That was a Jennings miss. Interesting info on why he changed from NU to KU.
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To Bill Jennings, the 1961 Shrine Bowl must have felt like a movie preview. Gale Sayers scored four scintillating touchdowns — and made a few crushing tackles at linebacker — as the Nebraska coach watched from the Memorial Stadium sidelines.
“I like the way he went up there on defense and hit a few people,” Jennings said.
Sayers was slated to be Nebraska’s next star — he might even save the Husker coach’s job.
Then it all fell apart.
Sayers had signed a grant-in-aid agreement to Nebraska in June, but his recruiting visit still bothered him. Husker running back Willie Ross hollered at Sayers and teammate Vernon Breakfield to take off their Central letter jackets, nearly starting a fight. At the student union, they attended a dance with 44 black athletes and only two black girls.
Sayers and Breakfield were housed in a dorm basement, where heating pipes clanged and temperature fluctuated. I wouldn’t go to this college if they gave us $1 million, Breakfield told Sayers.
Jennings heard about the disaster and took Gale and Vernon out for a steak dinner. But Gale was never quite sold. Two weeks before school started, he visited Kansas, where KU’s top athletes greeted him warmly and showed him black fraternities and sororities.
Kansas had gone 7-2-1 in 1960; Nebraska was 4-6. Sayers thought the Jayhawks would better prepare him for the NFL. Ten days before classes started, he flipped to KU, citing pressure from Nebraska boosters. The news stirred an uproar in Omaha.
World-Herald columnist Wally Provost wrote that Sayers was a product of “the big-time college recruiting madness. Until the NCAA takes steps to stop it, the madness will prevail.” Indeed, the NCAA intervened in 1964 with the “national letter of intent,” preventing rivals from recruiting prospects after they signed.
Had the Huskers performed in 1961, whiffing on Sayers would’ve been forgiven. But Jennings went 3-6-1, earning a ticket out of town. His next job? Kansas running backs coach.
He got to coach Gale Sayers after all.