Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 31 - Joe Orduna

The Godfather of the Omaha Central running back factory, and the career reserve who could have started elsewhere.

Counting down the greatest Nebraska football players by jersey number. | HuskerMax

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 31: Joe Orduna, Halfback, 1967-1970

Honorable Mention: Dan McMullen, Ray Prochaska, Harry Wilson

Also worn by: Steve Carmer, Jase Dean, Ted Harvey, Elmer Holm, Chris Kolarevic, Collin Miller, Jerrell Pippens, James Sims, C.J. Zimmerer

Dave's Fave: James "Jay" Sims, I-back, 1993-1997


There was a stretch in Nebraska football's history when Omaha Central High School was an absolute factory for I-backs. If you were the primary ball carrier at Central, a Nebraska scholarship offer would be waiting inside your letterman's jacket after practice.

Just look at this ridiculous run of talent:

• 1984-1987: Keith "End Zone" Jones. Left as the third-leading rusher in school history, with 2,488 yards and 32 touchdowns.
• 1988-1990: Leodis Flowers. An underappreciated back in Nebraska's history, Flowers had 1,635 yards and 18 TDs.
• 1991-1993: Calvin Jones. Left as the second-leading rusher, with 3,153 yards and 40 TDs. An absolute beast of a back. Speed and power for days.
• 1995-1997: Ahman Green. Bumped Calvin out of the No. 2 slot. 3,880 yard and 42 TDs. Might have been the fastest of anybody on this list. He definitely had the best NFL career.
• 1998-2003: DeAntae Grixby. Endured a laundry list of injuries before moving to fullback. His younger brother Cortney was a quarterback at Central and a cornerback at NU.
• 2002-2004: David Horne. Played behind the worst offensive lines of anybody on this list. Still put up 1,124 career yards, which is 32 yards behind Imani Cross, DeAngelo Evans and Dedrick Mills on the all-time charts.

But the Godfather of the Omaha Central pipeline was Joe Orduna, a standout back on Nebraska's first national championship team.

Joe Orduna carries the ball against Minnesota in 1967. His 25-yard touchdown run in the third quarter gave the Huskers a 7-0 win. | Cornhusker yearbook

That title almost belonged to a different Central alumnus: Gale Sayers. But, as we talked about at #85, Nebraska and (then) head coach Bill Jennings missed out. Bob Devaney saw the depth of talent 60 miles up the road and swore Nebraska would never miss again. Orduna, an all-state back at Central who also starred on the wrestling and track teams, was the kind of player Devaney wanted to keep home.

The problem was, Joe Orduna wasn't completely sold on Nebraska.

That's the polite version. Let's have Joe tell us (via a 1970 article in Sports Illustrated) how he really felt: "I hated Nebraska with a passion. It was that three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust stuff all the time. I wanted to go to Southern Cal, but Nebraska was the only doggoned school that would have me."

Don't sugarcoat it, Joe.

Truth be told, he was right about the "three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust stuff." In 1967, Orduna's sophomore season, Nebraska was still running Devaney's T-formation offense. It was stale, unproductive, and was a big reason why Nebraska went a disappointing 6-4. Orduna ran for 457 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 3.9 yards per carry. The statistics do not show how many clouds of dust he generated.

In 1968, Orduna increased his production to 677 yards and 10 touchdowns. But the team went 6-4 again. Devaney tabbed a young assistant named Osborne to take over the offense.

1969 was supposed to be Joe Orduna's senior season, but injuries to both knees keep him on the bench. As he recovered, Orduna - who also ran track at NU - would hang out with a pole vaulter coming back from an injury of his own. Here's how that pole vaulter - Boyd Epley - described it to Paul Koch in "Anatomy of an Era":

"Joe Orduna was one of the players, and he’d had a knee surgery. And you’ve got to think back at this time, if you had knee surgery your career was over. And I worked with him and I didn’t realize I was doing anything special; I was just in the weightroom, he was in the weightroom. He was just working out with me, and he went back and ended up getting drafted in the second or third round by San Francisco and had a successful career. And that was unheard of for an athlete to come back after a knee surgery."

Joe Orduna was a key part of Nebraska's first national championship team. | Nebraska Athletics

In 1970, Orduna was back on the field. Part of a 1-2 punch with Jeff Kinney, Orduna had a great season. Orduna led the team with 834 yards and led the Big Eight with 14 rushing touchdowns. Four of those touchdowns came in a 51-13 demolition of Kansas State. After the game, Orduna showered and left immediately for Schuyler, Neb., to speak at a church youth group meeting.

Orduna was a first-team All-Big Eight selection. He finished his Cornhusker career with 1,968 yards and 26 touchdowns. He was second-leading rusher in school history, trailing the great Bobby Reynolds by about 200 yards. Orduna did set the school record for rushing touchdowns.

More importantly, Joe Orduna established a pipeline of talented backs from Omaha Central High School who followed his lead of rewriting the record books.

***

I love blowout wins.

I love watching the complete domination of a lesser opponent.* The parade of big plays and exciting moments. The avalanche moment when the other can no longer withstand the constant pressure.

*Obviously, this only applies when Nebraska is on the winning side. Having been on the wrong end of multiple blowouts in the last 20 years, I'm ready to experience the fun again.

One of my favorite moments of a blowout win is when the starters call it a day. I love watching the backups and reserves play.

The fourth quarter of a blowout win has a little bit of a Spring Game feel to it, except that the results - and statistics - matter. The crowd has thinned out, so go ahead and move down 30 rows and grab an abandoned chairback. Sit back and see what we could learn about Nebraska's depth. "So-and-so is a senior this year, how does his backup look?" "Ooh, here's that highly touted freshman. Let's see what he's all about." "I hope the 'yellow shirts' can keep 'em out of the end zone and preserve this shutout."

And my personal favorite: "Even though he doesn't play all that often, everyone says he's a great teammate. I'd love it if he made a big play. He deserves it!"

I'm pretty sure I said those exact words about James Sims during a blowout win in the 1990s.

Jay Sims found himself behind a logjam of talent at I-back during his Nebraska football career. | Nebraska Football Media Guide

Jay Sims spent some time at Omaha Central High School before his family moved to Arkansas. Sims was a bit of an oddity in that he delayed his college enrollment. He graduated from high school in 1989, worked for a few years and enrolled at NU in 1993. This meant his first college carry in 1995 came a few months before his 24th birthday.

Sims was a talented back with excellent speed. He owned the highest score - ever - on Nebraska's performance index, which measured a player's athleticism. Many teammates and reporters who saw him in practice believed Sims could have started for the majority of the schools in the Big Eight.

But at Nebraska, he spent the most of his career no higher than third string. That's a testament to the talent on Nebraska's roster, and not a knock on his abilities. When you play on the same teams as Lawrence Phillips, Ahman Green, Clinton Childs, Damon Benning, Correll Buckhalter, DeAngelo Evans and others, there simply are not enough carries to go around.

That said, how many fifth string I-backs can say they scored an 80-yard touchdown against a Nick Saban defense? In the 1995 Michigan State game, Sims took his first touch 80 yards to the house. It was his fifth career carry.

I'm fascinated by why a guy like Jay Sims never left. Today, a player like that would be out the door before you could read the words "with that being said…" Yes, it was harder to transfer back then - and it would cost a year of eligibility too. But it didn’t stop players from seeking greener pastures.

Jay Sims after the Huskers' win over Tennessee in the 1998 Orange Bowl. | Nebraska Greats Foundation

Sims never wavered.

Before the 1997 season - his senior year - he told the Daily Nebraskan about his mindset while battling injuries and being buried on the depth chart: "It's not a matter of how bad the situation is," Sims said. "It's how you deal with the situation. I could sit around moaning and groaning, or I could make the best of the situation."

At the end of Nebraska's blowout win over Florida in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, Sims was in the backfield (along with quarterback Matt Turman) for the final series. Sims got loose for an impressive 32-yard run. He was tackled at the 2-yard-line. While I wanted Sims to score, the run put Nebraska over 600 yards of total offense for the game.

Turman – another beloved backup - took a knee to end the game.

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