UNMC History 101 – Football at the medical center

From 1899 through 1902, the Omaha Medical College — the institution that would eventually become UNMC — had a football team.

The 1900 Omaha Medical College football team picture. The device that hangs around the necks of some of the players is a nose guard. The strap of the nose guard went around the head and was held in place by clenching one’s teeth on a rubber bit.

• Creighton University;
  
• Bellevue;
  
• Hastings;
  
• Doane;
  
• Lincoln Medics; and
  
• Rush Medical College (Chicago).

In 1902, Omaha Medical College was scheduled to play games against the University of Nebraska and the University of Wyoming but records are inconclusive as to whether those games were actually played.

During this era, it was not uncommon for games to be canceled.

After 1902, when the Omaha Medical College affiliated with the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, the football team was discontinued.