Porkers, Longhorns Bowling Champs

Hogs Overtake Nebraska, 10-7

1/2/1965

By WALTER ROBERTSON / The Dallas Morning News

Unmistakably, Cinderella is fraud.

Arkansas' Razorbacks proved it with an incredible flare on an unsettled and unsettling New Year's Day Friday to claim a stirring 10-7 Cotton Bowl victory over Nebraska.

For Nebraska had already turned the storybook 1964 Razorbacks into pumpkins when quarterback Freddy Marshall, shorn of his magical slippers for more than three quarters by a clearly dominant Nebraska team, suddenly updated the old fairy tale to drive the Razorbacks on an 80-yard touchdown drive that spelled victory less than five minutes before midnight.

It was a fitting finish to a blissful, unbeaten season for coach Frank Broyles' Razorbacks – a team that gathered momentum each week like perhaps no other team in Southwest Conference history.

It was the more blissful because it gave Arkansas its first Cotton Bowl victory ever as a Southwest Conference host team, and because it gave Broyles a bowl victory after three sraight defeats in 1961, '62 and '63.

Before Marshall – a study in confidence when all about him seems chaotic – set the Razorback sights on the Cornhusker goal line 80 yards away with just nine minutes to play, few among the usual packed Cotton Bowl audience would have predicted it would come to pass.

After Arkansas had grabbed a 3-0 on Tom McKnelly's seventh field goal of the season, from the 21-yard line, Nebraska had controlled the game. The Huskers took the lead with 7:45 to play in the second quarter on a 69-yard drive spurred by a 36-yard pass from quarterback Non Churchich to sophomore speedster Harry Wilson.

They had maintained it rather easily through the next 30 minutes of play as a defense headed by end Langston Coleman, nose-guard Walter Barnes and tackles John Strohmeyer and Dick Czap seemed to shatter the usual Arkansas confidence, especially in its running game.

Marshall, whose uncanny ability on the sprint out options and slashing cutbacks at the tackles had geared the Razorback offense all season, couldn't get the team moving as it appeared the tongue-in-cheek warning they might throw 25-30 passes might be carried out.

Only once after the Arkansas field goal had the Razorbacks managed to put as many as two first downs together. And the only time they crossed midfield after the field goal, a clipping penalty shoved them back for the Nebraska 44 to their own 37 to scuttle that bit of cheer for Porker fans.

The Arkansas defensive unit – which later yielded its first points in six games – had been called upon to repel a Husker thrust that owned a first down on the Arkansas 15-yard line late in the first quarter. And a Nebraska field goal attempt from the 37 late in the third quarter was short. Otherwise the task Marshall faced as he broke the huddle for that last desperate effort would surely have been impossible.

But on first down from the 20, following a Nebraska punt into the end zone, Marshall passed finally with the authority he has known all season. He hit end Jerry Lamb for 12 yards. Then a swing pass to the left flat to reserve tailback Bobby Burnett, the late-season sensation for the Razorbacks, moved for 11 yards and a first at the 43. Two plays later Marshall connected with wingback Jim Lindsey for 10 and a first at the Nebraska 43.

Then Marshall displayed the running ability which had been such a factor in the Razorbacks' great season but such an insignificant one previously in this game. He ducked up the middle as the Huskers rushed with fury, somehow disentangled himself from a mass of humanity near the line of scrimmage and exploded into secondary with his short legs clawing and churning frantically.

He netted 10 yards for a first ay the Nebraska 33, although he picked up a badly cut mouth as he battered his way through the wall of defenders.

But he nevertheless swung back toward a fierce conflict between two superb and determined lines on the next play. As he stepped into turmoil, surely no more than a yard behind the line of scrimmage at left tackle, he shot a right arm above the fury and rifled the ball in the direction of Lindsey who had maneuvered to the left side line and suddenly cut straight down at full speed.

Lindsey took the ball with a lunge at the 20-yard line, played a momentary game of zig and zag with a couple of Huskers trying desperately to get a shot at this streaking missile. They didn't befire Lindsey had stabbed to the 4-yard line.

From there Marshall turned things over to Burnett, the junior from Smackover, Ark., who had played such a big role in the Porkers' last two regular-season victories.

Burnett got only one yard on his first try. But he took a wobbly pitchout from Marshall on second down as he thundered toward the right flank, left his feet with a great burst of determination as he was challenged at the line of scrimmage and exploded through two defenders for what had to be one of the most satisfying touchdowns in Arkansas history.

There was just four minutes, 41 seconds to play when the Razorbacks finally scored. And it was only left for Jim Williams, one of the Razorbacks' pair of magnificent defensive tackles, to storm through to blast Churchich for a 15-yard loss as he tried to pass on fourth down and seal an incredible win for Arkansas and a sickening loss for the underdog Huskers.

There was still a minute and 20 seconds to play when Williams picked himself up off Churchich's flattened frame, but Loyd Phillips, the great sophomore running mate of Williams, picked up his fellow tackle and whirled him about in an uncontrolled if premature celebration.

Williams, Phillips, All-America linebacker Ronnie Caveness, who was voted the game's outstanding lineman, and their fellow stalwarts of the touted Arkansas defense, generally had another fine afternoon, despite allowing the touchdown which was the first scored against the Porkers in more than 325 minutes of playing time, or since Texas' final touchdown in Arkansas' 14-13 victory which lit the fuse of a glorious season.

But for much of the afternoon it appeared a couple of big plays by Wilson, the splendid Husker soph fans have dubbed “Lighthorse Harry,” would obliterate all the Porker defensive heroics.

It was Wilson's grab of the 36-yard pass from Churchich early in the second period which led to the Husker touchdown. He raced away from Porker end Jim Finch down the right side lines after the Nebraska ends had lured away deep Arkansas defenders Billy Gray and Harry Jones.

He took the ball inches away from the right boundary line and danced along it before Finch finally Finch finally tripped him up from behind at the Arkansas 19.

Then from the 11, Wilson ripped left guard to the 1 and carried over on the next play with 7:45 left in the second period.

And as Nebraska fought to cling to that 7-3 lead against a stout south wind in the final period, it was Wilson who appeared to have put the Huskers out of danger. He flashed into the clear past Jones on a left end sweep and cruised 45 yards before Gray finally outmaneuvered an official to get him to the Arkansas 35.

The inflamed Razorback defense stalled the threat at the 31 but there had been little to make one suspect the Parkers ever would be able to fight back from so deep in their own end of the field.

But Marshall, voted the game's outstanding back by a substantial margin over Wilson, waved his magic want and the Arkansas offense emerged from its pumpkin shell.