Big Ten Countdown 49 -Tom "Train Wreck" Novak: The Toughest Husker Ever And Northwestern's Only Bowl Win

by Jon Johnston on May 13, 2011 8:00 AM CDT in Husker Fans Guide to the Big Ten

Over the past 10 months, Big Ten fans have been treated to numerous Q&A sessions with Nebraska pundits. I'm sure there will be plenty more to come as sites such as CN search for relevant content through the offseason, and as Big Ten media tries to educate their respective fan bases about Nebraska football.

One consistent question will be "Who Were the Greatest Huskers of All Time?".

There probably aren't a lot of variants in the answers. Most will name Ndamukong Suh (for obvious reasons), Tommie Frazier, or Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier and Eric Crouch. Some might include Grant Wistrom, or Dave Rimington (still the best offensive lineman in college football history).

But one name that may be forgotten is Tom Novak.

Novak, whose nickname was "Train Wreck" because of the way he played the game, is widely known as the toughest Husker in school history. Novak's number, #60, is one of only two permanently retired numbers at Nebraska. Novak's number was retired during the 1950 season.

What is more remarkable about Novak's career is that he played during some of the leanest years of Husker football, from 1946-1949. Over that span, Nebraska's record was 3-6, 2-7, 2-8, and 4-5, respectively, going 11-26. Yet Novak made first-team All-Conference every season, and remains as Nebraska's only four time All-Conference selection. In 1949, Novak became an All-American.

Novak passed away November 1st, 1998.

Despite his accomplishments, there isn't a whole lot written about Novak. Huskers.com has a relatively short bio, and he is mentioned in Mark Fricke's book Nebraska Cornhusker Football (still on sale at the University bookstore last I checked). The most complete treatise appears to be in Mike Babcock's excellent book, Stadium Stories, Nebraska Cornhuskers. Babcock also writes about him in the Nebraska Vault book, a must-own by any Husker fan who wants to know more about Nebraska football.

The most famous quote about Novak came from another Husker legend:

"My eyes have never seen Tom Novak's equal at any position. As football players go, the Good Lord made Tom Novak, then threw away the mold." --Lyell Bremser, longtime radio broadcaster.

Every year a current Husker player is given the Tom Novak Award for that which "best exemplifies courage and determination despite all odds in the manner of Nebraska All-America center Tom Novak", or as I like to think of it, goes to the toughest sonofabitch on the team.

That other "49" mentioned in the title?

In 1949 Northwestern (the other NU) pulled off their only bowl win in Wildcat history, defeating California 20-14 in the Rose Bowl. The 1948 team finished the season with a 8-2 record, finishing second in the Big Ten and earning a trip to the Rose Bowl because of the conference's "no repeat rule" which did not allow a team to make back-to-back trips to the Rose Bowl.

Note that Michigan won the national title that season (Their last since 1997, you know, the one they shared with a Nebraska team, the one that was supposedly a gift to Tom Osborne but was just as much a gift to Michigan? Yeah, that one.), going 9-0, and 6-0 in conference.

Northwestern has preserved game footage, some of which is shown in a video that was done during a 60th year reunion. Pretty cool stuff, actually. A game write up is available as well.

March to the '49 Rose Bowl from Northwestern News on Vimeo.

1949 wasn't Northwestern's only shot at a bowl win. They've made nine bowl trips (including the 1949 Rose Bowl), with eight of them coming since 1996. (Husker fans should remember the 2000 Alamo Bowl in which Nebraska won 66-17.)

They just can't get a win. They lost the 2011 Ticket City Bowl to Texas Tech, 45-38. It was their third consecutive bowl trip, having lost the Alamo Bowl in 2008 to Missouri, 30-23, and to Auburn in the 2010 Outback Bowl, 38-35. Both of those bowls were lost in overtime.

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Weeeeeak

Dude, your case for Nebraska deserving ’97 as much as Michigan is you think the AP was “sick of Nebraska?”

The AP vote was 1) because Nebraska played played the Troy Trojans of Troy (We’re From Troy!), a D-IAA team at the time, and lowly Akron, as opposed to Michigan’s two Big XII teams and Notre Dame., which was legit, and 2) because OT games were still new and lots of fuddy duddy writers still thought of them as ties, which wasn’t legit. We know this because most of them wrote articles explaining their votes. I can’t find it right now but somebody collected these articles once and pointed out they all mentioned playing Troy and a lot of them mentioned Missouri. I don’t personally remember any of them mentioning being sick of the Huskers; it would seem more likely to this longtime observer that writers tend to work the opposite way, overhyping the teams du jour. There’s as much evidence for either.

The schedules weren’t close: Michigan had the toughest schedule in the country.

I realize that there’s a level of subjectivity to voting. But the Coaches voting for Osborne (and SEC coaches putting Michigan 4th because they were pissed about Manning not getting the Heisman) is documented.

As for the Greatest Husker Ever: interesting, but I’m still with Suh. That’s my Lions fandom talking, but also because he was hands-down absolutely the most outstanding player in college football in 2009 and since that is exactly what it says on the Heisman Trophy I think Ingram getting that thing was one of the most egregious thefts in the history of a trophy whose history is rife with robbery. Anyway the more I hype up Suh the more I make my case for his Heisman worthiness. Plus he’s the most spectacular college defensive lineman I’ve ever seen, probably the best ever.

www.mgoblog.com

by Misopogon on May 13, 2011 12:58 PM CDT reply actions

97

lets see, michigan played #7washington state led by a guy named ryan leaf lol and almost got beat…nebraska destroyed #3 tennessee led by peyton manning not to name also guys like jamal lewis,shaun ellis,look at the nfl talent that was on the vols that year compare it to wash state talent who many people didnt know who washington state was and then you decide who should have won the title……sharing the title is no problem for me but saying michigan deserved it more ….i’m sorry if nebraska played wash state that year they would have demolished them. it’s kind of like when nebraska and penn state were challenging for the title 1994,lets see psu beat the 12 th ranked oregon ducks lol who nobody at the time knew who they were and nebraska well they beat miami on miami’s home field were they hardly ever lost and were ranked #3 but yet psu fans claimed they should have won the title…i’m from pa and i laugh everytime i hear about that psu getting ripped off c’mon the oregon ducks back in 94.i may be bias but i’ll argue with anyone over these 2 titles.

by BLACKSHIRTS D on May 16, 2011 12:29 AM CDT up reply actions

WSU

There’s a reason Leaf is the name that makes every list of biggest busts of all time: he was a Monster in college. As good as Peyton (statistically better in ’97) Manning. The reason the ’98 draft was all about “Leaf or Manning” is because their respective college performances were so similar.

Michigan beat Ohio State and blew out Penn State, both of which were about equivalent to Tennessee that year.

Head to head man, I dunno — Nebraska in ‘97 was an awesome team. I wish they had played each other: one of the best offenses ever versus one of the best defenses ever. I’d have picked Michigan because teams couldn’t run on them all year, especially the option. But then again who the hell could stop that Husker offense?

The point is the Nat. Championship during the polls era wasn’t determined by who would beat whom head to head but the quality of their respective seasons. A third of Michigan’s schedule cracked the Top 5 at some point that year. Without Fulmer et al. voting Michigan 4th over the Manning Heisman hissy fit — which I think we can agree there’s no way M was 4th that year — that vote swings.

We have two head-to-head comparisons:

Baylor
-Michigan won 38-3
-Nebraska won 49-21

Colorado
-Michigan won 27-3
-Nebraska won 27-24

I don’t see a strong case for Nebraska being No. 1 that year. I do see a strong case for Michigan. I don’t think it’s conclusive. I wished we’d played.

I was 14 in ‘94 and thus didn’t watch enough national football to really make a case either way for ‘94. Most of the time if I’m hearing a Penn State fan complaining it’s over 2 seconds Lloyd got added to the clock in 2005 (nevermind Paterno argued for 4 seconds and got it earlier).

www.mgoblog.com

by Misopogon on May 27, 2011 8:52 AM CDT up reply actions

handball/Novak

I went to UNL in the late 60s. Mr Novak would show up at the handball courts and play whom-ever. I think this was after breaking his neck sometime before . Anyway, for an old man of 40 something, he was intimidating.

by bigsky101 on May 13, 2011 5:30 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Just YouTube it!

All you gotta do is act like a head coach and watch the video! When I watched NU vs Tennessee again after all this time, I still walked away shaking my head. The defense was nasty, and our offense could not be stopped. Payton Manning said it best “We knew exactly what they were going to do every play, but we just couldn’t stop them”, so how’s that for dominance?

Here’s part II of the game and we were cruising through most of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5suq0zOg4OU

by MojoHusker on May 17, 2011 9:58 AM CDT reply actions