At 31-1, Nevada's 1973 team started it all

It's been 35 years since I first met John Osborne, but the memory is as clear as if it happened yesterday.

I had only recently returned from a trip to Dallas in the summer of 1972 where Jerry Haggard and I were visiting friends before heading back to school. It was a particularly hot late August afternoon when I popped into the front door at home. There, sitting on the davenport, one arm draped over the back was Osborne, talking to my dad after an afternoon practice.

Little did I know that a year later most of my life would be spent near Osborne and in close proximity to either the field, fieldhouse or press box at Logan Field.

Osborne would have it no other way. Osborne's friend, Phil Young of Neosho, said of me, The Nevada Daily Mail's rookie sports writer, "He's Osborne's spy."

I interviewed the nine coaches of teams Nevada would play that fall, and Osborne was vitally interested in what each had to say. Since everybody was working to get a leg up on everybody else, it was naturally assumed that I was in cahoots with Osborne rather than being a neutral sports reporter.

OK. Maybe I wasn't all that neutral.

So what?

Osborne knew exactly what day I would call each coach, and it didn't take him long to get ahold of my copy and read it, hoping to rachet up his advantage in any way possible. Not that the Tigers needed anything they could get from me.

Osborne had on the wall of his office, discs with names written in them he fitted to each position. Osborne was proud the day I walked into the office and proclaimed, "We're going to do it," he said. "We're going to two-platoon." He then showed me how he planned to work it what with all those up-and-coming sophomores who would blend in with the talented, if few, experienced, seniors.

At about the time practice was beginning, I happened into Verco one afternoon to chat with Ray Crawford about the upcoming season. From what we saw, Crawford and I figured 7-3 was about max. Little did we know what kind of a team was in the making.

The Tigers were threatened just once that year, on Oct. 5 when Osborne's close friend, Burl Fowler, brought his Monett Cubs to town. No one could have imagined that a little over a year later, Fowler's death from cancer, would inspire his team to play above its capabilities that one night to defeat Webb City and assure the Tigers of their second consecutive Big 10 championship.

Defensive tackle Carl Steffan batted down a pass on a two-point conversion try in the end zone that resulted in Nevada's 7-6 win.

The Tigers of that year were a relentless defensive machine that yielded only seven touchdowns all season -- three of them in one game. They recorded five shutouts and gave up more than one only once. They outscored the opposition 296-45. This team simply got better each week as the sophomores began to get experience.

After a strong Cassville team was pounded 38-7 in the finale, Coach Ron Cole said the Tigers were the best team he'd ever seen. The Tigers were really just getting started. It was a miscarriage of immense proportions that kept them out of the playoffs with that record. Had Aurora finished at 6-4 instead of 5-4-1, the Tigers would have been in. How's that for justice?

The last time my dad and I went out to eat was in February of 2002. We were talking about the halcyon days of football at NHS and those Osborne years he loved so much.

He got to laughing about Larry Testman as they used to drive to Pittsburg games in my dad's Cadillac, which Osbrone loved to drive. Testman would always plead with my dad not to let Obsorne drive because he liked to turn around and talk to them in the back seat while he drove. But every time, Osborne would drive and Testman would cringe.

When I look back at those days and the Jim Fryrear-led 1973 team, I regret that as much as I appreciated what I saw on the field, that nothing like those Tigers would come this way again. It marked the first of three years of football greatness at Nevada that have never -- and will never -- be equaled.

The record is clear -- 31-1.

Wow!

And the 1973 team started it all.