1898 Nebraska Bugeaters football team
The 1898 Nebraska Bugeaters represented the University of Nebraska in the 1898 college football season. They were led by first-year head coach Fielding H. Yost and played home games at Antelope Field in Lincoln, Nebraska. After leaving the Western Interstate University Football Association, Nebraska competed as an independent in 1898. Yost would later become a College Football Hall of Fame coach, winning six national championships at Kansas, Stanford, and Michigan, though he stayed at Nebraska for just one season.
Nebraska played 11 games in 1898, the most in the program’s nine-year history, with several games on consecutive days. The season opened with a 76–0 win over Hastings College, setting program records for points and margin. The Bugeaters then beat Tarkio 24–0 and William Jewell in Kansas City 38–0, continuing a string of shutouts (seven in nine games). Nebraska followed with a 47–0 victory over Missouri in Columbia.
Grinnell forced the game to be canceled, claiming Nebraska did not follow requirements in selecting game officials. Nebraska defeated Kansas next, extending its winning streak to 11 games, before losing 24–0 to the Kansas City Medics two days later.
In its first-ever meeting with Drake, Drake won 6–5. The team then traveled to Boulder for the first time to face Colorado, winning a close game there. Back home, Nebraska edged Denver AC by a single point in what would be their final meeting with Denver AC. The season concluded with a 6–5 loss to Iowa when the game was stopped at night after a late Iowa touchdown.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:02 (CET).