1944 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team The 1944 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 6 Conference in the 1944 college football season . The team was coached by Adolph J . Lewandowski and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln , Nebraska . Before the season . World War II was dragging on , with the United States now in its third year since being drawn into the conflict . College sports programs across the nation were shorthanded with so many young men enlisting into the armed forces , while all of the " service teams " that had entered the college football landscape , fielded by the branches of the armed forces , had the advantage of adding former players to their rosters . This gave the service teams the ability to concentrate the best former players into their programs , and at the end of 1944 , service teams made up half of all of the ranked teams . It was in this environment of upheaval and disparity that a struggling Nebraska football team that had never previously suffered consecutive losing seasons was now returning from three losing campaigns in a row . Head coach Lewandowski was back for his second year , while also serving as Nebraska ' s athletic director , to see if he could reverse the fortunes of the Cornhusker football squad . Game notes . Minnesota . The new season did not start off on a good note , as Nebraska was completely unable to stop the Golden Gophers , who rolled over the Cornhuskers to post 33 unanswered points in the first half . It may have been that Nebraska ' s halftime adjustments slowed down Minnesota ' s assault , or perhaps the Gophers simply backed off , but even though Minnesota ' s scoring slowed in the second half , the Cornhuskers never were able to put up points . For the second year in a row , Minnesota handed Nebraska an opening shutout loss , the 20th Golden Gopher victory over the Cornhuskers and improving in the series to 20 – 4 – 2 , setting the tone for what looked like might be another year of heartbreak . Indiana . Nebraska ' s only bright spot in this game was a single 55 yard running play in a contest that was otherwise all Indiana . The Hoosiers kept the Cornhuskers off the scoreboard even as they repeated their record - setting 54 points scored on Nebraska , which was the fourth time in two years that the 54 mark was hung on the Cornhuskers and was a repeat of Nebraska ' s worst - ever defeat , matching the 54 – 0 shutout handed down by Minnesota last year . With four wins in a row against Nebraska so far , Indiana finally took the series lead between the teams at 4 – 3 – 2 . Kansas . The 1944 loss to the Kansas Jayhawks was a particularly painful and heartbreaking loss . As the Cornhuskers were held scoreless for the third game in a row to open the season , a dubious mark that had never before fallen upon Nebraska , worse still was the end of Nebraska ' s 27 - game undefeated streak against the Jayhawks that began with a 13 – 3 Nebraska victory in 1917 . It was also the first time that Kansas had defeated the Cornhuskers in Lincoln since an 18 – 4 victory dating all the way back to 1896 , making this one of the darkest days in the history of the program . This was the 10th win for the Jayhawks over Nebraska all time , though they still lagged in the series 10 – 38 – 3 . Missouri . The previous loss to Kansas marked one of the lowest points in program history , but Nebraska overcame any discouragement remaining and unexpectedly sprung to life against a heavily - favored Missouri team in front of a small homecoming crowd in Lincoln . Playing somewhat like the Nebraska of old , several big plays went in favor of the Cornhuskers and allowed them to take their first victory of 1944 , in what would be the brightest spot of the season . As Nebraska improved in the series to 24 – 11 – 3 , the Missouri - Nebraska Bell should have been returned to Lincoln after its three - year stint in Columbia . However , amidst the weariness of the war overhanging the nation , the trading of the bell to the winner of this series was overlooked , and the bell passed for a short time into forgotten history . Iowa . Nebraska was unable to score in this contest until within the final five minutes , as another loss was added to the 1944 record . Adding insult to injury was that one of the scores tallied against the Cornhuskers was put over by a former Nebraska player now on the Iowa roster . Though they avoided the shutout , the Cornhuskers gave up what would be Iowa ' s 10th win in the series , allowing them to chip away at Nebraska ' s 20 – 10 – 3 series lead . Iowa State . The Cornhuskers were having enough trouble trying to remain competitive , but entered this game with three starters out with injuries , and then lost another in the first quarter of this game . Unsurprisingly , with the odds stacked against them , the day ended with another Nebraska loss as the Cyclones added another win to their 7 – 31 – 1 series record . Kansas State . If fortunes for Nebraska were down , then certainly it was telling about the Kansas State program that the Wildcats could allow the Cornhuskers to hang a 35 – 0 shutout defeat on them . It was the most points scored by Nebraska since a 53 – 2 defeat of Kansas in 1940 , and the win helped the struggling Cornhuskers improve to 23 – 4 – 2 , to stay well ahead of Kansas State in the series . Oklahoma . Oklahoma launched into a strong 25 – 0 lead by the half to put the game essentially out of reach , but Nebraska made a respectable effort in the final quarter by outscoring the Sooners 12 – 6 . Oklahoma ' s victory was their second in a row over Nebraska , which moved them forward slightly in the series to 5 – 16 – 3 . After the season . Nebraska continued to fall into a tailspin , with each year seeming no better , and sometimes worse , than the last . The Cornhuskers had now strung together four straight losing seasons , a bleak picture for a program not used to having even one occasional isolated losing campaign . Coach Lewandowski repeated his 1943 overall and league records in 1944 , bringing his overall Nebraska career total to just 4 – 12 – 0 ( . 250 ) , with a slightly better Big 6 total of 4 – 6 – 0 ( . 400 ) . Nebraska ' s overall program now stood at 305 – 122 – 31 ( . 700 ) with a conference record of 111 – 25 – 11 ( . 793 ) . Coach Lewandowski , in his role as athletic director , decided that change was needed in the program , and swept the entire coaching staff out of the program , including himself . Brought aboard following 1944 was storied football coach George Clark , a player for two colleges and then two military teams prior to starting his coaching career in 1916 . Clark had also served in both world wars , and his appointment at Nebraska followed his return home to the United States . To his credit , Coach Lewandowski ' s leadership allowed Nebraska football to continue uninterrupted through World War II even as numerous other schools suspended their programs for a time . With limited resources , sparse rosters , through rationing and travel restrictions , his guidance kept the program ' s continuous history intact .