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It is important to make sure the "game used" items you purchase are not fake. Knowing the history of the jerseys is a great first step in determining the legitimacy of your purchase.
A second important step is trying to match the jersey or helmet to photos or videos, which is called "photo-matching". Most jerseys sold in the past ten years are easy to verify because they have year tags if they were issued for game use by the University of Nebraska.
To verify helmets make sure the facemask and stickers on the back of the helmet match up to photos or game video. Look for scratches and stains on the helmet (or jerseys).

It also can help if the person you are buying from has a decent story of where the item came from.

If all else fails feel free to drop me an email at CRBigRed@hotmail.com and I will do my best to help authenticate your item.

Glen Abbott

Glen Abbott is significant to this section because he was the longtime Head Equipment Manager for the University of Nebraska and you see his name on many COA’s.

It was Mr. Abbott who was responsible for ordering all uniforms, jerseys, pants, shoes, helmets and all patches.
For many years, Nebraska had a seamstress who sewed these patches onto the jersey's and she also sewed the names of the players on the back of the jerseys.
But, Glen Abbott was working with Russell Athletics, who had been the longtime official outfitters for the Huskers, until they lost the bid after the 1994 season.
Mr. Abbott and Russell Athletic was experimenting with the Nebraska patch and they were thinking about having the patch monogrammed into the jerseys, rather than buying a separate patch and having the patch sewn onto the jerseys.
Russell Athletics had actually provided several Bowl jerseys and rather than sewing an Orange Bowl Patch onto the jerseys, Russell Athletics obtained the official patch frm the Orange Bowl and then the patch was actually monogrammed into the jersey, rather than having a patch sewn onto the jersey.　


Nebraska jersey history (1960’s to present)
For over 25 years, Nebraska had been wearing Russell Athletic jerseys. In the middle part of the 1960's, Bob Devaney started wearing Russell Athletic Jerseys exclusively and Nebraska had a long relationship with Russell Athletics. Then, in the early part of the 1990's Nebraska opened up for bid the uniform contract; as uniforms became a very competitive market. No longer were teams buying their jerseys, the uniform companies were paying the colleges to wear their gear, because of the marketing and advertising benefit that the companies received.

When Nebraska opened up their uniform contract in 1994, it was a company by the name of
APEX which won the bid and thus was awarded the Nebraska Uniform contract to begin in 1995. Although the contract began in 1995 Apex sent Nebraska uniforms that they wanted the team to wear in the 1995 Orange Bowl. Russell Athletics also sent the team an entire Orange Bowl set of Jerseys as Russell claimed they had the contract from 1994 and that included the January 1995 Game.
Thus, Glen Abbott received two complete sets of Orange Bowl jerseys and he gave two jerseys to each player and he let the players decide which uniform they wanted to wear. Therefore, you see two styles of jersey in this game. And, some players wore one jersey in the first half and the other jersey in the second half.

So, 1995 started the Apex Uniform Era at Nebraska.
As promised, Apex sent to Nebraska a million dollars of free football gear in return for Nebraska wearing their uniform which gave Apex an extreme amount of national exposure.
But, there was one problem, Apex over-extended themselves with the Nebraska contract which put the company in financial trouble. As a result, three weeks into the 1995 season, Apex sold out to Adidas and Adidas took over the contract. As a result, Adidas sent Nebraska another million dollars of new gear with new jerseys, pants, coaching items, etc because Adidas did not want Nebraska to wear anything with the old Russell Logo or the Apex Logo.
Since 1995, Adidas has been the official Outfitter of the NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS




1999+ Jersey Styles
In 1999 Nebraska first started wearing a RECTANGULAR NEBRASKA PATCH right below the "V" Part of the neck. The Round Nebraska Patch is also on the jersey and this new round patch was first introduced in 1999.

The Second Year of the Solich Era and this was the first year in which Nebraska started to wear this new style round patch. Prior to that time, a different type of Round Patch was being worn during the Osborne Era and the first year of the Frank Solich Era from 1990 – 1998. In 1990 and 1991 the round patch was dated, starting in 1992 the round patch was not dated and remained the same until 1998. Then, in 1999 a new round patch was adopted and this new round patch featured was on the 1999 Uniform. But now, in addition to the new round Nebraska patch, a rectangular patch was added to the front of the jersey and this is a NEW NEBRASKA PATCH IN 1999 that was placed right above the jersey numbers and right below the "V" part of the Neck.

The other big change about this 1999 jersey was that the jersey numbers on the front and back and the jersey numbers on the sleeves were silt tack twilled sewn on numbers and not screen printed numbers.

There was a big problem, the 1999 Season was a season in which Nebraska had major FUMBLE problems. In fact, Nebraska only lost one game in 1999. That loss came at Texas, when Nebraska played the Longhorns in Austin. In that Game alone, Nebraska had five fumbles. Two of those fumbles occurred inside the Texas 5 yard line as Nebraska was about to score. THE FINAL SCORE IN THAT GAME WAS: NEBRASKA – 20, TEXAS – 24. Later in the year, at the Big 12 Championship Game, Nebraska again played Texas and the score was: Nebraska – 22, Texas – 6. Nebraska was clearly the better team, but on that day in Austin, Texas played better and give the Texas Defense Credit, they did a great job of creating fumbles.

All season long, Nebraska had fumble issues and the team set new records for the amount of fumbles in one year. At the end of the season, Nebraska was edged out of playing in the national championship game against Florida State because of the one loss at Texas. Instead, undefeated Virginia Tech was given the opportunity to play for the title with their talented Quarterback Michael Vick. Nebraska played Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl and won that game and ended the year ranked #2 in the coaches poll and #3 in the AP poll.

After the season, Head Coach Frank Solich was extremely upset with the fumbles and so he went to Glen Abbott, the Head Equipment Manager and told him to change back to Screen Printed Numbers on the jersey's. Coach Solich felt the slick silk tack twilled numbers on the jerseys accounted for part of the reason that Nebraska was having a hard time holding onto the ball. As you look at the jerseys from 1999 you can clearly see that the silk tack twilled lettering, although it looks great, it is more slick. So, Solich was trying to do everything he could to correct the fumble problem which cost Nebraska the opportunity to play for a National Title in 1999.

Also on the back of the jersey the name is also tack twilled with silk letters and the letters are sewn directly onto the jersey, which was the practice in 1999. Nebraska did not use a name plate during this time period. Instead, the letters and name of the player was sewn directly onto the jersey by a lady who was the official seamstress that the University of Nebraska used for many years. She did all of the sewing for the University of Nebraska out of her home.

Nebraska Patch

A little history about the NEBRASKA PATCH
In the very early part of the 1970's the NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS did not put the player's name on the back of the jerseys. However, when Nebraska was invited to play in the 1971 ORANGE BOWL VS LSU As a reward for the season, the player's name was put on the back of the jersey - and this jersey became a Bowl jersey, because the name of the players was put on the back.
Then again, for the 1972 Orange Bowl vs Alabama, the team had the players name put on the back of the jersey and these jersey's became Bowl jerseys.
Then in the　later part of the　1970's Nebraska started to put the players name on the back of the jersey for the regular season.　 (Please note, this is　just a general statement, because there were some years in　which Nebraska did not put the players name on the back of the jerseys.　　And some years, the players name was put on the home red jersey - but not the white away jersey)
About this same time, in the very late 1970's and early part of the 1980's - with the players name on the regular season jersey's - Nebraska started to put a Bowl patch on the jersey they wore in the Bowl Games.　 At this same time, the Bowls also started to　issue official Bowl Patches that the players would wear on their jersey's.
So, in the 1980's - Nebraska was putting the player's name on the back of the jerseys and when they went to a Bowl Game, they would add a Bowl patch and the jersey would become a Bowl jersey.
Then, in 1989 - Nebraska celebrated 100 years of Football at the University of Nebraska and to celebrate that Centennial, Nebraska put fabulous jerseys on both shoulders for the regular season.　 Thus, the 1989 100 year jersey was a double patch jersey and the patch had the official 100　Year　Logo with the date of 1989 - thus it was dated.
By the way, Nebraska did not put the players name on the home red jersey in 1989.　 They only had the double patch.
Then in 1990 - Nebraska went to a small round patach that they　put on the shoulder.　 This patch in 1990 is identical to the patch we are offering in this lot - the only difference is that the patch in 1990 was dated　 1990 Then in 1991 - the patch was the　same, but this patch was also dated with the year 1991
Then in 1992, the jersey again had the same patch, but in 1992 the date was not added, it was just the round patch and this patch was used from 1992 - 1998
Nebraska never did adopt the Monogrammed Patch, instead they continued to use the patch that had to be sewn onto the outside of the jersey.
　But then in 1999 - a new style patch was adopted and that patch is still being used today.　 And the patch continues to be sewn onto the outside of the jersey.
Also, the Bowl patches have continued and when Nebraska goes to a Bowl Game, the Bowl Patch has sometimes been monogrammed into the jersey and sometimes the patch is separate and is sewn onto the outside of　the jersey.
There have been some other patches that have been used besides the Bowl Patches.
When Nebraska played in the Japan Bowl in 1992 - both teams wore special Japan Bowl patches for the game played on Toyko.
In 1994 when Nebraska played in the Kick-Off Classic, a special Kick-Off Classic Patch was added to the jersey
In 1997 - another patch was added to the jersey, a patch that was worn at the "V" part of the Neck and it said XII This XII patch in 1997 was only worn for one year
In 1998 a round patch with an "N" was added at the "V" part of the neck and only worn for one year in 1998. In 1999 a rectangular patch was added right below the "V" part of the neck and this patch said NEBRASKA

Helmets

Helmets from the late 1970's to the early 1980's were used by several different players during that time period. However, it must be understood that back at this time, players were not given their jerseys and helmets at the end of the season, because the Nebraska Athletic Department had to pay for all of their equipment at this time period and they had to use their equipment for several years. Helmets were the most expensive piece of equipment and they had to use their helmets for many years.

When new and up to date helmets were bought, the starters received those helmets.  And, the reserve players were given the older and used helmets. At this time it must also be noted that there was no limit on scholarships and walk-ons and how many players could be on the team.  It was not uncommon for Nebraska to have over 150 players on the team and plus the Nebraska Athletic Department had a Freshman Team with over 60 players.  The Freshman used the old equipment after the Varsity received the newer equipment.

At this time period, Nebraska also wore a couple different styles of helmets, but the helmets that they wore more than any other were the Riddell Helmets.  In the late 1970's the team also had gray facemasks on the front of the helmets.  Then, in the early 1980's, Nebraska started to buy the new and popular air helmets.  Not all of the players received the new air helmets.  The reserve players and the freshman team had to use the older Riddell Helmets.

There was another change in the early 1980's and that is when Nebraska started to wear red facemasks and at that time they also added the Huskers Decal onto the front of the helmet.

Thus, this helmet originally had a gray facemask, because it is an older 1970's helmet.  But, as reserve players and freshman players received the older equipment, this helmet eventually was upgraded with the red facemask and the Huskers decal.

For those people who think it is strange that a helmet goes through an upgrade, it must be understood that each and every year, every helmet goes through an upgrade, because each helmet has to be recertified on a yearly basis and at that time the decals are taken off the helmets and the helmets are inspected and then they are upgraded with the new and current decals that are being worn on a helmet. Thus, every helmet goes through an upgrade every single year for safety reasons.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's the numbers on the back of this helmets were larger than they are today. But, even though Nebraska switched to the Air Helmets in the 1980's, not everyone was given a new Air Helmet, the reserves and Freshman teams continued to use the older Riddell Helmets.