1896 Nebraska Bugeaters football team The 1896 Nebraska Bugeaters football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1896 college football season . The team was coached by Eddie N . Robinson and played their home games in at the " M " Street Park 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 . Yet another new head coach arrived , as future College Football Hall - of - Famer Eddie Robinson arrived to take charge of the Bugeaters in their seventh season . Coach Robinson was the first to require physical evaluations for players , and this may have played a part in the roster dropping from 30 players last season to just 22 for 1896 . Game notes . Doane . Nebraska hosted Doane in Lincoln for the eighth meeting of these squads . It was slow going at the start , but the Bugeaters still managed to put points slowly on the board . After remaining slow to start the second half , Doane began to bend and then break as they gave up a total of 20 points and the shutout . The series record moved further into Nebraska ' s favor , at 8 - 3 . Missouri . Conference play opened early in the season this year , as Nebraska finally traveled to Columbia to play the Tigers on their home turf instead of meeting them in Omaha or Kansas City . Missouri found the scoreboard first for the only points of the first half , but was unable to answer Nebraska ' s 8 - point answer after the break . Missouri fell behind in the series 2 - 3 . Nebraska Wesleyan ( October ) . Nebraska hosted neighboring Nebraska Wesleyan for the first time , but it was essentially a home game for both teams . At the time , NWU was located in the town of University Place , which would eventually be absorbed into the City of Lincoln . NWU ' s first points came as a result of a blocked Bugeater punt , and they came up with another touchdown before the half , but these points were never enough to take the lead at any point in the game . Kansas . An error - prone beginning to the game kept the scoring lower than it might have been to start , but Kansas showed that they still had Nebraska ' s number , shutting out the Bugeaters in the second half on their way to the 18 - 4 win . Nebraska fell farther behind in the series , 1 - 4 . University of Kansas records indicate that this game was played on November 8 . KC Medics . Nebraska traveled to Kansas City for their first meeting with the Kansas City Medics football team . It was agreed before the game start that the halves would be shorter , perhaps resulting in the lower - than - expected score . Any assumptions that Nebraska would roll were put down when the first half ended scoreless . The Bugeaters went ahead 6 - 0 in the second half and then survived a scare when the KC Medics scored their own touchdown with 30 seconds left to play , but missed the field kick after . Butte AC . The Butte Athletic Club made the very long journey to Lincoln to close the long - distance series began with Nebraska the previous year . Once again , the Bugeaters were dominated by the squad from Montana . Nebraska was holding on with a 6 - 6 tie after ten minutes , but was quieted for the rest of the contest as Butte pulled away . This was the last time these teams would meet , with the Butte AC owning the series record at 2 - 0 . Iowa State . This was the first meeting between these teams , destined to one day be in the same conference when the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association formed in 1907 , though Iowa State was at that time only an associate member . Eventually , that conference would evolve into the Big 6 , Big 7 , Big 8 , and then indirectly into today ' s Big 12 , of which Nebraska and Iowa State are active members . Iowa State was riding high on a 7 - 1 record as they came to Lincoln , and were sent home a little lower after suffering a 4 - 12 defeat at the hands of the Bugeaters . Nebraska Wesleyan ( November ) . Hosting Nebraska Wesleyan for the second time of the year , Nebraska quickly jumped out to a 28 - 0 lead by halftime before backing off the pressure . NWU was playing without several key players , which did not help their situation . NWU did manage to get as close as Nebraska ' s 10 - yard line at one point , but the game was never in doubt as Nebraska improved their series record over NWU to 2 - 0 . With the two 1896 wins over Nebraska Wesleyan and the earlier victory over Doane on the books , the Cornhuskers were state champions for the second consecutive year . Iowa ( November 26 ) . Thanksgiving Day arrived with heavy snows that kept some of the crowds away , and the slippery conditions led to a sloppy , unproductive match that ended with no points scored . In order to break the tie , the teams agreed to play for an additional ten minutes , again without producing any points . Both teams were unhappy with the tie result , and agreed to meet again in two days to settle matters . Iowa ( November 28 ) . The rematch was held as scheduled just two days later , and the weather was marginally better . This time , Iowa was able to come up with 6 points in the first half , which would end up as the sole scoring of the game . Although this settled the matter between the squads as to who was the better team that year , it did not take the place of the conference game . As such , this loss to Iowa counted towards both teams ' non - conference records but not towards the conference results . Even with Iowa unable to count the win towards their conference record , they still won the conference title outright , though Nebraska still barely owned the series record between them at 3 - 2 - 2 . After the season . Coach Robinson ' s first season record of 6 - 3 - 1 ( . 650 ) was not the strongest outing Nebraska had put forth so far , but it was enough to ever so slightly improve the program ' s record to 27 - 14 - 3 ( . 648 ) .