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The way Willie Harper played defense in the 1971 Orange Bowl is one of the biggest reasons Nebraska's 17-12 victory over Louisiana State was such a defensive struggle.
Harper's former teammate Johnny Rodgers remembers how the sophomore defensive end from Toledo, Ohio, never let up on Tigers quarterback Buddy Lee.
"It was Willie's rushes on the quarterback that kept them from completing some of the big passes they needed to keep the ball moving," Rodgers said. "Willie was one of the most tenacious defensive ends we've ever had at Nebraska. He wasn't that big (6-foot-2, 207 pounds), but he was so agile and so strong and so determined."
Harper used that game - which earned Nebraska its first national championship in the Associated Press poll - as a springboard to earn All-America honors in 1971 and 1972. He earned the No. 35 spot in voting by World-Herald readers who selected the 50 greatest Husker players of the 20th century.
Rodgers, NU's 1972 Heisman Trophy winner, equated Harper's performance against LSU to another big game in Husker football lore.
"Willie was as integral a part of that LSU game as Rich Glover was when we beat Oklahoma in 1971," Rodgers said. "He was one of the greatest football players we've ever had."
Glover had 22 tackles in that 35-31 victory over Oklahoma, which helped Nebraska secure its second national title. But Rodgers said that without the play of Harper in the LSU game, the Huskers might still have been searching for their first one.
Harper was one of 10 players from Nebraska's Class of 1972 to be selected in the 1973 National Football League draft. After Rodgers was taken in the first round by the San Diego Chargers, Harper was selected in the second round with the 41st overall pick by the San Francisco 49ers.
That turned out to be a great pick for both Harper and the 49ers. Harper played linebacker for 11 years with San Francisco and one with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL before retiring.
Rodgers said Harper is proud of the Super Bowl ring he earned as a member of San Francisco's 1981 world championship team. He also said Harper is just as proud of the family he and his wife, Roxanne, have raised in the Bay Area.
"He has the same attitude about life now as he had when he was playing football," Rodgers said. "He's a warrior, and he stays with everything to the end."
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