Conference Big Six Conference Offensive scheme T formation | 1944 record 2–6 (2–3 Big 6) Home stadium Memorial Stadium | |
Head coach Adolph J. Lewandowski (2nd year) | ||
The 1944 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was the representative of the University of Nebraska and member of the Big 6 Conference in the 1944 college football season. The team was coached by Adolph J. Lewandowski and played their home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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Before the season
World War II was dragging on, with the United States now in its third year since being drawn into the conflict. College sports programs across the nation were shorthanded with so many young men enlisting into the armed forces, while all of the "service teams" that had entered the college football landscape, fielded by the branches of the armed forces, had the advantage of adding former players to their rosters. This gave the service teams the ability to concentrate the best former players into their programs, and at the end of 1944, service teams made up half of all of the ranked teams. It was in this environment of upheaval and disparity that a struggling Nebraska football team that had never previously suffered consecutive losing seasons was now returning from three losing campaigns in a row. Head coach Lewandowski was back for his second year, while also serving as Nebraska's athletic director, to see if he could reverse the fortunes of the Cornhusker football squad.
After the season
Nebraska continued to fall into a tailspin, with each year seeming no better, and sometimes worse, than the last. The Cornhuskers had now strung together four straight losing seasons, a bleak picture for a program not used to having even one occasional isolated losing campaign. Coach Lewandowski repeated his 1943 overall and league records in 1944, bringing his overall Nebraska career total to just 4–12–0 (.250), with a slightly better Big 6 total of 4–6–0 (.400). Nebraska's overall program now stood at 305–122–31 (.700) with a conference record of 111–25–11 (.793).
Coach Lewandowski, in his role as athletic director, decided that change was needed in the program, and swept the entire coaching staff out of the program, including himself. Brought aboard following 1944 was storied football coach George Clark, a player for two colleges and then two military teams prior to starting his coaching career in 1916. Clark had also served in both world wars, and his appointment at Nebraska followed his return home to the United States.
To his credit, Coach Lewandowski's leadership allowed Nebraska football to continue uninterrupted through World War II even as numerous other schools suspended their programs for a time. With limited resources, sparse rosters, through rationing and travel restrictions, his guidance kept the program's continuous history intact.