Dave Feit: The Mysterious Case of the 00 Husker

Did a player on Tom Osborne's first team wear a uniform number not worn by anybody else in college football history? And if not, what did he wear? Dave Feit investigates.

Defensive tackle Dan Brock's jersey number on the Huskers' official 1973 football roster is a puzzler. | HuskerMax

Author's note: Recently, I completed a countdown of the greatest Huskers to wear each uniform number, 99-0.

The foundation for that project was a massive composite roster I built by taking every season from 1921-2024 and putting it into a gigantic spreadsheet. That initial process - which I probably started close to two years ago - has left me pondering an obscure question. It's a question so seemingly simple, yet maddeningly hard to answer that I cannot shake it.

I thought the journey would make for an interesting post, and hopefully give an aspiring sleuth the foundation to solve it.

For more information about the series, click here. To see more entries, click here.

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Come with me on secret mission, as we attempt to solve one of the biggest uniform mysteries in Nebraska football's 135+ year history.

What number did Dan Brock wear in 1973?

I know, I know. This should be simple. Just pull up the roster (from Huskers.com, HuskerMax, Wikipedia or elsewhere) and find his name.

Trust me, I've done this. But the answer I find doesn't make sense.

In every 1973 roster I've looked at, Brock is listed as wearing "00."

Was Dan Brock really the Double-0 Husker?

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Let's start here: Double zero is not a legal uniform number in college football.

In 2020, the NCAA adopted Rule 1-4-2, adding 0 as a valid uniform number. However, it is still illegal to wear a jersey number with a leading zero, such as "04" or "00."

To the best of my Google abilities, I do not believe any college football player has ever worn 00 in a game. The Uni-Watch blog (a site dedicated to uniform uniquities) once wrote about three different college football players who wore uniform number 100: A West Virginia kicker in 1963 (the state's centennial) and two players in 1969, the centennial season of college football. One played for Louisville, the other for Kansas.

But never 00.

In the NFL, three players (Jim Otto, Steve Bagarus, and Ken Burrough) wore 00. That number (and 0) were prohibited* when the NFL standardized player numbers in 1973.

*Burrough was grandfathered into the rule and wore 00 until he retired in 1981. Starting in 2023, the NFL made 0 available to players again.

Jim Otto's name made his 00 jersey number a particularly appropriate fit. | Dick Raphael-Imagn Images

Zero - and sometimes double zero - is a relatively common number in basketball. Dapreis Owens wore "00" for Nebraska's basketball team in the early 1990s.

A handful of NHL players have worn 00, but none since Martin Biron in the 1995-96 season. Interestingly, the NHL banned 0 and 00 because their database doesn't recognize it.

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I first noticed Dan Brock was listed at 00 when I was compiling the all-time, composite roster I used for the "Greatest Huskers by the Numbers" project. It struck me as odd. I assumed it was a fluke. Explanations for what happened formed in my head.

Was it a typo?

Perhaps Brock, a defensive tackle, was issued No. 90, but it was accidentally typed in as "00." I make a lot of typos*, and can easily understand how that might have occurred.

*In my first draft, I fat-fingered the word "typo." I wish I were making that up. Unlike people in the early 1970s, I have the benefit of spell check.

Was it a data entry abnormality from the process of digitizing old rosters?

For a while, I operated under the theory that when the 1973 roster was put together, Brock had not yet been assigned a number. That was a common occurrence in the Tom Osborne era. The 1974 roster has 21 players without a number. The 1980 roster (148 players) has a whopping 66 names without an assigned number.

Dan Brock redshirted during the 1973 season. His teammates are shown here in action during a 28-16 win over Colorado. | Malcolm Emmons-Imagn Images

According to my theory, when the 1973 roster was first uploaded, keyed in, or otherwise digitized, somebody - or some software program - used "00" as a placeholder to fill the empty space. The resulting data entry error then became the source of truth for every subsequent webpage containing a 1973 roster.

But there is a flaw in that theory. As noted above, there have been hundreds of Huskers who have appeared on an official roster without a number - including two of Dan Brock's 1973 teammates, Mike Coyle and George Mills. Why was Dan Brock the only Husker ever to be listed as "00"?

Even though things didn't quite add up, some version of the typo theory was still the most plausible explanation… until I found the 1973 Media Guide.

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The Internet Archive (archive.org) is a treasure trove of information. You may be familiar with their "Wayback Machine" that archives old websites on specific dates, but archive.org is also home to a vast collection of books, newspapers, and other once-printed publications, preserved in a digital format.

I tell you that to tell you this: The University of Nebraska has scanned and uploaded the last 55+ years of Nebraska Football media guides. They're all there for anybody to browse - for free! There was a lightbulb moment when I realized that this would be the perfect way to solve the "Double-0 Husker" mystery. 

I excitedly clicked through 1973 Media Guide. There it was, on page 48:

"Dan Brock, (age) 18, (height) 6-2, (weight) 202, Sophomore, Columbus, Neb."

And, in large red text, his uniform number: 00

I was floored.

Dan Brock's entry in the 1973 media guide. | Nebraska Athletics

I reminded myself that the big red "00" I was seeing didn't necessary mean Brock wore 00. It was still plausible that I was seeing 50-year-old typo, or placeholder for a number assignment that didn't happen before the media guide was printed. That said, it was getting harder and harder to believe such a mistake somehow made it through multiple rounds of editing and proofreading as the media guide was being put together and printed.

Especially with what I saw a few pages later.

The 1973 Media Guide also has two versions of the full team roster: one by name, and one by number. Dan Brock was listed as "00" on both. I'm not sure if it matters, but in the numerical roster, 00 is listed after 99 instead of preceding 1.

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What started out as an oddball curiosity was quickly becoming a full-on obsession. Surely, Dan Brock was not the first - and only - player in college football history to wear 00. Right? But if not, what number did he wear?

I needed to find visual verification to prove - or debunk - the data I was seeing.

One the first things I thought to check was the official team photo. For decades, it has been a fall camp ritual to have the entire team put on their uniforms, sit in the stands, and have their picture taken as a group. I mentally prepared myself for the Zapruder-level task of identifying Dan Brock - a white guy with a thick head of bushy, 1970s hair - out of the dozens of white guys with a thick head of bushy 1970s hair from a 50-year-old, low-resolution photograph.

Alas, I have never been able to Google a team photo of the 1973 Cornhuskers. However, a possible break in the case appeared in the search results!

That season, a deck of playing cards was made with pictures of the 1973 Huskers (and new head coach Tom Osborne) on each card. Quarterback Dave Humm was the 9 of diamonds. Linebacker Tom Ruud was the queen of hearts. The cards are a collector's item, with multiple listing on eBay and other sites. Surely, this would be a way to either see Dan Brock wearing a "00" jersey, or find out what number he was assigned in 1973!

Nope.

Of the 51 players pictured (Tom Osborne was the ace of spades), Dan Brock was not one of them. Brock was one of just 12 sophomores who did not get their own playing card.

Back to the drawing board.

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Who was this mysterious Double-0 Husker? Here's what we know for sure:

Dan Brock was a defensive tackle from Columbus, Nebraska. He attended Scotus Central Catholic High and went to Lincoln to play football. He was 6-foot-3 but weighed just 215 pounds. His media guide bio said he was "small for a tackle, but he makes up for it with quickness and desire." His uncle Charles Brock is one of the great players from the first 50 years of the program.

In 1972, Dan played on the Nebraska freshman team, helping them to a perfect 4-0 season. There were no statistics kept for the defense. However, the 1973 Nebraska Media Guide reports that Brock was a "fine defender."

Notably, in Dan's photo, he's wearing a jersey with a number on it. The number is mostly cut off, but it is definitely NOT 00. If I were to guess, the number is likely 95, maybe 85. In 1973, both of those numbers were issued to other players. Unlike today (where upwards of 30 digits are worn by multiple players), nobody in 1973 shared uniform numbers.

Dan Brock wore No. 55 in the Huskers' 1973 Red-White spring game. | Newspapers.com

Maybe that is the answer to the mystery. Or maybe - as I believe - the partially obscured number in the media guide picture is from his 1972 freshman team jersey. Good luck finding rosters for the freshman teams of 50 years ago. Brock redshirted in 1973, and did not appear on the roster for that season's bowl game (the 1974 Cotton Bowl). But even as a redshirt, he still likely would have been assigned a uniform number.

For the rest of his Nebraska career (1974 - 1976), Brock wore number 94*, a perfectly normal number for a defensive tackle. Brock had a respectable Cornhusker career, recording 34 tackles in his three seasons on the varsity. He had six tackles for loss for a total of 48 yards. (Sacks would not be an official stat until 1981.)

*In 1973, Rod Norrie wore No. 94.

After he playing career, Brock spent a season working on Nebraska's staff while completing his degree in Fisheries and Wildlife. When Brock graduated, he started a 40-year career, got married, had kids, and lived a full and happy life.

Dan Brock passed away in 2024 at the age of 69. This line from his obituary made me smile: "Dan enjoyed hunting, fishing, gambling and having a few beers… not necessarily in that order." 

As much as I want a definitive answer as to why he was listed at 00, I'm not going to bother his family with such a trivial request.

* * *

For months, I thought I had hit a dead end with my quest. But then, a new lead appeared.

As part of my research on Bob Martin for the "Greatest Huskers by the Numbers" series, I found a local news feature on Martin, a Husker from 1972 to 1975. There, on his wall in the background was the answer to the mystery: A yard-long black-and white panoramic photo of the entire 1973 team! The entire team - in uniform - standing in a row with each player individually labeled. During the TV segment, the camera zoomed in on the photo to where Bob Martin is standing. Unfortunately, Dan Brock is not one of the 14 Huskers visible in the shot.

After striking out on Google, I asked for help in a few Facebook group of Husker memorabilia collectors. Did anybody own one of these panoramic prints? And if so, what number is Dan Brock wearing?

Then I waited. And waited. One guy thought I was selling the print, and wanted to buy it. A second responder thought he might know guy who knows a guy with one (he didn't). Finally, a very nice and patient man messaged that he had one hanging on his wall.

He confirmed that Dan Brock is not in the 1973 panoramic team photo.

Dan Brock's entry in the 1976 media guide. | Nebraska Athletics

* * *

So, were does this leave the mystery?

Unless somebody has some new insights or information,* the road has come to a dead end.

*And if you have information to share, please send me an email or DM.

Nobody knows how - or why - Dan Brock was listed as 00.

Here's my best guess:

After a strong season on the freshman team in 1972, Brock was a candidate to play as a sophomore. Legendary sports information director Don "Fox" Bryant wrote up a bio for him and placed it into an early draft of the 1973 Media Guide. Since he had not yet been assigned a number, somebody on his staff put in "00" as a placeholder.

It's worth noting that not everybody on the 1973 roster had a bio in the media guide. By my count, 33 players did not get a bio, including several sophomores.

At some point, plans changed. Maybe Brock got hurt in camp, or it was decided the kid described as "small for a tackle" could benefit from a year in Boyd Epley's strength and conditioning program. Brock redshirted in 1973, and he did not play with the varsity until 1974. For the remainder of his Cornhusker career, he wore 94.

That's not as exciting - or historic - as I hoped for when I first saw a player listed as wearing 00, but barring new discoveries, that seems to be the most likely scenario.

Thank you for joining me on this journey down the rabbit hole.

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