The Missouri–Nebraska football rivalry was an American college football rivalry between the Missouri Tigers and Nebraska Cornhuskers. For over 100 years, the teams met annually as members of the WIUFA, Big Eight, and Big 12. The Missouri–Nebraska Bell (often referred to as the Victory Bell) was presented to the winner from 1927 until NU joined the Big Ten in 2010, ending its series with MU.
History
Missouri and Nebraska were founding members of the Western Interstate University Football Association in 1892 and first met on November 5 of the same year, a 1–0 forfeit win for Nebraska in Omaha after the Tigers refused to play against African-American George Flippin. Flippin later joked "I was so good I beat the University of Missouri all by myself." MU agreed to face Flippin and NU in 1893 and 1894, winning both games.
The teams joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (later the Big Eight Conference) in 1907 but did not begin playing annually until 1922, the first of eighty-eight consecutive seasons the Tigers and Cornhuskers met. Nebraska controlled the series until the late 1930s, when Missouri began a stretch of nineteen victories in twenty-five games that lasted until NU hired Bob Devaney in 1962.
Devaney turned Nebraska into a national powerhouse throughout the 1960s, but the Cornhuskers did not immediately gain control of the series against the Tigers. Missouri's 16–7 1962 victory in Lincoln was the first game of Nebraska's NCAA-record sellout streak. NU won the next four games against MU, but the Tigers responded with three consecutive victories and shared the Big Eight title with Nebraska in 1969, the program's most recent conference championship.
Missouri defeated Devaney's successor Tom Osborne in four of his first six seasons, including Osborne's first loss as a head coach in 1973, with Nebraska ranked in the national top five in each matchup. In the last of these, a 1978 upset of No. 2 Nebraska behind four James Wilder touchdowns, Missouri was led by Warren Powers, a former Devaney and Osborne assistant who served as MU's head coach for seven seasons.
Missouri's 1978 upset was its last victory over Osborne, who coached until 1997. Nebraska's twenty-four-game win streak in the series, which continued for six years after Osborne's retirement, came with an average margin of victory of 24.6 points.
Big 12 era
In 1996, Missouri and Nebraska were placed in the Big 12 North Division when the Big Eight merged with four Texas schools of the Southwest. In the second Big 12 game between MU and NU, top-ranked Nebraska survived an upset bid after a bizarre, game-tying touchdown as time expired that became known as the "Flea Kicker." Nebraska won in overtime, later claiming its third national championship in four years.
Missouri upset No. 10 Nebraska in 2003 to end the streak at twenty-four, with observers suggesting the rivalry had returned to a level of intensity felt prior to the late 1980s. After another victory over NU in 2005, Missouri students paraded Faurot Field's goalposts around Columbia, a campus tradition dating to 1971. Twenty fans were arrested on trespassing charges and the university installed collapsible goalposts in 2006, hoping to avoid future incidents.
The teams met on October 30, 2010, a 31–17 Nebraska victory over sixth-ranked Missouri, in their last meeting as conference opponents. Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference the 2011 season, placing the Cornhuskers and Tigers in separate conferences for the first time since 1920. Missouri sought entry to the Big Ten as well, but was denied and instead joined the Southeastern Conference in 2012. No future meetings are scheduled.
Victory Bell
In 1892, a bell was stolen from a Seward, Nebraska church by members of the University of Nebraska's Delta Tau Delta and Phi Delta Theta. It served as a prize for the winner of athletic and scholastic competitions between the fraternities, but led to a dispute over which owned the bell. In 1926, Missouri athletic director Chester D. Brewer suggested a trophy be established for the annual football game against Nebraska; NU administration accepted and repurposed the bell, which was named the Missouri–Nebraska Bell with 'M' and 'N' engraved on opposite sides. More commonly referred to as the Victory Bell, it was exchanged between the Innocents Society at Nebraska and the QEBH society at Missouri.
The Victory Bell has been housed at Nebraska's Wick Alumni Center since the series ended in 2010, with a commemorative bell at the University of Missouri.