Sweetness is sour for Mavericks
Compiled from Omaha World-Herald articles, UNO media guide
In scouting the 1974 UNO football team, Jackson State (Miss.) football officials sought information from the Mavs’ loss earlier that season to NAIA Abilene Christian. UNO lost that game 35-9, Abilene All-American Wilbert Montgomery scoring three touchdowns and rushing for 109 yards on 17 carries.
Montgomery, a future All-Pro with the Philadelphia Eagles, was a known commodity to the folks in Jackson. He was a Mississippi native and, according to one Jackson official, spent a week on the Jackson campus before leaving for Abilene.
That was OK with Jackson coaches who at the time were handing the ball to another outstanding Mississippi native—Walter Payton. Montgomery was good, but “Walter can do more things, and better,” said an official.
UNO found that out the hard way. The Mavericks got their first taste of “Sweetness” in 1973 when Jackson State scored a 17-0 win at Rosenblatt Stadium. It was the first predominantly black team UNO ever played.
Playing in the mud and rain, Payton ran for 115 yards on 18 carries and caught four passes for 72 more yards. He scored on a two-yard run, an extra point and a 25-yard field goal.
UNO Coach Al Caniglia (it would be his last season, the longtime coach dying in February 1974) had high praise for the NFL's future all-time rushing leader. “He just ran out of our grasp several times,” he told the Omaha World-Herald. “He’s very deserving of all the recognition he gets.”
It was more of the same when the two teams played again the following season in Mississippi.
A lot more.
Jackson whipped UNO 75-0, the school’s third-worst loss ever. “There was no evidence of the famed southern hospitality,” began a World-Herald account of the game.
Especially rude was Payton, who scored six touchdowns on runs of one, four, five, 44, 21 and six yards. He finished with 22 carries for 183 yards. The game padded a sterling college career in which Payton finished with 3,563 yards and 66 touchdowns.