Forrest Behm Season 1940

Honors & Awards

• 1988 College Football Hall of Fame Inductee
• 1980 Nebraska Football Hall of Fame Inductee
• 1940 First-Team All-American

Forrest Behm had a historic Husker career that almost never happened. When Behm was only five years old doctors suggested that he have his leg amputated from a severe burn he had suffered in a brush fire. Luckily, Behm’s father thought that his leg could be saved and helped him with daily rehabilitation until Behm was a teenager. Behm would not regain full mobility in his leg until his senior year of high school.  

When Behm arrived at Nebraska he was almost turned away again as the team was strapped for money because of the depression. Behm had size 15 shoes and the team could not afford to buy him any. Behm was told he couldn’t be on the team; Behm was then let onto the team after Behm suggested he would buy his own shoes.

Behm was one of the biggest Husker when he walked on; Behm was 6’4’’ and 200 pounds. Behm only had one year of football experience in high school, but would go on to be a First-Team All-American in 1940.

Forrest's dedication to the game went further than just buying his own equipment though. He never missed a practice until a hip injury sidelined him just before the fateful Rose Bowl game. But Behm was no stranger to playing through pain and recovered enough to play against Stanford.

Behm was more then just a football player; he was also class president, a ROTC Cadet Colonel, an honor student, member of the college choir, and a recipient of a Harvard Fellowship for graduate study.

In 1946 Behm joined the Corning International Corporation and rose up the company to eventually become president. Behm received the 1967 Native Nebraska Centennial Award and in 1986 and honorary degree, doctor of laws, from the University of Nebraska. Behm retired in 1986 and continued to live in Corning, New York. In an interview Behm was asked about still living in New York and gave this response, “(I still live) In the same house I built 50 years ago. You know I’m a Nebraskan, so you have to have land, right? In 1960, I bought 600 acres of land back in the woods here”.

Behm was named to the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1980 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988.

Before Nebraska (Lincoln High)
Behm graduated in 2-1/2 years from high school and Behm actually didn’t excel in sports in high school. Because of his prior mentioned accident Behm had trouble making the basketball team even though he was 6’4’’. Before his senior year he was told he would not make the varsity team and that was the reason he tried football. Since Behm had never played football, he did not play much. Without being cut from the basketball team, Behm himself said he never would have played football at Nebraska.