6 Days & Counting Amazing if True Husker/B1G Trivia: The first forward pass in NU history was, like so many of history's technological and scientific advances, an accident. A QB was trying to hand off but the ball slipped from his hand and went forward 5 yards, to be caught by a wide receiver, a species previously kept on the roster only to serve as the subjects of hazing, and an occasional appetizer, for offensive linemen. The year was 1980. Osborne liked it so much, he called another pass. In 1985.