Rich Glover was a starter on Nebraska’s 1970 and ’71 National Championship team as a defensive tackle. He won the Outland Trophy, Lombardi Award, AFCA-Kodak Player of Year, and finished Third Place in Heisman Trophy voting in 1972. Other awards that year include Defensive Player of the Year (AP and UPI), All Big Eight – AP, UPI, World-Herald, and the Outstanding Defensive Player in the Orange Bowl.
In the Game of the Century, he had 22 tackles and knocked down the 4th down pass attempt by Jack Mildren to ice the game.
His professional career began with the New York Giants who selected him in the third round and he played with 1971 Outland Trophy winner and former Husker teammate Larry Jacobson. Injuries ended his career in 1975 with the Philadelphia Eagles.
He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995. In 1999 he was selected to the Sports Illustrated NCAA Football All Century Team. He is also on the Gannett News Service All Century Team. His Number 79 jersey was retired in 2005.
RG Back then the only big schools in the East were Penn State and Syracuse. Rutgers wasn’t playing football at that time. I had a coach that went to Syracuse and another that went to Wyoming. Syracuse said I wasn’t big enough to play for them. Same thing for Penn State. Wyoming, at that time the coach was Lloyd Eaton, he was on his way out. They sent me a scholarship in the mail to come out to Wyoming. I was a guy from New Jersey that had never been outside of the state before. I said, no I don’t think I want to go there. First of all, I wanted to see what it looked like and second of all it was in Wyoming. That was a little ways for me. I definitely wanted to get away to see what other parts of the country looked like so when Nebraska came back and recruited me, he was also looking at Daryl White who I became best friends with later. When Coach Kiffin came over to Jersey City I got a call from the front office. Coach Kiffin said he liked what he saw and said he would be back to meet my parents, take us out to dinner and bring me out for a visit.
DM What was it like playing with Larry Jacobson who won the Outland Trophy the year before you did?
RG I didn’t know Larry as a freshman. I was a starter on the freshman team. Then when I went up to varsity they said I was number eight. They had the black shirts, the gold shirts, the green shirts, the white shirts, they had no shirts and they had commandos. Commandos were guys on scholarship who you don’t get to play, you just practice and scrimmage. I worked my way up to become a starter. Larry Jacobson was the starter and they said he was going to play. They bring out this big tall lanky guy and I thought, man, where was he at?
RG Yeah. The one he told when I first met him. He said “I only have two rules. One, you go to class. Two, you don’t get in trouble with the police.” I said “Shucks, those are the same two rules I had at home. If that’s all I have to do here then it’s going to be easy.” He was a coach. He was a Dad. He was a friend. He had an open door policy. I’ve been with a lot of coaches on different teams. He was a conditioning guy. We would run. Guys today take off their pads and helmets, well NO, we were all on the line. Everybody was running. One time he said “Who’s tired?” One guy raised his hand. “Everybody back on that line. We’re going to run again. I just wanted to see if someone would raise their hand.” He also would say “We’re on a business trip. Once we win this game we’re going to go home.” He never said we’re going to lose. Always positive.
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DM What is your memory of the Game of the Century against Oklahoma in 1971?
RG Oklahoma was the team to beat in the Conference. We were playing to stay number one. They were two. Playing for a trip to the Orange Bowl. They had Tom Brahaney, quarterback Jack Mildrin, then you got Gregg Pruitt, you got Leon Crosswhite, you got a great defense. All I remember was that we had to beat them because we were number one. I was going against the best center in America in Tom Brahaney. For me, if he was the best center in America and I play my best game and we beat them then I am the best nose guard in America. I looked at that game like that. We took a head shot before the game, me and him, and he had that little smirk on his face like he was just going to beat you. I just looked at that and went back to the hotel and told my teammates “They think they’re going to beat us. They’re laughing at us.” I just took it like that.
