The Husky ball carrier got loose in Lincoln for one of the longest TD jaunts in school history.
What awaits the University of Washington football team in Nebraska on Saturday night is best described as a civic if not a cultural experience, with people coming from all over the state to attend a holy pilgrimage.
No, make that a straight-up horror movie in the Middle of America, according to former Husky running back Jay Barry, who was part of the travel party for the 1991 UW-Nebraska game.
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A Nightmare on Cornhusker Elm Street.
“There was a lot of red, a lot of red,” Barry said. “Pulling into the stadium, it was really scary because there was so much red. I had to close my eyes.”
Growing up in Colorado, in the Denver suburbs of Northglenn, Barry was well versed to this sort of football fanaticism that takes place in the neighboring state. Still, it took some getting used to on his part to experience it.
“The stadium was super crowded,” Barry recalled of the 76,304 gathering, which has increased 10,000 more since he played there. “It was so loud when we were on offense that you couldn’t hear. You couldn’t hear anything from the sideline, no coaches screaming, nothing. You couldn’t hear the quarterback. You had to look at Billy Joe’s mouth to see what kind of play he was calling.”
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Billy Joe Hobert was the UW’s wise-guy signal-caller who popped off during the week on a Seattle radio show, calling the Cornhuskers players “corn ears” and other assorted pet names, and it got back to the Nebraska players.
Once on the field, more than one guy in a red jersey walked up to Hobert and referred to him as “Betty Sue.”
Oh, the mean-spirited insults.
Once all of the trash-talking was done, it was time to get down to the physical exchange and it was memorable.
“It was a tough game,” Barry said. “Nebraska was hitting really hard. It was a good old-fashioned football game.”
It finally was left up to Barry to put this one away with 5:36 left to play, and the Huskies leading 29-21, when he took a handoff, bounced to the right side, broke three tackles and sprinted 81 yards for a clinching touchdown.
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“It was a draw,” he said. “It was a slow-developing play. It just opened up and I just took it down the sideline and I was gone.”
His run still ranks among the 15 longest in Husky history and it was the fourth longest of the Don James era.
“We were a good team,” Barry said. “They opened [the hole] up. You just had to hurry on up and get on through it.”
Up in the broadcast booth, the lengendary Keith Jackson sized up the moment this way, “That thumping sound was the door slamming.”
Hobert, of course, wasn’t done wise-cracking about the game, only this running back teammate of his would be his foil. Barry had adequate speed but he wasn’t known as a breakaway guy such as teammate Beno Bryant, and the quarterback had to remind him of that.
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“What I remember most about that game is Barry’s long touchdown run,” Hobert said. “I’ve never seen anyone run a 5.2 [second] 40 go that far for a touchdown. It was crazy. When he did that, it was, holy crap, we’re going to win this game.”
That they did, but not until Barry pulled off his helmet in the end zone for all of the ABC-TV cameras to see, was engulfed by teammates and needed several minutes to catch his breath as the final score would read 36-21.
“I took off my helmet at the end,” he said. “You’re not supposed to celebrate like that.”
For that matter, you’re not supposed to win or run like that in Nebraska either.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/washington as Jay Barry’s Run To Everlasting Glory in Nebraska.