Colorado University Athletics
McCartney Remembers CU's Red-Letter Rivalry
September 04, 2018 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Former Colorado coach Bill McCartney's passion has not dimmed.
Not a bit.
Tuesday afternoon, McCartney made a guest appearance at CU's weekly press conference, delivering an impassioned endorsement of the current "Coach Mac" — Mike MacIntyre — as well as a refresher course on the importance of the Colorado-Nebraska game.
McCartney's appearance was only fitting. He is, after all, the man who arrived in Boulder in 1982 to resuscitate a downtrodden football program and immediately designated Nebraska as the Buffs' rival.
This week, the two old rivals will meet again for the first time since 2010, when they played for the last time before departing for separate conferences. Colorado left the Big 12 and began play in the Pac-12 a year later while Nebraska headed to the Big Ten.
Now, the two teams that spent 63 years as Big 7, Big Eight and Big 12 brethren will meet as non-conference foes in a 1:30 p.m. nationally televised game at Memorial Stadium (ABC). Nebraska will return the favor next year with a trip to Folsom Field.
While McCartney's declaration that Nebraska would become CU's rival met plenty of resistance in Lincoln, the series soon got to the point that the Cornhuskers couldn't ignore the Buffs.
In 1986, McCartney recorded his first win over Tom Osborne's Huskers, a 20-10 victory in Boulder. That victory propelled the Buffs into second place in the Big Eight and dropped NU to third in the conference standings.
Three years later, Colorado beat NU again in Boulder, 27-21, en route to the Buffs' first outright Big Eight title in nearly 30 years, part of an undefeated regular season.
Then, in 1990 the Buffs overcame a 12-0 fourth-quarter deficit to record a 27-12 win in Lincoln, paving the way for a national title (one CU fans gleefully note came before Osborne won his first in Lincoln).
"What I have learned over the years is everything rises and falls on leadership," MacIntyre said. "Every home, every business, every church, every newspaper, and every station. It is a direct reflection of leadership. What I see in Coach MacIntyre and his staff … is that these guys are good. They have character. They are trustworthy. They are genuine. There is no deception. They are the real deal."
When McCartney took the CU job in the summer of 1982, Colorado had endured three straight losing seasons under Chuck Fairbanks. He immediately made waves by setting his sights on one of the dominant teams in the conference.
He used his time as an assistant at Michigan — where the Wolverines' rival was clearly Ohio State — as the model.
"The teams that you want to beat the most are the best teams," he said. "When I got here I said, 'Who is our Ohio State?' They said, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'Who is they team we have to beat? I mean the season is riding on it.' They said, 'Coach, we have to beat them all. We don't like any of them.' There was no rival. There was no game to point to. When you get kids from the ages of 18 and 22, you have to give them targets to shoot at. You can't just give them a big picture. You have to say we are going to put it all together and we are going to keep getting better, then when we go to Lincoln we are going to hit them in the mouth until we take over the place. When we shut them all up we will leave. You have to project things like that. … When I came here we identified Nebraska as the team."
During his tenure, McCartney's determination to work his way up to a rivalry with the Huskers became the stuff of local legend. He put the Nebraska game in red on the CU schedule — and banned his players from wearing the color.
Now, even though the Buffs have not played Nebraska since most of the current players were in elementary school, a hint of the rivalry remains. When CU players arrived at the Champions Center on Sunday, the televisions in the building were all carrying highlights from past Colorado-Nebraska games.
Asked what he'd tell CU's players, McCartney didn't hesitate.
"Tell them we'd rather be dead than red," he said with a laugh. "This is what it's all about. This is bigger than the NFL. Then NFL doesn't get this big. The whole state can rally around this one."
While there were plenty of big plays that contributed to wins by McCartney's Buffs over the Huskers, he said perhaps the most memorable moments came after those victories.
"Shaking hands with Tom Osborne after we beat them," McCartney said. "It didn't happen near enough (McCartney was 3-9-1 against NU). He was so gracious, he was very polite."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
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