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sold-out crowd of 50,248 fans went to see Syracuse, a team that for the past two years, built enough credibility to think it could hang with one of college football’s premier programs. It’d become one of the Orange’s most anticipated games in decades.

It’s 2019. Syracuse is hosting No. 1 Clemson in the Carrier Dome and the Orange are 28-point underdogs. Some think SU can pull it off. Others stay realistic. But one statistic jumps out: Syracuse was 1-10 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams.

Upsets and blowouts live in Orange folklore, but time-and-time again Syracuse failed against the NCAA’s best. Except once.

Before the program-changing upset of then-No. 2 Clemson in 2017, before the two-point conversion that sealed the undefeated season in 1987, there was a 6-5 Syracuse team that for one day, on Sept. 29, 1984, completed one of college football’s greatest upsets.

“There wasn’t anyone, anywhere who thought that we could win that game,” Syracuse’s second all-time leading wide receiver Scott Schwedes (‘87) said, “except for the hundred guys or so that were on our team.”

• • •

Nebraska and Syracuse were both considered in the top tier of college football in 1984. The problem was, SU was on its way out and the Cornhuskers were on their way up. The Orange hadn’t won more than eight games in 17 years. Nebraska rode a 21-game regular season win streak into 1984.

The Orange visited Lincoln, Nebraska five games into the 1983 season to a crowd of 76,382 fans. When SU players walked into Lincoln Airport, they couldn’t stop seeing Cornhusker red. Red walls, scarlet red cabs and even a red Pac-Man machine. “We were awestruck,” Schwedes said.

On the way to one of SU’s practices leading up to the Saturday kickoff, the Orange’s bus broke down. On the field, the red reigned over the Orange. Tight end Marty Chalk (‘84) caught a pass over the middle before halftime — one of the few plays for gain — and got clobbered by a defender, breaking his helmet.

“[Nebraska’s] aspiration was to be the best team to ever be on a college football field,” Schwedes said.

Syracuse’s program, a year later, was just trying to stay afloat. They finished 6-5 in 1983, and two games into the 1984 season, the Orange were a play away from losing to Northwestern, an eventual two-win team. The next week, SU turned the ball over seven times in the Dome. Mental mistakes plagued the Orange against Rutgers in a 19-0 loss. Schwedes remembers leaving the field and hearing boos.

That Sunday, six days before taking on No. 1 Nebraska, head coach Dick MacPherson showed tape of the shutout loss. Players cringed, watching every game plan, every simple play fall apart. They had to rate themselves on each play, grading between one and 10. The numbers, freshman John Dominic (‘88) said, were harsh.

MacPherson’s plan was to outline each player’s individual matchup and only focus on the Nebraska player covering them. If Syracuse could convince themselves that they could win each matchup within the game, maybe they’d forget Nebraska had beaten No. 8 UCLA by 39 points the week prior.

Wednesday, three days before the game, Chalk was asked by a reporter if Syracuse had a chance. “Well, if each and every one of the Syracuse players do our job the way the coaches are teaching us this week, we can beat Nebraska,” he said. His words were in a newspaper the next day and Chalk’s dad, Bob, saw the quote and called his son up.

“Marty, did you really say that?” Bob said.

Practice was harder than ever, but it went smooth. “It was one of the best practices we’ve ever had,” Schwedes said. Friday night, coaches went around SU dorms for a 9 p.m. bed check. Usually, it would be a hassle to make sure everyone was present. But that night, 100% of the team was already sleeping. The next morning, waking everyone up at 10 a.m. was difficult— players were so tired from that week’s practice.

“We were exhausted,” Chalk said. “But so ready.”

• • •

Anyone in the Carrier Dome press box who had an inkling of faith that the Orange could be competitive were lying, said Joe Guise, a football beat writer for The Daily Orange in 1984. There was last year’s game, then Northwestern and Rutgers weeks before as proof.

“It was even surprising there was a point spread,” Guise said.

Any thought that Syracuse was a 25-point underdog quickly dispelled after the opening kickoff. Don McAulay kicked a ball a yard deep into the end zone and Nebraska’s Tom Rathman set up to block. Converging 10 yards from the play was Derrick Ward, whose nickname at the time was “the wedge buster.” He knocked Rathman, a fullback, flat on his back.

“That set the stage for everybody else,” Chalk said.

If Syracuse’s offense could keep possession, it could keep Nebraska’s top players off the field as much as possible, and the Orange could hang around. Before Sept. 29’s matchup, Nebraska came in averaging more than 40 points per game.

Sound defense was the Orange’s strength, but early in the first, Nebraska ran a play action and found an open receiver in the end zone for a touchdown.

“Well how bad is this going to be?” Guise remembers thinking after Nebraska’s 7-0 lead. “You’re already in doomsday mode.”

But Syracuse stuck to the game plan and held onto the ball, maintaining long drives. Chunks of yardage added up, and SU almost doubled up the Cornhuskers in first half time of possession. A Nebraska flea flicker was sniffed out as four defenders surrounded a wide receiver and picked off the ball. Later, a fumble on an NU carry up the middle turned into a dog pile, and Syracuse emerged out of it with the ball.

On one drive, Syracuse went 16 plays, 77 yards in 8:16. With five minutes left in the second quarter, McAulay lined up for a chip shot field goal. “I just knew the severity of the moment instead of ignoring it,” McAulay said. A Nebraska player almost got his hands on the ball but it went through.

“It made Nebraska’s offense feel stressed out,” Schwedes said. “Like ‘Oh God, we gotta do something.’”

MacPherson had preached all week that the Orange could win and a 7-3 halftime deficit was the belief his team needed. Players were quieter than normal, some said, because a victory actually felt possible.

Throughout the week, hope manifested from Syracuse’s 1959 National Championship team. They were honored at the game for their 25th anniversary and some spent the week roaming around practices at Coyne Field. Former players spoke to the team, including Schwedes’ father, Gerhard, who was a part of that title team.

From the 61-7 demolition in Lincoln to the mishaps against Rutgers and insight from the 1959 team, Syracuse had the motivation, and now the confidence, to pull off an upset the program had never experienced before.

“It was the perfect storm,” Schwedes said.

Marty Chalk embraces Mike Siano after Syracuse’s first touchdown of the game. Chalk thought the ball was coming to him, but Siano came down with a 40-yard touchdown. Daily Orange Archives

• • •

Nebraska was pinned near its end zone again to start the second half and a sack gave Syracuse good field position. SU quarterback Todd Norley snuck behind his line on fourth down to keep the possession going on the first second half drive, but something didn’t feel right. His knee started to ache.

A second-and-21 didn’t help, either. Norley took five steps back, then one forward as two defensive ends closed the pocket. As he threw the ball, Norley’s knee crunched onto the turf. Chalk was wide open and thought the ball was coming in his direction.

“Norley let the ball out and it didn’t take me long to realize that he way overthrew me,” Chalk said.

It wasn’t heading to Chalk, though. The ball dropped toward a streaking SU receiver Mike Siano. Facing some of the best cornerbacks in college football, a scrawny Siano jumped between two white jerseys and came down with the catch in the end zone. Chalk sprinted over and picked Siano up into the air as the Carrier Dome erupted.

Norley was still on the ground from the hit down low and didn’t even see Siano catch the ball. He slowly gathered himself enough to walk to the sideline, and when he saw Schwedes, the wide receiver asked if he was OK.

“I hurt my knee, but when I heard the roar, my knee didn’t hurt that bad,” Norley said back.

Dominic looked over at the Nebraska bench, and they were silent. “Wide open mouth, deer-in-the-headlight type of look,” Dominic said. Syracuse had taken a 10-7 lead against the No. 1 team in the nation.

This Syracuse team couldn’t be that good, some in the press box thought. When would Nebraska play like itself and breakthrough? A fumbled snap fell into the hands of an Orange defender and Nebraska’s patented run game couldn’t establish itself. But Syracuse’s offense couldn’t muster anything, either.

With SU up three in the second half, offensive guard Tom Stevens approached Chalk.

“Tomorrow I don’t want people to say we played a good game and lost,” Stevens said to Chalk. “I want them to say we played a good game and won.”

Chalk rallied the three other captains. With 4:10 left in the game, SU faced a third-and-21 pinned in its own territory. A punt would give Nebraska one more chance — a chance Guise was still convinced would end the game in the Cornhuskers’ favor.

Norley stepped out of the pocket, looking deep for Schwedes on the post. A safety foiled his plan, and Schwedes was stuck. The future second round NFL pick remembered an old nugget from his freshman year at that moment: Don’t ever sit there and wait. Come back to the ball.

Schwedes rushed back toward the first down line. Norley slung a ball toward the sophomore and it fell into his chest. All he thought was catch and fall. Players hugged on the sidelines as Schwedes was ruled down at the 25-yard line. First down. Four minutes left. Syracuse could win.

Schwedes’ heroics turned into a rushing touchdown, and in the waning seconds, Syracuse took a safety to secure a 17-9 win. About 5,000 fans rushed the field. Schwedes saw his then-girlfriend and now wife, Jody, but fans ran in their way. The team prayed through the celebration and MacPherson then rushed them into the locker room.

“We had no right to beat them, but we did that,” legendary Syracuse fan Don Waful said before he passed in September.

When everyone arrived in the locker room, MacPherson said there would be no film Sunday or Monday. Siano, who caught the 40-yard touchdown, got the game ball, just said “thanks” softly. Everyone tried to force themselves into the locker room, even if they weren’t allowed. Media and fans who’d been let in stood in the showers or on top of lockers.

“It was a sea of people and you couldn’t even move,” Dominic said.

Postgame, Guise was anxious to interview Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne. Osborne’s words were calculated, but precise. His team didn’t struggle. It was overpowered.

“You guys going to write that we had an off day?” Osborne said to a group of reporters. “Not true. They beat us, and beat us badly.”

As Guise left the downstairs media area, he returned to the field an hour and a half after the game ended. Fans were still there.

• • •

Two years ago, many of Syracuse’s 1984 team watched the 2017 installation of the Orange face “eerily similar” circumstances. A 54-0 beatdown to Clemson the year prior. Seven point home loss to Middle Tennessee earlier in the year. The powerhouse program in No. 2 Clemson visiting the Dome. And a mediocre Syracuse team.

Players like Chalk, Dominic, Don McPherson and Jaime Covington started to feel the spirit of 1984 come upon them in the stands. Syracuse took a lead and commentators kept mentioning the 1984 team, the ones who pulled it off before.

The 1984 Syracuse team finished 6-5 that year. Nobody will remember its record or its shutout at the hands of Rutgers. Instead, those players are forever linked because of one game. They’ll often see each other at the Syracuse football club or in alumni golf tournaments. When the conversation brews, it always reverts back to the Nebraska game.

“That was our moment,” said Schwedes. “That was our contribution to history.”

Banner photo by Talia Trackim and Corey Henry, with contributions from Daily Orange Archives