Bob's Take on Cinema: Film tackles birth of NU football
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

How's this for a movie pitch: George Clooney directs and stars in a retro screwball romantic comedy, a la director Howard Hawks' "His Girl Friday" or George Cukor's "The Philadelphia Story." Clooney competes with the younger John Krasinski ("The Office") for the affections of Renée Zellweger.

OK, I think we have the women hooked.

And a lot of the men will probably follow when I tell you the movie, "Leatherheads," is about the early days of pro football, set in 1925. It was written by two Sports Illustrated reporters, Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly.

I'm looking forward to its opening Friday.

When I showed the "Leatherheads" publicity materials to Omaha filmmaker Jim Fields, his reaction was immediate:

"This is so much more sophisticated than the time period I'm dealing with."

He wasn't referring to the movie's attempt at witty repartee.

No, it was the leather helmets, which give the movie its name, and the shoulder pads that caught his eye. "In the 1890s, they didn't have helmets," Fields said. No padding, either. "Football was so much more brutal."

Fields is making a feature-length documentary about the beginnings of University of Nebraska football, from the late 1880s call to form a team to 1900. And it was indeed less sophisticated. Doane College was an early arch rival. Lincoln High played the university team as an early warmup. The players weren't big, and the uniforms weren't red.

He's calling his film "Bugeaters," which the team was often called before "Cornhuskers" was adopted at the turn of the century.

This is Fields' third documentary, after 2004's "416," about the Nebraska constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions; and 2006's "Preserve Me a Seat," about the fate of older, single-screen movie houses.

Something tells me this movie, which Fields is filming now and expects to release next spring, has a bigger, built-in audience.

Fields has done on-camera interviews with local historian and World-Herald columnist Dave Harding, who wrote a book called "The Mighty Bugeaters," and with Huskers Illustrated writer Mike Babcock, an expert on team history.

He also went through every issue of the Hesperian, the University of Nebraska student newspaper, from the 1890s. He found that one of NU football's earliest die-hard fans was novelist Willa Cather, then a student, who vastly expanded gridiron coverage when she became editor of the paper.

"She wrote a short story about football players that was published in the school yearbook," Fields said. "She also wrote poems about football. And reviews of each game went on for three pages."

Another subject of note: George Flippin of Stromsburg, Neb., who made Nebraska just the third team in the nation to include a black football player. Flippin, whose father was a freed slave, later became a doctor, finishing his degree in Illinois and opening a thriving practice in Stromsburg.

"When Nebraska first played Missouri, the Missouri team refused to take the field because of Flippin," Fields said. "Nebraska won the game 1-0, by default."

Nebraska's first season, in 1890, included just two games. The first was against the Omaha YMCA on Thanksgiving Day. Not only were there no helmets or pads, there were no plays and few organized practices, Fields said.

"Football had no respect nationally at that time," he said. "There were a lot of deaths attributed to football back then, and it was controversial whether the game would be allowed."

By 1895, though, football had a following. A full-time coach was hired, and he held regular practices.

Because there is no movie footage of those early years, and few photographs, Fields will restage some events using actors.

Fields' film will end in 1900, when Lincoln sportswriter Cy Sherman inspired the name change to Cornhuskers. By that time, Fields said, a stadium was about to be built, the team was better funded and equipped, and the rules of the game had become set.

"Making one of these documentaries is like panning for gold," Fields said. "It's a winnowing down. With this one, I've got a lot more good stuff than I expected."

Published Thursday | April 3, 2008
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