Nebraska has made a habit of treating Halloween like its own personal holiday, and Saturday night against Washington gives the Huskers another chance to keep that strange little tradition alive.
The numbers are hard to ignore. This will be Nebraska’s 20th game on Oct. 31, and the Huskers are 17-2 all-time on Halloween. The last time they played on the date was in 1992, when Nebraska rolled Koy Detmer and Colorado 52-7.
There’s a long list behind that record, but a few results stand out. Nebraska knocked off Oklahoma 25-21 at home in 1959 to end the Sooners’ 74-game conference unbeaten streak. The Huskers also went into Halloween without a loss on Oct. 31 until Texas beat them in 1998.
The only other Halloween defeat came in 2015 at Purdue, the last time Oct. 31 landed on a Saturday. That one still stands out because it was a 55-45 loss to a team that had one Big Ten win in nearly three seasons.
For Nebraska, the broader Halloween ledger looks like this:
2015: @ Purdue - L 55-45
2009: @ Baylor - W 20-10
1998: Texas - L 20-16
1992: Colorado - W 52-7
1987: @ Missouri - W 42-7
1981: Kansas - W 31-15
1970: @ Colorado - W 29-13
1964: Missouri - W 9-0
1959: Oklahoma - W 25-21
1953: Kansas - W 9-0
1942: @ Kansas - W 14-7
1936: Missouri - W 20-0
1931: @ Missouri - W 10-7
1925: Oklahoma - W 12-0
1914: Iowa State - W 20-7
1908: @ Iowa - W 11-8
1903: @ Iowa - W 17-6
1896: Neb. Wesleyan - W 18-8
1891: Doane - W 28-4
That 1959 win over Oklahoma remains one of the signature Halloween moments in Nebraska history. The Huskers entered that Homecoming game with little expectation of pulling it off, having not beaten the Sooners since 1942. They also hadn’t beaten anyone in the Big Six/Big Seven since 1946.
Now Nebraska gets Washington with the chance to add another Halloween result to a record that has been, for the most part, downright spooky in the best possible way.
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Illinois, meanwhile, comes in with momentum after beating Maryland, and the rest of the Big Ten weekend only added to Nebraskas frustration as Rutgers fell just short against Michigan and Iowa handled Wisconsin. The bigger picture is even harsher for the Cornhuskers, whose College Football Playoff hopes have been pushed into the background, leaving them to fight for something simpler but no less urgent: stopping the slide before it gets any worse. [Read more 🡒]