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Toughest Huskers

My vote is Andy Loehr.

Senior year around 1954. He was telling me stories about the teams he was a part of. His junior or senior year he had his jaw broken in an early game. He had to have it rewired shut after every game for the rest of the season as it would rebreak about a play or two into each game. These were the pre-facemask days I believe. Andy says he lost about 25 pounds during the season and the trainer had to blender his food and feed him through a straw. Aside this, he would break his nose every couple games.

He has a lot of other stories from those days, but he like to retell the broken jaw one when I see him.
 
My vote is Andy Loehr.

Senior year around 1954. He was telling me stories about the teams he was a part of. His junior or senior year he had his jaw broken in an early game. He had to have it rewired shut after every game for the rest of the season as it would rebreak about a play or two into each game. These were the pre-facemask days I believe. Andy says he lost about 25 pounds during the season and the trainer had to blender his food and feed him through a straw. Aside this, he would break his nose every couple games.

He has a lot of other stories from those days, but he like to retell the broken jaw one when I see him.

He gets my vote
 
Honorable Mention for Crouch.

His neck is made of titanium.
crouch
 



He was tough, especially for his size. I'll never forget how he destroyed that Iowa DB.

I think Jamal Lord was pretty dang tough too. His arms were jacked and he never avoided contact.

Lord gets a vote. Dude took a beating behind that pudgy, weak ‘02 OL. He carried a huge load and definitely paid the price physically to the point it affected his throwing ability.

He and Crouch both had that in common...tough mothers who made bad OL’s look better than they were.
 
Lord gets a vote. Dude took a beating behind that pudgy, weak ‘02 OL. He carried a huge load and definitely paid the price physically to the point it affected his throwing ability.

He and Crouch both had that in common...tough mothers who made bad OL’s look better than they were.

A lot of QBs try to slide when they're about to get hit. See Taylor Martinez if you wanna look at some ugly slides.

But Lord would lower his shoulder like he was gonna tackle the defender. That guy ran with some intensity.


 
Take your pick from our OL in the 80s and 90s. Team was full of tough guys during that era. In terms of skill positions, in recent memory I'd say Rex was tough as nails. Obviously the fullbacks.

The Ruud brothers were pretty bad-a in their time here too. We've had a bunch of tough guys go through the program. Hard to pick just a few.
 



I realize this was a highlight reel, but man I completely forgot how good he could be!

Lord was a beast. That guy was built like a truck. He was one of our bigger QBs in terms of height and weight, plus he could put the hurt on a defender.

He was just surrounded by the kinda-sorta Frankie teams that were never as good at developing depth like Osborne was. If not for a few guys like Crouch and Lord, Solich could have been a sub-0.500 coach at Nebraska.
 
I have said many times that if FS would have let Turner call the offense he might have lasted longer. Frank was not a great play caller.

I think you are right.

Frank would not put the hammer down when we had a 2-3 TD lead, allowing the lead to grow, and then getting young guys valuable game experience. IMO that's the major reason we had such a preciptous drop off, after 2001. The loss of Crouch and Funoti were a factor, obviously, but we reloaded under TO all the time. 2002 was a major rebuild.
 




All the guys listed so far are good ones and there are others who also belong, like Neil Smith, Broderick Thomas....

One player who keeps popping in my mind whose circumstances made him have a different level of toughness is Kenny Walker.
Was just going to add him in there. And for current cheering, Todd Honas has to be pretty tough too.

Brandon Rigoni was another wedgebreaker that was crazy tough.
 
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