36 Nebraskaland • November 2021
100 Years
of Husker
Football on
the Radio
By David L. Bristow, History Nebraska
ong before Lyell Bremser fi rst shouted, "Man, woman,
and child, did that put 'em in the aisles!," Pittsburgh radio
station KDKA made Husker history Nov. 5, 1921, when
it broadcast the Pitt-Nebraska football game. It was the
fi rst live broadcast of an NU football game, and one of the
fi rst football broadcasts ever.
Few Nebraskans had radios in 1921. The state's fi rst
commercial stations did not go on the air until the following
year. And even if you had headphones and one of those
newfangled battery-powered crystal sets, Nebraska was too
far away to pick up the signal.
KDKA fi rst went on the air in 1920; it still boasts of being
the "Pioneer Broadcasting Station of the World." KDKA did
the fi rst live football broadcast during the Pitt-West Virginia
game on Oct. 8, 1921, less than a month before the Nebraska
game.
Though Nebraskans could not hear the broadcast, they
were pleased with the outcome. The Cornhuskers defeated
Pop Warner's squad 10-0.
Nebraska began its own radio broadcasts the following
season. The fi rst live broadcast from Nebraska Field
(predecessor of Memorial Stadium) was NU's season
opener, a 66-0 thumping of South Dakota on Oct. 7, 1922.
L
Team captain and future College Football Hall of Fame
inductee Clarence Swanson scored the only touchdown of
the 1921 Nebraska-Pittsburgh game with a 63-yard run.
Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 6, 1921.
