1913 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

The 1913 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska in the 1913 college football season. The team was coached by Ewald O. Stiehm and played their home games at Nebraska Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Before the season
Coach Stiehm returned for his third year after earning conference championships in both of his previous seasons. Although the roster grew slightly from 15 to 17 players, only two starters from 1912 were still part of the program, which required some position changes to be made.

This was the first year that Nebraska utilized a Spring football practice session.

Washburn
The young Nebraska team got off to a good, confidence-building start with a shutout victory over Washburn to start the season in the first meeting of these teams.

Kansas State
Despite scoring first, Kansas State was handed their third consecutive loss in the series, remaining winless against Nebraska.

Minnesota
When Minnesota arrived in Lincoln for the 13th meeting of these teams in what had become an annual epic grudge match, it was only the second time the game was held in Nebraska. Perhaps aided by the emotion of the Homecoming festivities, the Cornhuskers held their ground and fought the Golden Gophers to a scoreless first half, and then with much effort managed to secure a 3rd quarter touchdown. Minnesota would not allow Nebraska to score again but were also unable to respond, and Nebraska secured its second victory in the series. Of the Cornhuskers, coach Williams of Minnesota said "I cannot say I expected the Gophers to be defeated. Nebraska has a great team."

Haskell
Following the Minnesota victory, a surprisingly difficult fight faced the Cornhuskers when Haskell returned to continue their series with Nebraska. The fierce contest injured Nebraska's team captain, who had to leave the game and was initially feared to be lost for the season. In the end, the Cornhuskers barely escaped with a 1-point margin of victory and sent the Haskell Indians home with another defeat, dropping them to 2-6 on the series.

Iowa State
Still without the team captain, the Cornhuskers met the Cyclones in Ames and made their fourth and final appearance at the soon-to-be-replaced State Field. Iowa State provided some fight to make it a game, but ultimately fell again to Nebraska and dropped farther back in the series to 3-9-1.

Nebraska Wesleyan
Coach Stiehm allowed the starters to take a break and played mainly reserves against Nebraska Wesleyan, as these teams resumed a series begun in 1896, though five years had passed since their last meeting. The backups were still more than a match for NWU, and Nebraska improved to 4-0 in the series.

Kansas
Cornhusker defense was the order of the day, and Nebraska made use of players returning from injury to hold the Jayhawks scoreless. The win secured Nebraska as unbeaten in conference play and improved their record over Kansas to 12-8.

Iowa
Iowa arrived in Lincoln with a reputation as a fast squad that used formations difficult to defend. Nebraska rose to the occasion and held the Hawkeyes off the board for the entire game. Using players still hobbled by injuries suffered during the Haskell game, the Cornhuskers punched in an early touchdown to go up, and a late one to seal the outcome. More than once Iowa threatened to score but came away empty, and fell farther behind Nebraska in the series to 4-8-3.

After the season
Despite the worries at the beginning of the season that the 1913 Nebraska squad was inexperienced, coach Stiehm managed to lead his squad to an undefeated season and 3rd straight conference title. After his third year, coach Stiehm had again improved his record, to 20-2-2 (.875), while the program also improved to 138-47-10 (.733) overall and 12-2-2 (.813) in conference.