Sixty-two Colorado football fans were ejected from Folsom Field for throwing snowballs during the Nebraska game the day before Halloween in 1993.
Nearly a foot of snow had fallen the previous morning.
When Colorado sports information director Dave Plati announced the ejections in the press box, Denver Post columnist Woody Paige, whose sarcasm was usually directed at Nebraska and its fans, said 61 of the 62 probably had better arms than Buffs quarterback Kordell Stewart, who completed 8-of-28 passes with three interceptions.
The third interception, by cornerback John Reece, came at the Nebraska 30-yard line with 1:21 remaining to seal the Husker victory. The final score was 21-17.
Barron Miles had the first interception early in the third quarter, Ed Stewart the second early in the fourth as the Blackshirts made Nebraska’s 21 first-quarter points hold up.
Kordell Stewart, who had thrown only two interceptions in the previous seven games, was also sacked four times, and hurried 12. Outside linebacker Trev Alberts had two of the sacks and six of the hurries, in addition to 10 tackles. Rover back Toby Wright led the Blackshirts with 13 tackles.
Buffs wide receiver Michael Westbrook didn’t have a reception for the first time in 21 games. Tailback Rashan Salaam accounted for more than half of Colorado’s total offense, carrying 25 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns, the second with 2:54 remaining.
The Buffs drove 80 yards on 15 plays to cut the lead to four. They finished with 304 total yards, while Nebraska gained 357, including 142 in the three-touchdown first quarter.
I-back Calvin Jones scored the first two touchdowns but wasn’t a factor the rest of the game because of flu-like symptoms and leg cramps apparently brought on by his drinking cranberry juice he was given at halftime. He carried eight times in the first quarter, four times the rest of the game.
Quarterback Tommie Frazier was less than healthy after suffering a shoulder injury on the second play of the third quarter. He went to the locker room to be checked, returned, left the game again and went to the locker room, where an x-ray showed no separation, just a sprain.
So he returned to the game late as the Huskers held the lead.
Frazier finished with a team-high 69 yards rushing on 15 carries and 7-of-17 pass completions for 167 yards and one touchdown, with one interception.
The touchdown was to split end Corey Dixon, 60 yards, with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter to give Nebraska a 21-3 lead. Colorado had converted a Jones fumble, following his first touchdown, into a 22-yard, Mitch Berger field goal. The recovery was at the Huskers’ 22-yard line. Colorado got to the 1-yard line, but a penalty and the Blackshirts kept it from the end zone, forcing the field goal.
Frazier finished with more than 200 yards of total offense for a third consecutive game and was named Nebraska’s Player of the Game by ABC. Salaam was the Buffs’ Player of the Game.
Colorado Coach Bill McCartney had designated Nebraska as the Buffs’ rival when he took the job in 1982, of course, and the rivalry designation had taken hold, at least in Colorado. And control of the Big Eight race and a trip to the Orange Bowl was at stake in the game.
Though Colorado was 4-2-1 and ranked No. 20 by the Associated Press, its losses were against non-conference opponents. It had tied Kansas State, which upset Oklahoma that Saturday.
The Buffs also had defeated Oklahoma, two weeks before Nebraska’s visit.
As a result, Orange Bowl officials were on-hand at Folsom Field, perhaps quietly rooting for the undefeated, untied and No. 6-ranked Huskers.
Despite the previous day’s snow, a sellout crowd of 52,277 was on-hand.
Nebraska prohibited telephone interviews with players the week before the game and some in-person interviews in Lincoln included monitoring by the sports information office.
McCartney closed his practices to the media. He also encouraged Buff fans to be courteous. For the most part, they were, at least based on previous games in Boulder—except for the 62.
And after the 21-3 first quarter, not all of the snowballs were necessarily directed at the Huskers.
Mike is in his 40th year covering Husker athletics, after seven years of community-college teaching. He has written and edited a dozen books, all on Nebraska football except one, a brief history of Husker basketball. He previously wrote for the Lincoln Journal and Star and Huskers Illustrated. He enjoys music, from the Grateful Dead and Jack Johnson to Van Morrison, Bob Wills, Glenn Miller and pretty much anyone else.
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