After the game, Frederick Ware of the Omaha World-Herald wrote: "It's his roaring, tearing, gay, freebooting way that reminds me of the defiant, joyous, speeding wild horse that loves to run with the wind on the plains."
This beautiful piece of prose begat one of the great nicknames in school history:
Lloyd Cardwell, the Wild Hoss of the Plains.*
Like a galloping horse, Cardwell took powerful strides, seeming to glide on top of the field. Where some players would run around would-be tacklers, the Wild Hoss of the Plains knew the shortest distance between two points was a straight line. He was going through, thank you, not around.
In the 1935 season opener, Nebraska hosted the University of Chicago and its star back Jay Berwanger. Berwanger scored on an 18-yard run. The Wild Hoss of the Plains had a 7-yard touchdown run, a 9-yard touchdown reception and a 86-yard kickoff return touchdown. The Lincoln Star wrote, "With Jay Berwanger galloping hither and yon no margin was considered safe. He did all that was expected of him. The difference between he and Cardwell was that Cardie did more than any human could or should expect."
Berwanger would win the first Heisman Trophy later that year.
