Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 45

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 45: Fred Shirey, Tackle, 1935-1937

Honorable Mention: Dick Davis, Tom Ruud, Frank Solich, Bob Terrio

Also worn by: Steve Kriewald, Joel Makovicka, Steve McWhirter, Marco Ortiz, Alonzo Whaley

Dave’s Fave: Joel Makovicka, Fullback, 1994-1998

Before we get to today’s honoree, let’s pause to acknowledge Frank Solich.

As I compiled the list of the greatest Huskers to wear each number, I made a conscious effort to not include things that happened after their college playing career ended. Instead of looking at their entire body of work, I intentionally chose to focus solely on what they did for the small handful of years they were student athletes at Nebraska.

I’ll give you two examples to illustrate why I did this. Take a guy like Roger Craig. In my opinion, he had a Hall of Fame-worthy NFL career. But he should be judged for what he did at NU, and not with the San Francisco 49ers (where – and this is notable to our purpose – he wore a different number than he did in Lincoln). I’ve applied the same logic to the numerous Huskers who have gone onto coaching careers – at NU or elsewhere. Tony Samuel coached several players who have appeared in this series, but his playing career was relatively unremarkable.

But Frank Solich feels like an exception to that rule.

In addition to his playing career (more on that in a second), he spent 25 years on the Nebraska coaching staff. He ran the freshman team for four years, was an excellent running backs coach (several of his players will make an appearance in this series), and was Tom Osborne’s top lieutenant during the run of dominance in the 1990s.

When Osborne retired, there was no question who he (and the fans) wanted to take over the program: Solich. In six years as Nebraska’s head coach, Solich had a record of 58-19 and coached the Huskers to their most recent conference championship in 1999. If we waived the “playing career only” rule, Solich would be a no-brainer.

And let’s not discount the playing career of “Fearless Frankie.”

Generously* listed at 5’8″ and 160 pounds, Solich was believed to be the smallest major-college fullback of his era. But he was full of speed, toughness and want-to.

*The classic story goes that Solich – in a desperate attempt to not officially be the smallest guy on the team – wore a baggy sweatshirt on the day the team was weighed in. Why a sweatshirt? Well, it was necessary to conceal the weight(s) Frank had taped inside his shorts. Alas, he was still a pound lighter than teammate Larry Wachholtz.

Originally, I thought this story was a Husker urban legend. The inverse of a Paul Bunyan story, if you will. Maybe it is, but I have seen it documented in a 1964 Sports Illustrated profile, the 1965 Media Guide, another Sports Illustrated article from 1965, and elsewhere.

Like all great stories, the specifics – Was it five or eight pounds? Did Solich act alone, or did he enlist a trainer for help? What did the scale actually read?, etc. – vary based upon who is telling the tale. But let’s not let details get in the way of an amusing anecdote.

Regardless of what the scale showed, Solich was a heavyweight on the field. He was the first Husker to rush for 200 yards in a game. His 204 rushing yards at Air Force in 1965 stood as the most in school history for 11 years. I’d be willing to wager those 204 yards are an unbreakable record for the fullback position.

He returned punts – an 80-yard touchdown return against Auburn in the 1964 Orange Bowl was nullified when he was ruled to have stepped out of bounds. Solich was an all-conference player in 1965.

At the majority of the one hundred numbers in this countdown, his playing career would be more than enough to earn the “greatest” title.

Except, Fred Shirey also wore #45.

With all due respect to Solich’s playing career, it doesn’t hold a candle to what Fred Shirey accomplished.

***

In the entire 135+ year history of Nebraska football, only 20 players have been a first-team all-conference selection in three seasons.

Fred Shirey is one of those 20 players. Arguably, the only reason he was not four-time all-conference player (Tom Novak is still the only Husker to do it) is that Shirey played at Nebraska for only three seasons.

Fred Shirey was a first-team All-American as a senior at Nebraska. | Nebraska Athletics

Shirey was a dominating tackle on the Dana X. Bible and Biff Jones teams of the mid- to late 1930s. As a senior, Shirey was a first-team All-American and was selected to play in the East-West game, a prestigious college all-star game.

I wish I could tell you more about Fred Shirey. But if you think offensive linemen toil in anonymity today, try to imagine what it was like 90 years ago. In my research, I poured through as many different resources as I could find: HuskerMax pages, old yearbooks, countless newspapers from the 1930s, and anything else Google could unearth.

Everything I read agreed that Fred Shirey was an all-time great. But that’s about it.

Nebraska's Fred Shirey pursues a Pittsburgh ball carrier in 1937. — Fred Shirey pursues a Pittsburgh ball carrier in 1937. | Newspapers.com

One of the very few descriptions of Fred Shirey’s athletic exploits was in the 1936 edition of the UNL yearbook, the “Cornhusker.” If you’ve ever read sports writing from before World War II, you’ll know that it is often peppered with vivid, colorful prose. Surely, this would be where I could find out more about Fred Shirey.

The student who wrote the capsule of Nebraska’s 19-0 victory over Oklahoma in 1935 felt it was important for us to know that Shirey’s line play was “alert.”

Thankfully, Fred Shirey’s play spoke for itself. And his three all-conference honors were the exclamation points on an excellent career.

***

I’ll be honest – I really, really wanted to put Joel Makovicka in the “best” spot. Partially it was because of his play – Makovicka was a multi-year starter, an academic standout and the embodiment of everything good about the storied walk-on program. Part of it is his stats (1,477 career rushing yards and position-best 13 touchdowns) warrant his consideration.

But, if we’re being honest with each other, my primary motivation is that I’m a Makovicka fan. He possessed everything that I gravitate towards in my favorite players: native son, fullback, walk-on, tough, loyal, and hard-working with a never-say-die attitude. Add in the fact that he’s the younger brother of Jeff (a story we’ll get to in the 20s) definitely didn’t hurt.

Every position in the backfield has a defining run. For quarterbacks, it is “The Run” – Tommie Frazier’s 75-yard run in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. I-backs have Mike Rozier’s sideline-to-sideline scamper against UCLA. Halfbacks and running backs have Bobby Reynold’s 33-yard run that covered well over 100 yards.

For fullbacks? Show me a more impressive run than Joel Makovicka against Akron in 1997.

Quarterback Scott Frost handed the ball to Makovicka on a basic fullback dive. Makovicka takes three, maybe four steps before he’s hit by a defender. He pinballs to his left and a second defender tries an arm tackle. Ha! Good luck with that.

A third player makes contact and slows him down. A fourth grabs him from behind and holds on for dear life. That poor guy looks like a water skier who crashed but hasn’t let go of the tow rope. A fifth Akron Zip makes a direct blow on the arm holding the ball before bouncing down to the turf as if Makovicka turned on a force field. Lying on his back, he either tries to grab Makovicka’s ankles or he’s trying not to get stepped on.

Legs churning, Makovicka somehow survives all of this contact. Barely. With his knees inches away from the turf, defender #6 tries to shove him down. Makovicka is using his farm boy strength to power through this final defender. The Zip player, realizing he isn’t going to push a Nebraska fullback to the ground, shifts his attack. He’s grabbing at the ball in Makovicka’s right arm trying to wrest it away. Instead, he’s simply helping Makovicka stay on his feet for the final three yards. Mak spins out of his grasp and plunges over the goal line.

The box score knows it simply as a 20-yard touchdown run.

I know it as the best run by a Nebraska fullback.

Ever.

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