Football

2013 Hall of Famer: Tommie Frazier

TOMMIE FRAZIER
Quarterback
Nebraska
1992-95

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· Led Nebraska to unbeaten conference records for three straight seasons, 1993-95 and national championships in 1994 and 1995.
· Becomes the 16th Nebraska player to be elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
· Named to Sports Illustrated’s  All-Century Team.
· MVP in three bowl games.

Tommy Frazier, the first Cornhusker quarterback to be named to the College Football Hall of Fame, remembers his days as the Cornhuskers’ spectacular option quarterback in a peculiar way. He recalls his three losses--one to Iowa State during the regular season and two to Florida State in bowl games -- more than his 33 victories during a career that resulted in national championships in 1994 and 1995.

“Those (losses) are the ones you always look at yourself and say, ‘What could I have done more in those games?’” said Frazier who started 36 games from 1992-95. “I look at the losses more so than all the wins because there were so many wins here. It’s the losses that eat me up.”

Frazier, from Bradenton, Fla., was the first true freshman to start at quarterback for Nebraska. He grabbed the quarterback reins midway through the 1992 season and eventually accounted for 5,476 yards of total offense and 79 touchdowns during Nebraska’s four-year reign as Big Eight Conference champions.

“Tommy was better prepared to start as a freshman than any quarterback we had,” said Hall of Famer Tom Osborne, Frazier’s coach at Nebraska. “That’s not easy to do, but he was unusually mature and competitive. He had played at a high level in front of big crowds in high school, so going out and playing in a major-college game was not intimidating to him.”

Frazier’s career at Nebraska was interrupted by injury. During his junior season of 1994, he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg, and he missed seven games before returning and leading the Cornhuskers to a perfect season. It was capped by a 24-17 come-from-behind victory over Miami (Fla.) in the Orange Bowl in which Frazier was named an MVP.

“There was nothing that was going to stop me, because I was determined to get back on the field,” Frazier said. “The only thing that was going to keep me off the field was me losing my leg.”

Playing behind the “Pipeline,” Nebraska’s big offensive line, and with an array of talented running backs and receivers at his disposal, Frazier could keep defenses guessing. And when he kept the ball, he was elusive as demonstrated in his final game, a 62-24 rout of Florida in the national championship game on Jan. 1, 1996 at the Fiesta Bowl.  He rushed 16 times for 199 yards, with a spectacular 75-yard touchdown run his signature play.

“People always talk about the run, but my favorite play is the Colorado game my senior year when I was about to be sacked,” Frazier recalled of a 44-21 victory.  “And I was able to stay up and get the ball to Ahman Green. I think it was on third down to keep the drive going. So that showed what my game was all about. One guy is not going to bring me down.”

Frazier later played for the Montreal Allouettes of the Canadian Football  League and coached at Baylor and Nebraska before becoming the 32nd head coach at Doane College (Neb.). His jersey was retired by Nebraska in 1996, the same year he was inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame. He currently lives in Omaha and works for a healthcare foundation.

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