Nebraska football: Remembering former kicker Paul Rogers

Former Nebraska football kicker Paul Rogers passed away last week. The kicker is credited with saving Bob Devaney’s job in the early years.

Paul Rogers is certainly not the most famous former Nebraska football player. Despite his not being a household name, there are some who believe he played a key role in helping shape the Cornhuskers program into what it would eventually become.

Rogers passed away late last week at the age of 69. The former Husker kicker had some big plays over the course of his career.

Those plays include a 51-yard field goal against Wyoming in 1968 that won a game. He had other kicks that season that took the lead or grabbed the win and allowed Nebraska to go 6-4 instead of 3-7.

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As the Omaha World-Herald points out, had the team lost those games, Bob Devaney might have been fired before he ever had a chance to build Nebraska to what it was. “Coach Devaney always said that had that field goal not gone through (against Wyoming), it really might have cost him and his staff the job,” Rogers told the paper, back in 2002.

Rogers also helped set the tone of dominance the following season, 1969 as the Huskers started to gear up for their national title runs. He kicked four field goals in the first quarter of his team’s Sun Bowl win over Georgia.

The final score of that game was 45-6 but it was Rogers’ 12 points in the opening period which helped the Huskers take an 18-0 lead. They never looked back.

The next year, 1970, Devaney won his first national title. Two years after he was on the coaching hot seat.

When Rogers’ Husker career came to an end, he held many of the school’s kicking records. One, in particular, stood for three decades.

You likely remember that Alex Henery broke the school record for longest field goal in a late win over Colorado in 2008 when he hit a 57-yarder. What you might not have known is that it was Paul Rogers’ 55-yarder during the Devaney era that Henery surpassed.

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Paul Rogers might not be a household name, but Nebraska football fans all over the world should look into him a little more. He leaves this world with a bigger legacy than you might think.