Nebraska’s ‘Surrender Whites’ – Fact or Fiction?

Famously, Nebraska wore all-white in the 1966 Orange Bowl against Alabama. The Huskers entered the game ranked No. 3, but the two teams ahead of them (Michigan State and Arkansas) had both lost, opening the door for Nebraska to win its first national championship. Nebraska lost 39-28, and the all-white look disappeared for 25 years.

Was this the start of the surrender white curse?

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I consider 1970 to be the start of the modern era of Nebraska uniforms. That is the year the Huskers switched to the red, sans-serif "N" on their white helmets. The details of the uniforms themselves have changed over the years - much more than most fans realize.* But that classic Nebraska helmet has been worn in 99.1% of NU's games since the start of the 1970 season.

*What has changed, you ask? Stripes on the pants (or not). Stripes on the shoulders, or sleeves, or the gorgeous loops that NU wore in the early 1970s. The letter "N" on the sleeves, chest or pants. Numerous jersey patches. Those hideous side panels on the 2002 uniforms. And that doesn't even approach the various fabrics and cuts of the uniforms themselves - a rabbit hole the size of the Grand Canyon.

The first time Nebraska wore all-white in the modern uniform era was the 1991 Citrus Bowl against Georgia Tech. The Huskers closed one of the worst seasons of the Tom Osborne era with a 45-21 loss. The Yellow Jackets were a very good team - they split the 1990 national championship with Colorado. Nebraska would have lost regardless of what uniforms they wore. But for many fans, this game is origin point for the "surrender whites" narrative.*

*Per Twitter user @MikeKratville, Nebraska nearly had an accidental all-white game in 1982. The Huskers flew out to Hawaii for their regular-season finale, but the equipment staff packed the white pants instead of the road reds. The red pants traveled to the islands on Gov. Charles Thone's plane and arrived just in time.

True believers of the surrender whites curse will note that the No. 3 Huskers trailed the Rainbow Warriors 16-7 going into the fourth quarter. Nebraska exploded for 30 points to avoid one of the biggest upsets in school history. Hawaii finished the 1982 season 6-5.

Between the 1991 Citrus Bowl and the 1996 shutout at Arizona State (a disaster of a game regardless of what color the pants were), the Huskers played 23 games wearing their road white jerseys.

The Cornhuskers went 20-2-1 in that stretch.* The only losses - at Washington and at Iowa State in 1992 - were in white pants. The Iowa State game is especially noteworthy as it was Osborne's only loss in his 25-year career to a team that finished with a losing record.

*The 1992 team won at Missouri in all-white uniforms. A true freshman quarterback got his first start that day. A kid from Florida named Tommie Frazier. He turned out to be pretty good, the Iowa State loss notwithstanding.

The next infamous moment in the Nebraska's all-white uniform history came in 2002. For some reason, Bill Byrne thought Nebraska should "modernize" its look. Nebraska's road uniforms that season were white jerseys and white pants with a single, thick red stripe from the knees to the armpit. The first time Nebraska fans saw them in action was in a nationally televised 40-7 loss at Penn State. 

The 2002 Huskers were - at the time - the worst team of my life, finishing with an appalling 7-7 record. Five of the six times the 2002 team wore all-white, they lost. Three of those losses were by 22 points or more. The lone road win - at Texas A&M - featured a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback. For fans of my generation, the reputation of the "surrender whites" was cemented in 2002.

Steve Pederson mercifully retired the thick-stripe uniforms when he became Nebraska's athletic director at the end of 2002. Since then, the Huskers have worn all-white 10 times (not including the all-white alternate uniforms in 2016 and 2021).

The Huskers are 3-7 in those games. They have allowed an average of 37 points per game, including defensive breakdowns of 45, 56, 59* and 65 points.

*You likely remember this as the "Melvin Gordon game."

Put it all together and Nebraska is 7-15 since 1990 when wearing all-white. Broken down, it looks like this:

• 2-0 in all-white alternate uniforms
• 1-5 in the 2002 disasters
• 4-10 when the road jersey is worn with the home pants

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"But Dave," you say, "Nebraska hasn't been good in ANY uniform combination in that stretch."

That seems like a valid point. But I wanted to run the numbers. For a consistent sample size, these numbers are from the 1991 Citrus Bowl through the 2025 Maryland game:*

• 184-58, .760: Nebraska's traditional home uniforms (red jerseys over white pants).
• 88-68-1, .564: Nebraska's traditional road uniforms (white jerseys over red pants).
• 7-6, .538: Nebraska in an alternate uniform.
• 7-15, .318: Nebraska in any all-white uniform (alternates, 2002, and white over white).
• 6-15, .286: Nebraska in any monotone uniform (all-red, all-black, or all-white).
• 4-10, .286: Nebraska's traditional white road jerseys with the white home pants (excluding 2002).

*These numbers include neutral-site games but exclude the 2017 Oregon game, where NU wore its classic home uniform on the road.

The only way to get the traditional road uniform numbers to be comparable to .286 in all-white is to cherry pick the range of games to start with the 2014 Fresno State game (the first time Bo Pelini's teams wore all-white). The results from that arbitrary range (15-33, .312) are still better than the so-called surrender whites.

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Is the "Surrender Whites Curse" real?

Nope.

I'll freely acknowledge that the color of the polyester, nylon and spandex pants worn by Nebraska's football team ultimately makes zero impact on if the Huskers win or lose. The Vegas point spreads may fluctuate for weather and injuries, but I guarantee they do not shift based on which pants the equipment staff loaded on the truck.

So why does the curse continue to come up? To me, the notion of surrender whites is an equal combination of three different things:

1. Fan superstition. Many of us - myself included - have game-day rituals or garments that we believe bring luck. Believing in surrender whites appeals to that instinct.
2. A silly, IYKYK joke. Lincoln residents are likely familiar with the idea of a "Lincoln Dome" - an invisible barrier that prevents the Capital City from being hit by severe weather. Obviously, there is no magic force field keeping tornadoes at bay. But the Dome is something to blame when your yard doesn't get any rain or the predicted blizzard results in a sunny day. The same principle applies to the idea that wearing white pants means a loss is coming. Lincoln gets hit by storms and Nebraska wins tons of game wearing white pants.
3. Sartorial preference. Call me an old blue hair if you like, but I believe Nebraska's white over red road uniforms are iconic perfection. I see zero reason for the Huskers to wear anything else when they're away from home. If pointing out NU's abysmal record when wearing all-white helps me shift the opinions of those who think a grass-stained all-white uniform is "clean," so be it.

I understand that the wants and desires of the players in the program will always get priority over what fans want. If star quarterback Dylan Raiola wants to wear all-white at Minnesota, then you better believe that is what will happen. I like that part of his motivation for wearing them is to atone for Nebraska's last outing in all-white: a 56-7 blowout at Indiana in 2024.

At the end of the day, the wins are what matter most.