The 1983 Nebraska Cornhuskers, College Football’s Would-Be Champions
They scored 52 points a game, held No. 1 all season, and were hailed as the greatest team of all time. Then came Miami. This is the first book about the Husker team history forgot.
Also in select bookstores across Nebraska. Ask your local bookseller.
Orange Bowl, January 2, 1984. Down 31–30 in the final minute, Tom Osborne passed on the tie and went for two, and the national title, from the three-yard line.
In 1983, Nebraska fielded perhaps the most explosive offense college football had ever seen. Behind quarterback Turner Gill, Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier and wingback Irving Fryar, the Huskers averaged 52 points and 546.7 yards a game, putting up 84, 72, 69 and 63 along the way. They held the No. 1 ranking through the entire regular season, and before the Orange Bowl some were already calling them the greatest team of all time.
Then came Miami, a 17–0 hole, a furious comeback, and one of the most famous decisions in the sport’s history. Rather than kick for a tie, Coach Tom Osborne went for the win.
Three Yards Away is the first book devoted to that team. Built on interviews with Osborne and his former players and on deep archival research, it follows the 1983 season game by game, sets it within the full sweep of Nebraska football from 1890 to Osborne’s final game in 1998, and makes the case that the 1983 defense was far better than history remembers.
It is also the story of a brotherhood. More than four decades later, the men of 1983 still show up for one another, which may be the truest measure of what Osborne built.
“Somebody has to preserve their place.”Dennis P. Crawford, on why he wrote the book
Dennis sat down with the coach and the players who lived it. Among those interviewed:
Chris Fort goes inside Three Yards Away: the frozen December that kept the Huskers indoors before Miami, Dennis’s interview with Coach Osborne, and the lasting bond among the 1983 players.
Radio interview on the Kennedy book and the 1968 Nebraska primary.
April 15, 2025, in Lincoln.
Podcast conversation about Kennedy’s 1968 campaign in Nebraska.
Meet Dennis, hear stories from the 1983 season, and get your copy signed.
Dates at bookstores, libraries and gatherings across Nebraska will be posted here as they’re confirmed. Check back soon.
Host Dennis at your eventBookstores, libraries, clubs, historical societies and Husker gatherings are welcome to invite Dennis for a talk or signing.
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Dennis and Laura’s 2024 book
In the spring of 1968, Nebraska mattered. Only fifteen states held presidential primaries, and Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy both campaigned hard across the state to prove to party leaders that they could carry farm country in November.
Kennedy’s whistle-stop tour took him from the Beatrice State Home to a pointed exchange with students at Creighton University to the neighborhoods of north Omaha. He won decisively, 52 percent to 31, a victory that put him on the road to the nomination. Written by a father and daughter, this is the first book on the 1968 Nebraska primary, a chapter long overlooked in histories of the Kennedy campaign.
Dr. Laura J. Crawford is Assistant State Archaeologist at History Nebraska (the Nebraska State Historical Society) in Lincoln. She earned her undergraduate degree in anthropology at Creighton University, her master’s in archaeology at the University of Alaska, and her doctorate in archaeology at The Ohio State University in 2020. Beyond Nebraska, she has done extensive fieldwork in Alaska and worked as an archaeologist in New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio, Hawaii and Guam. She lives in Lincoln with her husband, Ben, and their son, Harlan, and they still visit the museums she loved growing up.
Selected by U.S. Representative Mike Flood (R-Neb.) as his featured book for January 2025. See his reading list
“It’s an outstanding book. Highly recommended.”
Robin A. Johnson, host of the Heartland Politics Show and Podcast, WVIK Public Radio
“My mother participated in the 1968 train stop rally in Fremont, so it was honestly a true pleasure to read your book. The book was very well researched, and well done.”
Ryan C. Hendrickson, Ph.D., President, University of St. Francis
“This book is meticulously researched and is an enjoyable read.… As someone that devours Nebraska history, this is one of my top-recommended books in the last 5 years!”
Cody Thatcher
“It digs deep to get the quotes and the pictures of this moment in history.… The detailed research the author poured into this book shows it was anything but a sure win.”
Russ Gifford
“A wonderful, insightful read! I especially loved the stories about the train stops across the state, including my home town of North Platte!”
Joe Huebner
Dennis P. Crawford is a lifelong Husker fan who spent nearly four decades as a trial lawyer before turning to history. With Three Yards Away, he set out to give one of Nebraska’s greatest teams the place in history it deserves.
A lifelong Lincoln resident, Dennis earned a degree in political science from Creighton University in 1982 and a law degree from the Catholic University of America in 1985. He came home to practice law in Nebraska courts from 1986 to 2023, representing people injured in accidents. He approaches history much as he once approached a case, gathering scattered sources and fitting them together, piece by piece, into a story.
Politics and history have been lifelong passions. Dennis was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014 and served as Second Associate Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party from 2012 to 2016. After retiring from law, he co-wrote Robert F. Kennedy: The Road Not Taken (Goose Creek Press, 2024) with his daughter, Dr. Laura J. Crawford. Three Yards Away (McFarland, 2026) is his first book on Husker football.
Dennis and his wife, Diane, have three adult children and one grandson.
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Dennis P. Crawford is a historian and retired trial lawyer from Lincoln, Nebraska. He is the author of Three Yards Away: The 1983 Nebraska Cornhuskers, College Football’s Would-Be Champions (McFarland, 2026) and co-author, with Dr. Laura J. Crawford, of Robert F. Kennedy: The Road Not Taken, From Nebraska to the White House (Goose Creek Press, 2024).
For interviews, event invitations, book clubs or bulk orders, send Dennis a message.
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