 7 - point lead was doubled in the third quarter to take the game . It was Nebraska ' s third straight win over the Cyclones , and their 30th win over Iowa State overall , as the series moved to 30 - 5 - 1 . Kansas . Kansas was unable to put up much of a fight as the Cornhuskers romped over the Jayhawks in Lincoln . The 20 - 0 lead by halftime reflected the tone of the day as Nebraska sent Kansas home with no points and winless against the Huskers in their last 25 tries . When the AP Poll came out after the game , Nebraska appeared at # 15 . Indiana . The Cornhuskers posted the first points of the day to set up what many expected would be another win against the Hoosiers , but Indiana had other plans . The visiting team subsequently racked up 21 unanswered points on a surprised Nebraska squad . Finally in the fourth quarter the Cornhuskers responded with a touchdown , but it was not enough to keep the Hoosiers from finally putting a win in their series against Nebraska on their sixth attempt . The surprise loss caused Nebraska to fall out of the AP Poll , and they would not be seen ranked again until 1950 . Missouri . In front of a record crowd at Faurot Field , Nebraska advanced to the Missouri 11 yard line in the first quarter before being turned away . Another serious threat to the Tigers was repelled early in the second half , and the Huskers were unable to give much of a real scare afterward . Missouri ' s one touchdown handed them the win , marked the 100th Cornhusker loss in program history , and returned the Missouri - Nebraska Bell to the Tigers . It was the first time Nebraska had been shut out since a 0 - 19 loss to Pittsburgh in 1938 , but the Cornhuskers still held the series at 23 - 9 - 3 . Missouri would go on to finish the season ranked # 7 by the AP Poll , and played Fordham in the 1942 Sugar Bowl . Kansas State . Stunned by the first back - to - back losses since 1938 , the Cornhuskers managed just a single first quarter touchdown against the Wildcats before going flat and allowing two answering scores before the halftime break . Although Nebraska was able to keep Kansas State off the board in the second half , with no points of their own they were unable to prevent the Wildcats from snapping their five - game losing streak against the Cornhuskers . It was just the third win that Kansas State had taken from all 26 tries in the series , and just the 10th loss Nebraska had ever experienced in conference play . Minnesota . The university ' s yearbook praised the Cornhusker squad for inspired play and described the team for reaching " glorious heights " , but the result of their efforts was not enough to prevent the powerhouse Minnesota Golden Gophers from shutting them completely out . This was the fourth loss in a row for Nebraska , a new record for consecutive losses in a season , breaking the three - loss mark set in 1899 . Minnesota improved their commanding series lead to 17 - 4 - 2 , and went on to finish the year ranked # 1 in the AP Poll . Pittsburgh . Reeling from four straight losses , the Cornhuskers summoned their resolve to halt the skid against the ever - powerful Pittsburgh Panthers . Nebraska scored first in their bid , but the Panthers responded soon after . Carrying the tie through much of the rest of the game , Pittsburgh managed to snag an interception in the last minute of play , returning it for the go - ahead touchdown . As Nebraska scrambled to recover with time running out , the Panthers intercepted yet again and returned the ball to Nebraska ' s 3 - yard line before time expired . The brief two - win streak that Nebraska had enjoyed over Pittsburgh was broken as the Panthers took away their tenth win against Nebraska in sixteen tries . More importantly , however , they handed Nebraska the new dubious record of five consecutive losses for the first time in the history of the Cornhusker football program . Iowa . Iowa rolled out to a 13 - 0 lead and it looked like a repeat of the past handful of games where Nebraska was bound to go flat and give up the game , but somehow the Cornhusker squad dug down and found the resolve to fight back . Finally , in the fourth quarter , Nebraska punched in the tying score , and then followed it with a successful place kick to go up by one and snap their losing streak at five . It was Nebraska ' s 8th straight win over Iowa , and 20th win over the Hawkeyes overall , as they improved to 20 - 7 - 3 over Iowa to date . Oklahoma . Encouraged by the win over Iowa the previous week , Nebraska took the home field for the last game of the season hoping to close out 1941 with a win . Oklahoma found the scoreboard very early on , but just before the halftime break the Cornhuskers picked off a Sooner pass and returned it for a score . The kick after was good and put the Huskers up by a point . The teams battled back and forth for the rest of the game , but the one point lead was enough to carry the win . Nebraska marked their third straight defeat of Oklahoma and improved to 15 - 3 - 3 over the Sooners all time . After the season . Although the two wins to close the season provided some relief , it was not enough to overcome the meaning of the program ' s first ever five - game losing streak . The dark mood over the nation brought by the expansion of World War II was soon made manifest when Japan carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor just a week after the end of the season . Shortly afterward , coach Jones was recalled to active military duty and was forced to step down as head coach . In his five years at Nebraska , he compiled a Big 6 record of 17 - 6 - 2 ( . 720 ) and an overall program record of 28 - 14 - 4 , moving Nebraska to 298 - 103 - 31 all - time with an overall conference record of 104 - 17 - 11 . The effects of the war would soon be felt by the football program in other ways , as many thousands of young men immediately started volunteering for duty overseas to help the war effort , many of them from the pool of college football players .