Fun Facts: Iowa-Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. -- The season flies by. One day is a sweltering final Saturday in August. The next, it's Black Friday in the chill.

It's best sometimes to just stop and smell the roses. Oh, wait. They're all dead.

Anyhow, take a moment to relax and enjoy some Fun Facts:

1. Nebraska has won its last seven games that were decided by six points or less, dating to early last season. One of the seven was its 13-7 win at Iowa last year.

2. Starting next year, four of the seven games Iowa will play every season - against Nebraska, Iowa State, Minnesota and Wisconsin -- will be for traveling trophies. That's too many.

3. Bob Wischusen, who is doing the play-by-play of this game for ABC, has been the radio pregame and postgame voice of the New York Red Bulls. 

4. Iowa's last win in Lincoln was 1943. The score was 33-13. It was the Hawkeyes' season-finale, and it was their only win in eight games. The following year, Iowa beat Nebraska in Iowa City. That also was the Hawkeye's lone win that season. Slip Madigan was the coach those two seasons, and only those two seasons. He had enjoyed far more success at St. Mary's.

5. Nebraska quarterback Ron Kellogg III's dad is, obviously, Ron Kellogg Jr., of Omaha. He chose Kansas over Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Creighton. He was a terrific college player, scoring 1,508 points. He was a cog on the Jayhawks' 1986 Final Four team.

6. Nebraska is one of just four FBS teams with nine or more wins in each of the past five seasons. The others are Alabama, Boise State and Oregon.

7. Iowa's radio network has an affiliate station in Omaha. The Husker Radio Network  has an affiliate in Ogallala.

8. The Hawkeyes have averaged 7.3 points over their last seven games against the Huskers, and haven't scored more than 13 in any of them.

9. Nebraska will be going to its 50th bowl game sometime before or on Jan. 1. The first one was the Rose Bowl, in the 1940 season. The Huskers' first bowl win was at the 1962 Gotham Bowl in Yankee Stadium.

10. This is the Hy-Vee Heroes Game. I worked at a Hy-Vee for over three years as a youth. No one there ever called me a hero. Well, that's not entirely true. I was actually pretty heroic in the eyes of those who liked it when their fellow part-time employees would get all smart-alecky to other part-timers who were kiss-ups and were given a little bit of authority. I shop at Hy-Vee. And Fareway. And Target. And Dollar General. If any of them would like to be the corporate sponsor of the Hlog, that can be arranged.