GREAT GAME OF A GREAT NAME
You can be sure that many people will remember “the play”. He came in the second quarter of the 1973 Orange Bowl game against Notre Dame when Johnny Rodgers threw a touchdown pass to Frosty Anderson.
“He wasn’t supposed to be on that play,” Frosty Anderson said. “We knew the play would be there and it would be an easy six.” It was and the rest of the night was a disaster for the Fighting Irish. But that’s not the game that Frosty considers the best game of his.
“The Wisconsin game was my best game,” he said. “We kept falling behind and then I finally scored and put Nebraska ahead. I thought that would be enough, but Wisconsin came back and scored. That’s when Tony Davis went to work with one of his three runs for about 30 yards each.” Nebraska won.
“Someone came up and made a comment that he had something like nine catches and 160 yards,” Frosty said. “I didn’t think much of it even though it turned out to be an I-back type performance.”
It’s no wonder Frosty can put up a memorable performance against a Big 10 team. He comes from Big 10 roots. His father, Forrest, Sr., better known as “Forddy,” coached basketball at Michigan State. The family moved to Scottsbluff, where his father accepted a position as a basketball coach. Frosty stood out in Scottsbluff and caught the attention of Nebraska coach Jim Ross during a game between Scottsbluff and Fremont.
Coach Devaney knew Frosty’s father from his days as an assistant football coach at Michigan State.
“I always assumed I’d go to Michigan state, but when the offer came from Nebraska, I thought what the hell and signed,” he said. Not a bad decision considering that just two years later, the young star from Scottsbluff would be sporting a National Championship ring.
Like all freshmen in those days, Frosty started out in Nebraska’s freshman football program. That team only had one loss. “We lost to the first team from Kearney State,” Frosty said.
“Jim Walden was our freshman football coach,” Frosty said. “He was my first experience with a ‘sur-mouth’ and he preached three things: be agile, be mobile and be hostile.” Frosty wore a red jersey as a sophomore.
“I am what was known as the hope of the second team,” he said. “To play in Nebraska, you have to be top-notch, be responsible for what you do and be patient. That’s the way it is.” Frosty was hit on the scouting team and was “blackshirt bait” before earning his day in the Memorial Stadium sun.
His first college touchdown came on a pass from Van Brownson during a Utah State game. “He was out of an out and up hook pattern,” Frosty recalled as a smile spread across his face. “He almost knocked me down and I had to brace myself, but I did it.”
Patience and practice paid off as the talented split winger inched his way up the depth chart. She did the ABC Sports Feature Movies with a third clutch. down and 15-yard catch against Colorado. “It was a precise pattern seventeen yards down and out and I caught it.”
Not everything went smoothly for Husker during Frosty’s senior year. “We went to California to play UCLA and Mark Harmon and they beat us. I lost my starting job in that game,” Frosty said. Oklahoma also crushed Nebraska, 27-0. “It was almost seven years before he stopped taking the Oklahoma losses personally.”
Despite the losses, Frosty earned All-Conference honors at his split end position and academic honors as well. “I met Mark Harmon at the academic event and he told me that they were very afraid of Nebraska. That surprised me.”
Professional scouts also noticed Frosty. The New Orleans Saints drafted him in the eighth round as a wide receiver. His professional career lasted two years. During his first season, he came in late in the first half against the New York Jets, with Joe Namath leading, and he tore his shoulder. “They had to keep me because of my contract, but they cut me the following year.”
That ended football for Frosty Anderson. Frosty is still in great shape and is an avid runner. “Not the marathon stuff,” he pointed out quickly. “I do not have time for that”.
If you twist in your office chair a bit, you can look out your 11th-floor office window and see Memorial Stadium, but the football memories don’t consume you. “When you have kids, you soon find out that they’re not impressed that you played for the Huskers. They just want their diapers changed. It didn’t take me long to move on.”
He has also become a unique fan. “People need to remember they’re just kids. Kids don’t listen to you. No one had to tell me we played a bad game or lost a game. We knew it. It’s just a game.”
Not in Nebraska, Frosty, especially with a big name like yours.
