Blackshirts History: Why Nebraska's Defense Wears Black

The most feared tradition in Nebraska football started because a color wasn’t selling.

That’s not folklore. It’s the account Nebraska’s own defensive line coach gave, and it’s the version the university publishes on its official site. What follows is the Blackshirt history with the facts kept separate from the legend — including the parts where the people who were actually there don’t agree.

A note on sourcing: The foundational reporting on the 1964 origin belongs to longtime Husker writer Mike Babcock, whose History of the Blackshirts for Nebraska Athletics is the primary record for most of what follows. Where this article covers that ground, it’s summarizing his work — go read the original. Every other claim below is linked to its source.

What a Blackshirt is

A Blackshirt is a black practice jersey worn by Nebraska’s starting defensive players. It is not a game uniform and never has been. The Huskers wear red and white on Saturdays; the black is a practice-field distinction that became one of the best-known nicknames in college football.

The term works two ways. Narrowly, it means the specific players who’ve been handed a jersey. Broadly — and this is how Nebraska Athletics itself frames it — Blackshirts means the Nebraska defense as a whole: the unit, its identity, and six decades of weight behind it.

1964: the rule change that started everything

The NCAA ended the one-platoon system after the 1963 season, allowing unlimited substitution. Teams could finally field dedicated offensive and defensive units.

Bob Devaney, in his third season at Nebraska, didn’t jump immediately. In the 1964 opener he played most of his starters both ways in a 56-0 win over South Dakota at Memorial Stadium.

Then came Minnesota. On the Wednesday before the trip to Minneapolis, Devaney announced Nebraska would split into offensive and defensive units, telling the Lincoln Star it came down to efficiency — otherwise, opponents would exploit them. That Friday’s Lincoln Star ran the headline “Final Decision Made.”

Splitting the squad created an immediate practical problem: at practice, nobody could tell which group was which.

The purchase. Devaney sent assistant coach Mike Corgan to a local sporting goods store for contrast pullovers to wear over the players’ practice jerseys. Corgan handled equipment procurement and was known for hunting bargains. The store had a surplus of black nobody was buying, and cut him a deal.

Defensive line coach George Kelly later described the choice about as unromantically as possible — the black, he said, was an accident of availability. By his account, the only reason the store had them in stock was that they weren’t selling.

That’s the origin. No design meeting, no branding exercise. A cheap bulk buy on a color nobody wanted.

The parts that are genuinely disputed

An honest history has to stop here and mark the uncertainty. Babcock has been open that recollections vary:

When the jerseys were bought. Spring 1964, or the week before the Minnesota game that fall? Even people who were there disagree. Babcock’s assessment: most likely the second week of the 1964 season, the Minnesota trip.
Who bought them. Corgan or Kelly? Babcock resolved this one. In a phone interview in late August 2000, Kelly told him directly that Corgan made the purchase. Kelly coached the defensive line and effectively ran the defense without the title; Corgan coached the offensive backs and bought the equipment.
What the non-Blackshirts wore. Kelly’s telling was that defensive players had been in gray, and once the squad split, black went only to first-teamers as motivation for everyone below. Other retellings describe gold or yellow for the second-string defense and red or white for the offense. That detail is not settled.

Anyone who tells you the 1964 particulars are airtight is filling in gaps.

Earned daily, not awarded once

For the first stretch of the tradition, a Blackshirt was a day-to-day thing. Pullovers were handed out before practice and collected afterward for laundering. Perform well, you got black. Slip, you got the other color. Kelly’s recollection was that switches happened just about every single day.

Mike Kennedy, a junior in 1964 who was moved to defense when the platoon split happened and started against Minnesota, said years later that none of them had any idea a tradition was starting.

How the name actually spread

The nickname didn’t come from a marketing department. It came from coaches yelling.

Longtime Nebraska sports information director Don Bryant credited much of the Blackshirt mystique to Kelly, who was on Devaney’s staff through 1968. Kelly and Jim Ross — who coached the defensive ends and backs — were regularly heard hollering at the “Black Shirts” during practices and scrimmages. The local press picked it up.

The paper trail:

Oct. 19, 1964 — the Omaha World-Herald explains the tag in print, tying it to the black pullovers worn in practice. Roughly a month after the Minnesota game.
A Lincoln sub-head that same season read “Black Shirts Drawing Praise,” with the accompanying story crediting Kelly and Ross for the nickname.
1965 media guide — the first media-guide appearance, referring to the “Black Shirt Battalion.”

One conflict worth naming: some secondary accounts claim the nickname didn’t appear in a Nebraska media guide until 1969. Nebraska’s own published history puts it in the 1965 edition. Where those disagree, the university’s version is the primary source.

Two words to one. It started as “Black Shirts.” Through the 1970s, media guides used both forms — sometimes in the same section, at least once in the same paragraph. The 1978 guide uses “Blackshirt,” parallel to “redshirt,” and from there the one-word spelling became standard.

The record that made the nickname stick

A nickname only survives if the unit is good. Nebraska’s was, immediately and repeatedly.

Early national total-defense finishes:

1964 — No. 2 nationally
1965 — No. 8
1967 — No. 1 (on a 6-4 team)
1984 — No. 1

Top 10 nationally in all four major defensive categories (rushing, passing, total, scoring) — five times: 1967, 1984, 1994, 1996, 1999.

National championships the Blackshirts helped deliver: 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, 1997.

By 1969 the reputation was national enough that Street & Smith’s college football annual previewed Nebraska as a team that needed offensive consistency to match a defense it described as always tough.

The coordinators

Devaney never gave an assistant the title of defensive coordinator. Kelly ran the defense without it.

Monte Kiffin (1973-76) — Kelly’s successor on the defensive line and the first man at Nebraska to formally carry the coordinator title, in Tom Osborne’s first season as head coach.
Charlie McBride (1982-1999) — joined Osborne’s staff in 1977, called the defense in 1981 before the title was official, and held the job for 18 seasons across 23 total years in Lincoln. This is the era where the Blackshirts became a national brand.
Craig Bohl — promoted by Frank Solich in January 2000, the day after McBride announced his retirement at the Fiesta Bowl postgame press conference following a 31-21 win over Tennessee.

McBride’s body of work, by the numbers:

Top 10 nationally in total defense in 11 of his seasons; top 10 in scoring defense 10 times
Led the nation in total defense in 1984
1996 finalist for the Broyles Award (national assistant coach of the year)
Final defense, 1999: No. 4 total defense (252.3 ypg), No. 6 rushing defense (77.1), No. 2 pass efficiency defense (87.9 rating), No. 3 scoring defense (12.5 ppg)

1971: the peak of the early era

The 1971 Blackshirts are the standard for the Devaney years.

13-0, second straight national title
No. 2 nationally in rushing defense — 85.9 yards per game
No. 3 in scoring defense — 8.2 points per game
No. 5 in total defense — 202.9 yards per game
Seven first-team All-Big Eight selections on defense
Four players who’d earn consensus All-America recognition in their careers
Two Outland Trophy winners: tackle Larry Jacobson and middle guard Rich Glover

The Game of the Century. No. 1 Nebraska vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, Thanksgiving Day 1971. Both undefeated and untied. Between them, 17 of the 22 first-team All-Big Eight players. Sports Illustrated’s cover that week paired Nebraska linebacker Bob Terrio and Oklahoma back Greg Pruitt nose to nose under a headline casting an irresistible Oklahoma offense against an immovable Nebraska defense.

Nebraska won 35-31. Rich Glover made 22 tackles and, with barely a minute left, deflected a fourth-down Jack Mildren pass to end it. Nebraska finished the job in the Orange Bowl, beating No. 2 Alabama 38-6.

The Blackshirts who won the hardware

Larry Jacobson, DT — 1971 Outland Trophy. Nebraska’s first major individual award winner, and the first of the school’s Outland trophies.
Rich Glover, MG — 1972 Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award. Third in the Heisman voting that year. Consensus All-American in 1971 and 1972. College Football Hall of Fame, 1995. No. 79 retired.
Trev Alberts, LB — 1993 Butkus Award. The only Nebraska player to win it.
Grant Wistrom, DE — 1997 Lombardi Award.
Ndamukong Suh, DT — 2009. Outland, Lombardi, Nagurski, Bednarik. Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. First defensive player to win the AP national player of the year award. Fourth in the Heisman — the best finish by a defensive lineman since Glover’s third in 1972, with the most first-place votes ever for an interior defensive lineman. Jersey retired. Selected to the College Football Hall of Fame in January 2026 as Nebraska’s 21st inductee.

The skull, the crossbones, and the bones

The logo is two decades younger than the tradition, and it came from a fan, not the athletic department. The definitive account is Brandon Vogel’s “Drew the Bones.”

Tim Riley, a screen printer, designed a skull wearing a Huskers helmet over two crossed bones, paired with a stencil-font “Blackshirts.” It debuted as a banner draped over the wall at Memorial Stadium in 1985, facing the visiting Florida State team as they kicked off. Riley trademarked the logo and later sold the rights to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. An updated version was created in 2022.

Throwing the bones came a decade after the logo. In 1996, defensive lineman Jason Peter started crossing his forearms in an X after big plays, and named the gesture. He’s since told Adam Carriker that anyone else claiming to have done it first is lying.

Peter’s explanation of the why: it turned an individual effort — a sack, a tackle for loss — into something that belonged to the whole group. The gesture itself came straight off the crossbones in the logo. He’s said he picked it up after watching walk-on linebacker Matt Hunting, from Cozad, throw his arms up in an X at practice, then told Hunting he was taking it so it wouldn’t die on the practice field.

Fans throw the bones now by the tens of thousands. It started as one player borrowing a gesture off a practice field.

How the jerseys have been awarded, coach by coach

The ceremony has changed almost every time the head coach has.

Devaney era — handed out and collected daily. Continually re-earned.
Tom Osborne — ended daily redistribution. The top defensive unit received Blackshirts at the end of preseason camp, the week before the opener.
McBride’s bowl tradition — typically awarded Blackshirts to all senior defensive players at the bowl site, to wear during game prep.
Early 2000s — jerseys hung in lockers before the week of the opener, then distributed in a preseason ceremony, often to more than 11 players.
Bill Callahan — expanded to the full first unit including starters in different defensive packages, not just the base 11. Nebraska handed out 14 in 2005.
Bo Pelini — rejected the preseason ceremony outright, saying it wasn’t part of his philosophy and that Blackshirts get earned on the field. In his first season, 2008, none were awarded until late in the year: 11 players received them in November after what was described as the defense’s best practice of the season.
Honorary Blackshirts have gone to special-teams players. Punter Jesse Kosch was awarded one for his work stopping punt returns from 1994 to 1997. In October 2024, punter Brian Buschini and cornerback Ceyair Wright earned Blackshirts after a strong showing against Rutgers.

Every time the Blackshirts have been taken away

This is the part of the tradition that tells you what the jersey is worth.

2007. Amid one of the worst defensive seasons in program history, captain Zack Bowman led a player movement to forfeit the Blackshirts. The players gave them up themselves in October 2007. They were restored the following fall under Pelini.

2013. Suspended after a loss to Minnesota.

2022. Nebraska awarded nine Blackshirts before the opener against Northwestern in Ireland: edges Garrett Nelson and Caleb Tannor, defensive linemen Ty Robinson and Colton Feist, linebackers Nick Henrich and Luke Reimer, and defensive backs Myles Farmer, Quinton Newsome and Marques Buford Jr. Three games later Scott Frost was fired. Interim head coach Mickey Joseph rescinded all of them, confirming it on the Huskers Radio Network on Sept. 15, 2022.

Joseph framed it as a clean slate rather than a punishment — the whole team back to 0-0 under a new era. He said the 45-42 loss to Georgia Southern, in which the defense gave up 642 yards, wasn’t the reason, and that he expected the players to earn them back.

They didn’t. Joseph confirmed in October 2022 that the Blackshirts would not return that season. It may be the first time in the tradition’s history that a coach took them away midseason.

The modern era

Tony White brought the tradition back for 2023, his first season as defensive coordinator under Matt Rhule. He did his homework first, saying he’d sought out Charlie McBride, Adam Carriker and any former player he could get in a room — his approach was to ask anyone who’d worn one to teach him how it was supposed to work.

White ran a 3-3-5 and led the Blackshirts in 2023 and 2024. The 2024 defense finished eighth nationally against the run at 101.2 yards per game. White left for the Florida State defensive coordinator job in December 2024.

John Butler, who’d joined Rhule’s staff in 2024 coaching the secondary, was promoted. On Aug. 25, 2025, Nebraska handed out 10 Blackshirts — Butler had said publicly he wouldn’t water down the tradition, floating eleven, maybe a 12th guy. The recipients: defensive linemen Cam Lenhardt and Elijah Jeudy; linebackers Javin Wright, Dasan McCullough and Marques Watson-Trent; and defensive backs Ceyair Wright, Marques Buford, Malcolm Hartzog, DeShon Singleton and Andrew Marshall.

The 2025 defense split hard down the middle:

No. 22 nationally in total defense — 312.3 ypg
Second in the Big Ten in pass defense — 141.1 ypg, 58% completions allowed, seven passing touchdowns
No. 53 in scoring defense — 23.0 ppg
But No. 95 against the run — 171.2 ypg, over 5.0 yards per carry in five of the last six games
444 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns allowed in the final two games, against Penn State and Iowa

Nebraska finished 7-5 in the regular season. Butler was fired Dec. 1, 2025 after one season as coordinator. Phil Snow ran the defense for the bowl game on an interim basis.

Rhule then hired Rob Aurich from San Diego State as defensive coordinator for 2026, abandoning the 3-3-5 in favor of Aurich’s 4-2-5. Roy Manning came from San Diego State as edge coach, Corey Brown from Miami (Ohio) to coach the defensive line, and Miles Taylor was added as safeties coach. Secondary coach Addison Williams was retained.

That makes Aurich the third defensive coordinator in four seasons under Rhule.

Blackshirt trivia that’s actually true

Nebraska’s student section at Memorial Stadium is called the Boneyard.
Nebraska’s volleyball players are called the Blackshorts.
Nebraska wore Blackshirt-themed alternate uniforms in 2019 and 2020, then moved away from alternates.
Loop Brewing Company in McCook brews a black IPA called the Blackshirt IPA.

What it comes down to

Sixty-two years on, a bulk buy of unsellable pullovers is one of the two or three most recognizable traditions in the sport. Say “Blackshirt” anywhere in America and the association is instant.

George Kelly, who did as much as anyone to make that happen, said years after leaving Lincoln that he was proud the tradition had been maintained.

Maintained is the operative word. It’s been suspended, rescinded, expanded, restricted, handed out in August and withheld until November. Four coordinators have run the Blackshirts in the last four seasons. What hasn’t changed since 1964 is the only part that ever mattered — the jersey is supposed to mean you’re one of the best eleven, and it’s supposed to be possible to lose it.

Husker Nation doesn’t need the black jerseys on Saturdays. It needs the defense that earned them.

Sources

Primary: Mike Babcock, “History of the Blackshirts,” Nebraska Athletics, Jan. 26, 2018. Additional reporting from Nebraska Athletics (Huskers.com), Brandon Vogel, the Omaha World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal Star, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, 247Sports, On3, Hail Varsity, Carriker Chronicles, and KLKN. All linked inline above.

This article is an independent work of Nebraska football history and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the University of Nebraska.