Minnesota–Nebraska football rivalry

The Minnesota–Nebraska football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Nebraska Cornhuskers. The teams met regularly in the sport's early years and began an annual series when Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011.

Minnesota–Nebraska football rivalry

Minnesota Golden Gophers Nebraska Cornhuskers
Sport	Football
First meeting	November 29, 1900 Minnesota, 20–12
Latest meeting	August 31, 2023 Minnesota, 13–10
Next meeting	October 18, 2025
Trophy	$5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy
Statistics
Meetings total	64
All-time series	Minnesota leads, 37–25–2 (.594)[1]
Trophy series	Minnesota leads, 7–3–0 (.700)
Largest victory	Nebraska, 84–13 (1983)
Longest win streak	Nebraska, 16 (1963–2012)
Current win streak	Minnesota, 5 (2019–present)

210km
130miles

Nebraska

Minnesota

   

Locations of Minnesota and Nebraska

History

Non-conference series

The early years of the rivalry can be separated into two distinct eras, Minnesota's dominance in the formative years of the sport and Nebraska's dominance under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Minnesota and Nebraska first met in 1900, a 20–12 Gophers victory in Lincoln in the first year of Henry L. Williams's tenure as head coach. The teams began an annual series; aside from a 6–0 Nebraska victory as part of an undefeated 1902 season, the series was controlled by Minnesota.^[2]

In 1911 and 1912, Minnesota gave Nebraska head coach Ewald O. Stiehm his only two losses across five years in Lincoln. Stiehm became enamored with the Minnesota shift, a precursor to modern pre-snap motion, and had an assistant document the technique during the teams' 1912 meeting.^[3] Stiehm implemented the shift and used it during a 7–0 victory over Minnesota in 1913, prompting Williams to discontinue the series, which was not regularly renewed until the year after his death in 1931.^[3]

Minnesota continued its success in the series through the 1950s, claiming national championships under Bernie Bierman and Murray Warmath and losing just four times to Nebraska.

The teams stopped playing annually in 1952, but still met regularly until 1990. Nebraska took control of the series in the early 1960s as Bob Devaney established the Cornhuskers as a national power. Devaney and his successor Tom Osborne faced the Gophers fourteen times, winning each game with an average margin of victory of over thirty points. This included an 84–13 victory in Minneapolis during a record-setting 1983 season, the most lopsided loss in Minnesota history.^[4]

Conference series

Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011 and began an annual series with Minnesota as members of the Legends Division, and later the West Division.^[5] NU won the first two meetings as conference opponents, stretching its win streak over Minnesota to sixteen.

In November 2014, a Twitter exchange between Minnesota mascot Goldy Gopher and a parody account of Nebraska head Bo Pelini ("Faux Pelini") led to the creation of the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy.^[6] After a friendly wager involving a smashed chair, a crowdsourcing campaign began to design a rivalry trophy.^[7] The final design depicted a broken chair with images of Goldy Gopher and Pelini, and was presented to Minnesota at Memorial Stadium after their first victory in Lincoln since 1960.^[8]

The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy changed hands in 2015, making subsequent appearances with Nebraska players and coaches on social media.^[8] However, the university later distanced itself from the trophy, which disappeared after NU's victory over the Gophers in 2016; fan-led inquiries into its whereabouts were unsuccessful.^[9] The trophy was revived by fans in 2017 as a fundraiser for the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital and the Team Jack Foundation.^[10]

Minnesota won the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy in the first year after it was reestablished and has retained it for five consecutive meetings.

Game results

Minnesota victories

Nebraska victories

Tie games

No. Date Location Winner Score 1 November 29, 1900 Lincoln Minnesota 20–12 2 October 12, 1901 Minneapolis Minnesota 19–0 3 October 18, 1902 Minneapolis Nebraska 6–0 4 October 29, 1904 Minneapolis Minnesota 16–12 5 November 18, 1905 Minneapolis Minnesota 35–0 6 November 3, 1906 Minneapolis Minnesota 13–0 7 October 19, 1907 Minneapolis Minnesota 8–5 8 October 17, 1908 Minneapolis Tie 0–0 9 October 16, 1909 Omaha Minnesota 14–0 10 October 16, 1910 Minneapolis Minnesota 27–0 11 October 21, 1911 Minneapolis Minnesota 21–3 12 October 19, 1912 Minneapolis Minnesota 13–0 13 October 18, 1913 Lincoln Nebraska 7–0 14 October 11, 1919 Minneapolis Tie 6–6 15 October 15, 1932 Minneapolis Minnesota 7–6 16 October 3, 1934 Minneapolis Minnesota 20–0 17 October 12, 1935 Lincoln Minnesota 12–7 18 October 10, 1936 Minneapolis Minnesota 14–9 19 October 2, 1937 Lincoln Nebraska 14–9 20 October 1, 1938 Minneapolis Minnesota 16–7 21 October 7, 1939 Lincoln Nebraska 6–0 22 October 5, 1940 Minneapolis Minnesota 13–7 23 November 8, 1941 Minneapolis Minnesota 9–0 24 October 17, 1942 Lincoln Minnesota 15–2 25 October 2, 1943 Minneapolis No. 9 Minnesota 54–0 26 September 30, 1944 Minneapolis Minnesota 39–0 27 October 6, 1945 Lincoln Minnesota 61–7 28 September 28, 1946 Minneapolis Minnesota 33–6 29 October 4, 1947 Lincoln Minnesota 28–13 30 October 2, 1948 Minneapolis Minnesota 39–13 31 October 1, 1949 Lincoln Minnesota 28–6 32 October 7, 1950 Minneapolis Nebraska 32–26 33 October 20, 1951 Minneapolis Minnesota 39–20 No. Date Location Winner Score 34 November 15, 1952 Lincoln Minnesota 13–7 35 September 25, 1954 Minneapolis Minnesota 19–7 36 September 26, 1959 Minneapolis Nebraska 32–12 37 September 24, 1960 Lincoln Minnesota 26–14 38 September 28, 1963 Minneapolis Nebraska 14–7 39 September 26, 1964 Minneapolis Nebraska 26–21 40 September 30, 1967 Lincoln No. 7 Nebraska 7–0 41 September 28, 1968 Minneapolis No. 9 Nebraska 17–14 42 October 4, 1969 Minneapolis Nebraska 42–14 43 October 3, 1970 Minneapolis No. 6 Nebraska 35–10 44 September 18, 1971 Lincoln No. 1 Nebraska 35–7 45 September 30, 1972 Lincoln No. 7 Nebraska 49–0 46 October 6, 1973 Minneapolis No. 2 Nebraska 48–7 47 October 5, 1974 Lincoln No. 6 Nebraska 54–0 48 September 17, 1983 Minneapolis No. 1 Nebraska 84–13 49 September 15, 1984 Lincoln No. 1 Nebraska 38–7 50 September 23, 1989 Minneapolis No. 3 Nebraska 48–0 51 September 22, 1990 Lincoln No. 8 Nebraska 56–0 52 October 22, 2011 Minneapolis No. 13 Nebraska 41–14 53 November 17, 2012 Lincoln No. 16 Nebraska 38–14 54 October 26, 2013 Minneapolis Minnesota 34–23 55 November 22, 2014 Lincoln No. 25 Minnesota 28–24 56 October 17, 2015 Minneapolis Nebraska 48–25 57 November 12, 2016 Lincoln No. 21 Nebraska 24–17 58 November 11, 2017 Minneapolis Minnesota 54–21 59 October 20, 2018 Lincoln Nebraska 53–28 60 October 12, 2019 Minneapolis Minnesota 34–7 61 December 12, 2020 Lincoln Minnesota 24–17 62 October 16, 2021 Minneapolis Minnesota 30–23 63 November 5, 2022 Lincoln Minnesota 20–13 64 August 31, 2023 Minneapolis Minnesota 13–10 Series: Minnesota leads 37–25–2[1]

See also

• List of NCAA college football rivalry games