Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 25

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 25: George Sauer, Fullback, 1931-1933

Honorable Mention: Tony Davis, Ronald Douglas, Dave Mason, Herman Rohrig

Also worn by: Greg Bell, Tony Butler, Jeremiah Charles, Josh Davis, Don Erway, Nathan Gerry, Mike Heins, Andre Jones, Kade Pittman, Antonio Reed, Kyler Reed, Randy Reeves, Mark Schellen, Sam Schmidt, Omar Soto, Dennis Thorell, Blake Tiedtke, Jon Vedral, Joe Walker

Dave's Fave: Jon Vedral, Wingback, 1992-1996

In the years before name, image and likeness (NIL) laws, fans could buy replica Husker jerseys in one of the dozens of shops around the state that specialize in Husker merchandise.

Technically, these jerseys were (wink, wink) not intended to represent a specific player. That was possibly for the best, as a player would have been ineligible if he collected a penny of profit from the sales of a jersey with his number on it. But, wouldn't you know it, the number on that year's replica jerseys just happened to be the number of the best player on the team. And this is how Memorial Stadium has been full of jerseys bearing (chronologically) 12, 30, 15, 30, 7, 5, 93, 22, 80 and more over the years.

When George Sauer played for Nebraska, there was no such thing as officially licensed apparel, Husker shops, or replica jerseys. Besides, this was during the Great Depression.

But that didn't stop Sauer's fans and admirers. Sauer was so idolized that kids across the state would ask their mothers to sew a "25" on their sweaters, just like their hero George.

Sauer was born in Stratton, Neb., but attended Lincoln High where he played alongside future Husker teammates Bernie Masterson, Clair Bishop and Bruce Kilbourne. A natural athlete, Sauer lettered in football, baseball, track and wrestling. He would bring that versatility with him on the short trip to Nebraska's campus.

At Nebraska, Sauer was listed as a fullback. He also played linebacker on defense. He threw for 701 career yards and served as NU's punter too.

Sauer was something special from the start. A recap of the 1931 Northwestern game said this about Sauer: "The individual work of George Sauer, Husker sophomore back, was the outstanding feature of the game. Sauer ran, passed and punted in All-American style, and stood out as a bulwark on defense."

That was the second game of his career.

Sauer scored a touchdown in his first game (against South Dakota). By his third career game (against Oklahoma), Sauer had moved into the starting lineup. The game appeared destined for a scoreless tie when Sauer took a direct snap and ran for a 47-yard touchdown.*

*Or, as Frederick Ware of the described it: "(Sauer) pried open the Sooner line at right guard, shook his hula hips at most of the secondary defense and began a prance in double-quick time that ended 47 yards from where he began."

Old-timey sports writing is the best.

Near the end of the game, the Sooners were driving for the tying score. A pass into the flat was intercepted by Sauer and returned 70 yards for a touchdown. He also averaged 53 yards on three punts.

Again, this was just his third career game. No wonder the kids were begging their mothers to sew a "25" on their sweaters. Sauer was All-Big Six in 1931, the first of his three years as an all-conference performer.

1931 George Sauer feature — George Sauer showed promise in his first game with the varsity in 1931. | Lincoln Journal Star via Newspapers.com

As a junior in 1932, Sauer led Nebraska to one of its greatest seasons to date. The Cornhuskers finished 7-1-1, with a one-point loss to Minnesota and a scoreless tie against a Pittsburgh team that played in the Rose Bowl. George Sauer was an honorable mention All-American.

In Sauer's senior season (1933), Nebraska improved on its 1932 success, going 8-1. In the 1933 clash at Pittsburgh, the Panthers frequently drove the ball into NU's red zone. But time and time again, they were turned away without a score. The Cornhusker yearbook claimed that "more than three-fourths of the tackles made inside the 15-yard line" were made by Sauer. The Huskers lost 6-0 as Pittsburgh completed a three-yard pass in the fourth quarter. Sauer's play was widely credited with drawing more national attention to Nebraska.

Sauer ended the season as a first-team All-American. He was the leading vote-getter for the nationwide East-West Shrine Game all-star game on New Year's Day - where Sauer starred. He scored the only touchdowns in the game and intercepted multiple passes.

The first Heisman Trophy would not be awarded for another two years. Had it existed in 1933, Sauer likely would have been a finalist - if not the winner. National writer Lawrence Perry said that Sauer "stands clearly as the premier ball carrier in the nation." Clyde McBride of the Kansas City Star wrote, "In George Henry Sauer, Nebraska has a man who need doff his cap to no football player in the country."

Head coach Dana X. Bible absolutely raved about Sauer.* In the 1934 Cornhusker yearbook, Bible said: "He is one the best all-around players with whom I have ever been associated. He can kick and pass, and he is a very fine ball carrier. He backs up the line on defense and is a player whose spirit is never broken." Bible also said, "(Sauer) was probably my best all-around athlete. He was great at carrying the ball and he was one of the best on defense. He simply rolled up his sleeves and met the ball carrier head on."

*Dana Bible was so impressed by Sauer's ability that that he offered Sauer's son (George Jr.) a scholarship to Texas.

The offer came on the day George Jr. was born in 1943. Bible retired from coaching in 1946, but George Jr. did play for the Longhorns in the 1960s.

George Saur's son George Jr. was a receiver at Texas and later with the New York Jets. | Darryl Norenberg-Imagn Images

After Nebraska, Sauer helped the Green Bay Packers win a championship in 1936. He retired from pro football and started a successful coaching career, with stops at New Hampshire, Kansas, Navy and Baylor.

Sauer served as Baylor's athletic director until 1960, when he became the general manager of the New York Titans (which became the New York Jets) of the AFL. Sauer was instrumental in the team drafting and signing Joe Namath. Sauer also drafted a wide receiver from Texas: his son, George Sauer Jr., who would become a four-time AFL All-Star and Super Bowl champion.

The elder Sauer has been elected to the Nebraska High School, Nebraska Football, and College Football Halls of Fame.

He is one of the true legends of Nebraska football.

***

I hate conference championship games.

Always have. Always will.

I am a child of an era where conferences were appropriately sized: Every team could play everybody else. Determining a season-long champion would be done on the field… even if it sometimes took a couple of tiebreakers.

But the expanded 12-, 14- and 18-team conferences Nebraska has been a part of changed things. Take the Big Eight and Big 12 for example.

In 1995, Nebraska defeated conference foes Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. This earned the Huskers the Big Eight Conference championship and a trip to the national championship game.

In 1996, Nebraska defeated conference foes Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Baylor and Texas Tech. This resulted in the Big 12 North Division title and the opportunity to play the South Division champ (8-4 Texas) for the Big 12 championship.

To use an analogy from corporate America, the Huskers did the exact same job they did a year ago, but now they had to report to a new (and rather annoying) middle manager who stood between them and the promotion they had earned.

Nebraska trailed by three points at halftime but rallied to take a 27-23 lead with 10 minutes to go in the game. That was when Nebraska ran out of gas.* A quick touchdown gave Texas the lead. NU's next drive stalled, but the defense had the Horns in a fourth-and-inches from their own 29. Surely, they would punt, right?

Wrong.

Texas went for it and completed a short pass to their tight end, who rumbled 62 yards to set up another touchdown. It remains one of the most painful moments of my Husker fandom.

*Going into the conference championship game, an estimated 30 Huskers - including several starters - were sick. A flu outbreak swept through the team sapping players of their strength and stamina.

Some players tried to play through it. Assistant coach George Darlington told Paul Koch that a few Huskers "hardly remember playing. They were really gone." Darlington said that if they could do it over again, they would have quarantined the entire team and not practiced until two days before the game.

And, they would have given the team flu shots. "Here you have a wealthy, successful program," Darlington said, "and for want of a flu shot, arguably, you lose the national championship."

Jon Vedral was a senior on the 1996 team. In the Big 12 title game, he was healthy enough to record three catches for 35 yards. A productive wingback on the 1994 and 1995 championship teams, Vedral had 35 catches for 579 yards and six touchdowns in his career. He was also the holder for PATs and field goals.*

*In the 1994 Oklahoma State game, Darin Erstad came into kick a PAT. Vedral bobbled the snap, picked it up and scrambled to his left. As Vedral was being tackled near the 23-yard-line, he lobbed a pass toward the end zone that was caught by Erstad for a two-point conversion.

It is one of my favorite Kent Pavelka radio calls. His excited "Double extra point! Double extra point!" still makes me smile.

I am convinced that without the money grab of a conference championship game - or with flu shots for the team - Nebraska would have won three straight national championships.

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