LINCOLN — For the second time since joining the Big Ten, Nebraska will wear its Adidas alternate uniform in a home game against Wisconsin.
It might be good luck, since the Huskers’ only win over the Badgers in league play was that 2012 game.
But the 2017 alternate look — a near-replica of NU’s uniform during the Huskers’ 1997 national title season — bears little resemblance to the superhero-style outfit NU wore in 2012 or any of Nebraska’s other alternate looks in Big Ten play.
It’s the usual Husker look — with a few retro touches.
This version removes the red stripes from the pants, and uses a number design that mirrors the mesh jersey Nebraska wore in 1997 — but the color scheme stayed the same, as did the helmet. No black or silver accents, no icy white look from last season, no matte finish on the helmet.
“Developed in collaboration with the University of Nebraska athletic department, the Husker ’97 alternate uniforms seamlessly blend a retro design that pays tribute to Nebraska’s classic signature style with cutting-edge innovation,” Adidas’ public relations office said in a press release. “Centered around a one-to-one re-creation of the mesh jerseys worn during the 1990s, Adidas designers were able to re-create the visual aesthetic and texture of the traditional numbers by utilizing a new framis screen-printing technique that also allows for flexibility and movement.”
An NU spokesman confirmed that the 1997 team will also be honored as part of the Nebraska-Wisconsin game Oct. 7 at Memorial Stadium.
After many years of wearing two stripes on its pants — red stripes at home and white stripes for road games — Nebraska removed the stripes for the 1995 season, its first year with Adidas. There was little fanfare at the time, though one Husker fan wrote into The World-Herald’s Voice from the Grandstand joking he’d start a petition to put the stripes back on.
NU wore no-stripe pants through the 2001 season. In 2002, players suggested, and then-coach Frank Solich allowed, a thick, solid red stripe down the pants. On the road, where players wore white jerseys and white pants, this red stripe resembled a bloodletting.
“I hope it doesn’t become a big issue,” Solich said in May 2002, after he approved the changes. “There’s been way too much talk about it. Why has there been? I’ve tried to keep the talk down.”
Fans never have forgotten those uniforms. In 2003, NU returned to no stripes on its pants.
In 2004, then-coach Bill Callahan put the stripes back on, where they’ve remained since, except for alternate looks.
Nebraska has worn an alternate look in each of the previous five seasons. Twice — in 2013 and 2015 — the jerseys were black. In 2012 and 2014, the jerseys were red. Last season, the Huskers chose to wear their all-white alternate uniforms at Northwestern. In 2009, Nebraska wore similar throwback uniforms, wearing replicas from NU’s 1962 season, when the Huskers’ sellout streak began.
The Huskers are 4-2 in alternate-uniform games, winning in 2009 (55-0 over Louisiana-Lafayette), 2012 (30-27 over Wisconsin), 2014 (45-14 over Illinois) and 2016 (24-13 over Northwestern). The Huskers lost at home in 2013 (41-21 to UCLA) and 2015 (30-28 to Northwestern).
In both losses, Nebraska wore black jerseys.
