Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 24

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number. For more information about the series, click here. To see more entries, click here.

Greatest Husker to wear 24: Lloyd Cardwell, Halfback, 1934-1936

Honorable Mention: Edward Dodd, Bill Kosch, John Sedlacek

Also worn by: Ritch Bahe, Jason Benes, Grant Campbell, Dan Casterline, Thomas Fidone II, Brian Knuckles, Tim McCrady, Brandon Moore, Jack O'Holleran, Niles Paul, Brandon Rigoni, Todd Uhlir, Aaron Williams, Austin Williams

Dave's Fave: Brandon Rigoni, Safety, 2003-2006

In the early 1930s, radio usage was exploding nationwide. However, radio coverage of college football did not. Many schools - including Nebraska - allowed only one radio broadcast per season.

Why? Money, of course.

Schools feared that if the meteorological forecast was bad, potential ticket buyers would choose to stay home and listen on the radio. These folks became known as "fair-weather fans." Since many schools were trying to pay off their newly constructed stadiums, they wanted fans in the stadium, not gathered around the family radio. The lone game broadcast on the radio was usually one likely to be sold out.

Without radio broadcasts, fans had two options for keeping up with a Nebraska game:

Wait for tomorrow's newspaper.
Find a Grid-Graph near you.

What the heck is a Grid -Graph, you ask? It was an early way to allow fans to follow along with a game, on a lit-up scoreboard.

The Grid-Graph, circa 1924. | University of Missouri Archives

Picture a 15'x12' scoreboard, shaped like a football. In the middle of the ovular board is a glass football field with yard lines, five feet high and ten feet long. Above the field is basic scoreboard information - score, quarter, time and down. On the left and right sides are the names of the 11 players for each team (remember - this was an era where players played both ways). Below the field was a bunch of words corresponding to common football plays (forward pass, end run, punt, touchdown, penalty, etc.) Everything surrounding the field has its own light bulb next to it.

Here's how a Grid-Graph worked:

Somebody at the game would send a telegram - usually in Morse code - with the details of what happened in the previous play.
A telegraph operator would receive and decipher the telegram. Depending on how far he or she was from the Grid-Graph, a courier might be used to relay the messages.*
The Grid-Graph operator would read the telegram containing details of the last play and light the corresponding bulbs on the Grid-Graph board to match.
A second Grid-Graph operator, standing behind the glass field would represent the movement of the ball. He typically knew what yard line to end up at, but often used artistic license (and some flourish) to show the path taken. A 10-yard run up the middle might be shown as a double reverse.

*Prior to the invention of Grid-Graphs, some outlets would "megaphone" games. They'd follow steps 1 and 2 above. Step 3 was "shout the play into a megaphone." The Lincoln Star did this for games in the 1920s at Notre Dame and Pittsburgh.

Many colleges purchased Grid-Graphs in the 1920s to allow fans to stay informed on road games. Some schools placed their Grid-Graphs indoors and charged fans an admission of 50 cents. An Omaha business had one on the side of it building near 15th and Farnam Streets that had fans flooding the streets. I have read two accounts that make reference to Lincoln having a Grid -Graph as well, but the locations are conflicting.

Grid-Graphs were not always accurate. Due to the timing and logistics involved, it was easy for operators to fall behind. There is one account of a Nebraska-Illinois game where the Grid-Graph operators were so off that they had to improvise a 70-yard Red Grange touchdown run (that never happened) in order to get the score to be accurate.

Maybe in those days it was better to stick with the newspaper - even if the scribes of the day enjoyed using their own artistic flourish.

Lloyd Cardwell's free-wheeling running style inspired the nickname "Wild Hoss of the Plains." | Nebraska Athletics

In October of 1934, sophomore halfback Lloyd Cardwell - already a rising star - got a carry against Iowa State.

According to reports, he "stormed around end, knocked several of Iowa State's would-be tacklers off their feet and ran 45 yards for a touchdown."

After the game, Frederick Ware of the Omaha World-Herald wrote: "It's his roaring, tearing, gay, freebooting way that reminds me of the defiant, joyous, speeding wild horse that loves to run with the wind on the plains."

This beautiful piece of prose begat one of the great nicknames in school history: Lloyd Cardwell, the Wild Hoss of the Plains.*

*Ware's original nickname was "Wild Hoss," although several publications referred to Cardwell as "Wild Horse." The newspapers also liked to call him "Cardie."

Like a galloping horse, Cardwell took powerful strides, seeming to glide on top of the field. Where some players would run around would-be tacklers, the Wild Hoss of the Plains knew the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. He was going through, thank you, not around.

In the 1935 season opener, Nebraska hosted the University of Chicago and its star back Jay Berwanger. Berwanger scored on an 18-yard run. The Wild Hoss of the Plains had a 7-yard touchdown run, a 9-yard touchdown reception and a 86-yard kickoff return touchdown. The Lincoln Star wrote, "With Jay Berwanger galloping hither and yon no margin was considered safe. He did all that was expected of him. The difference between he and Cardwell was that Cardie did more than any human could or should expect."

Berwanger would win the first Heisman Trophy later that year.

After his senior season in 1936, Lloyd Cardwell was a first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions. | Nebraska Athletics

A Seward, Neb., native, Cardwell scored 20 touchdowns in his 24-game career. He helped lead the Cornhuskers to back-to-back Big Six titles and the program's first-ever ranking in the AP poll (ninth in 1936, the first year of the poll). Cardie's final carry as a Cornhusker? A 58-yard touchdown run against Oregon State in 1936.

The Wild Hoss of the Plains could not be stopped.

As for radio, schools eventually eased up on the one-broadcast-per-season rule. Radio stations realized businesses would pay to advertise during games and universities and/or conferences found a way to get a cut of that money by signing contracts with broadcasters.

***

Brandon Rigoni is easily one of my five favorite Huskers of all time.

He possessed so many of the attributes that endear me to a player. He's an in-state kid (Lincoln Southeast), who walked on and earned a scholarship. He primarily made his mark on special teams where he was an all-time great at wedge buster. His small but mighty frame (listed at 5'6" and 180 pounds) made people underestimate him* and likely put a chip on his shoulder… which he drove through the chests of opposing players.

Brandon Rigoni was voted a team captain in 2006. | Nebraska Athletics

*I'd wager there was at least one unsuspecting opponent who saw the diminutive Rigoni and assumed he was some "12th Man" type player plucked from the student body to be a token player on kickoffs. And then that poor soul got de-cleated.

Yes, all of the worn-out sports tropes and cliches applied (accurately, I might add) to Rigoni:

"Gym rat." Rigoni was the Nebraska lifter of the year in 2006. After graduation, he worked on Nebraska's strength & conditioning staff.
"High motor." If you ever saw the man on a kickoff, you'll know this is absolutely accurate. For those three seasons, nothing made me happier than watching Rigoni morph into a human bowling ball on kickoffs, looking to knock down all the pins.
"Sneaky athletic." Rigoni was all-state in high school and lettered in basketball and track.
"High IQ guy." Academic All-Big 12 in 2004 and 2005.
A "just wants it more" leader. He was voted a team captain in 2006.

But I don't really want these worn-out euphemisms for "short white guy" to distract from the key point: Rigoni could play.

Period.

Sure, he may have had some more opportunities at 6'2," or even 5'11," but Brandon Rigoni was no token case. Bill Callahan - who earned a reputation as someone who valued recruiting hype over walk-on heart - put Rigoni on the field for three straight seasons, singing his praises whenever he got the chance.

Brandon Rigoni earned everything he got at Nebraska through his athletic ability, hard work and hustle. He will long be one of my all-time favorite Huskers.

***

Even though it happened after his playing career, there's no way that I'm going to miss an opportunity to talk about one of my all-time favorite Nebraska videos: "Tussle on the Turf"

The scene: After a football practice in 2008. Rigoni - in full pads - is lined up 10 yards away from Nebraska wrestling head coach Mark "The Mangler" Manning - also in full pads. The football and wrestling teams surround the field.

The objective: Rigoni has five attempts to score a touchdown on Manning. If Manning stops him once, he wins the challenge.

Nebraska wrestling coach Mark Manning, circa 2006. | Nebraska Athletics

The backstory: During Rigoni's playing days, he and Manning engaged in some good old-fashioned trash talk about Manning's ability to take down Rigoni. Manning has the credentials - he won two NCAA championships in the 150-pound weight class at the University of Nebraska-Omaha - but he was 20 years older than Rigoni. Unable to settle it at the time without risking injury (and likely violating some obscure NCAA bylaw banning American Gladiators-style competitions), they waited until Rigoni graduated and joined the NU strength and conditioning staff.

The cinematography: Today - where everything is potential content - a fun, in-house event like this would be captured on a dozen different cameras by Husker Vision and/or members of Nebraska's impressive social media team. In 2008, it was captured by two different people in the crowd, likely on their cellphone cameras. The very first iPhone was released a year earlier, so your viewing options are either low definition or desperately in need of a tripod.

But that doesn't matter.

The video is awesome for so many reasons. It's a fun, behind-the-scenes look at a Nebraska practice. There is a veritable "who's who" of Nebraska athletics in 2008: Tom Osborne, Bo and Carl Pelini, and Doc Sadler, with "voice of the Huskers" Greg Sharpe doing the play by play. After every attempt, the players go nuts like they just won a championship. On the low-def version, you can hear Pelini's giddy "heh heh heh" chuckles as he walks by the camera. It is a cinematic masterpiece.

The main event: Let's review each of the attempts.

Attempt 1: Manning attacks and tries to go low, but "Rigs" bounces off contact and trots in for a score.

Attempt 2: The two collide head on at the five, causing both combatants to pause for a split second. Rigoni recovers first and continues on into the end zone, giving a look back at the wrestling coach.

Attempt 3: This one is my favorite. Manning comes out aggressive to blast Rigoni… but he's broken the cardinal rule of tackling: never drop your head.

Remember, kids: yYou can't tackle want you can't see. If Manning had been looking up, he would have seen Rigoni soaring majestically over his head. That's right - Rigoni does a flying leaping over the top, a la Walter Payton. Manning never had a chance.

But wait… there's controversy from the wrestler side. Did the ball cross the goal line? Bo Pelini - noted fan of officiating - comes in and says, "The video evidence will be there tomorrow." The contest continues.

Attempt 4: Manning goes low and takes out Rigoni's legs at the three. Initially, Rigoni is not down and tries to lunge forward. But now the football player is in the wrestler's world. Manning grabs his legs, pulls him away from the goal line and drops him to the turf. The wrestlers swarm their coach in jubilation. Pelini waves his arms and says, "It's over." Osborne hands Manning an old, beat-up trophy that probably came from the 1976 Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. "This is very valuable," Osborne quips.

Absolute cinema.

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