1895 Nebraska Bugeaters football team

The 1895 Nebraska Bugeaters football team represented the University of Nebraska in the 1895 college football season. The team was coached by Charles Thomas and played their home games at the "M" Street Park in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska's football team began its history as the "Old Gold Knights", and was also sometimes known as the "Tree Planters", "Nebraskans", "The Rattlesnake Boys", "Red Stockings", "Antelopes" or "Goldenrods" in their early years.

Head Coach Thomas had been promoted from Assistant Head Coach following the departure of Frank Crawford at the conclusion of the 1894 season. Nebraska was coming off of their first ever conference title season and ready to try to repeat the accomplishment. The roster grew again, increasing from 24 to 30 players for the 1895 season.

Nebraska's road trip to Sioux City, Iowa, was the longest road trip in the program's young history, but much longer trips were on the agenda for later in the year. This tune up game to open the season for the Bugeaters was never in doubt, as the Sioux City Athletic Club squad was shut out with a 0-38 loss. At the time it was the most points ever scored by Nebraska and the largest margin of victory by Nebraska, beating the records set the previous season in Nebraska's 36-0 defeat of Iowa.

By far the longest road trip Nebraska had undertaken to date, the Bugeaters traveled well over 1,000 miles to Butte, Montana to face the Butte Athletic Club. Although by this time there were railroads connecting much of the American Old West, it was still early enough in the nation's history that the Oregon Trail was still in use. Butte AC's ball control game plan worked effectively to keep the Bugeaters from scoring opportunities, as Nebraska had only one possession in the game's first twenty minutes, and Butte was ahead 12-0 by the half. Nebraska outscored Butte 6-4 in the 2nd half, but that was not enough to overcome the early deficit.

The third meeting of these teams was much less acrimonious than the previous, violent 1893 meeting, which featured high emotions that eventually resulted in Denver's choosing to quit the contest and forfeit. Denver's game play this time was less disciplined than in the past, and the running game established by the Bugeaters was more than enough to put away the Denver Athletic Club and improve Nebraska's record over them to 2-1.