This is the sixth part in a weekly series looking at topics that constantly find their way into conversations among Husker football fans.

You know they really love you when they deliver the tribute in haiku.

Great Makovicka            

running free beneath crowd’s roar

That’s Husker football

And you know they really love you when they write: “In my next life, I want to come back as a Nebraska fullback.”

Best of luck trying to find a fan base that loves the fullback as much as Nebraska’s.

Even in recent years, when offensive schemes changed and the favored sons rarely carried the ball, you still didn’t need to look hard around these parts to find a discussion about the fullbacks.

Another fan’s haiku:

The West Coast offense

could use a good fullback too

Where were they Billy?

While it’s easily accepted at most places that fullbacks don’t touch the ball a whole lot, Nebraskans fondly remember the way Husker fullbacks burned defenses back when Tom Osborne was moving the chess pieces.

Guys like Tom Rathman, Cory Schlesinger, Joel and Jeff Makovicka would bust their butts blocking but could also keep a defense honest as a potential ball carrier.

A defense never knew when Osborne might have his quarterback put the ball in the belly of the fullback for a quick-hitter that could go for big yards, if not six points.

Some of those runs have etched their way into Husker lore — see Schlesinger’s national championship-clinching touchdown rumbles in the fourth quarter of the 1995 Orange Bowl against a spent Miami defense.

Not long after, Sports Illustrated recognized Nebraska’s inside fullback trap (“34/36 trap”) as one of the best plays in college football.

Then there’s Joel Makovicka’s 20-yard touchdown run in 1997 against Akron, a romp that seemingly should have been stopped after 15 or 16 yards, but ended with Makovicka carrying defenders to paydirt.

“He exemplifies what Nebraska football is all about,” Akron coach Lee Owens said after the game. “He just flat wasn’t going to go down. He carried two or three guys into the end zone. We hit him and hit him and hit him.”

A brother’s perspective: “That was one of the best runs I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Jeff Makovicka, now an attorney in the Omaha area.

“Some of those blue-collar runs showed determination, work ethic, and showed the never-give-up mentality that I think a lot of the Midwesterners have.”

Fans’ love of the position was perhaps aided by the fact that Rathman was a Grand Island guy, Schlesinger was from Duncan, and the Makovickas from Brainard.

Jeff Makovicka thinks Rathman, who later thrived with the San Francisco 49ers, helped bring a lot of attention to the position in the 1980s. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of notable names at the spot before that. Sam Francis was a fullback. So was Frank Solich: small in stature, big in games.

During his time at Nebraska, Jeff Makovicka said Schlesinger played a big part in setting the tone for fullbacks by the way he worked.

“We saw what it took every practice,” Jeff said. “Cory worked every practice like it was a game. He was a mentor by his actions for me and guys that came after.”

After Jeff’s playing days, coaches changed and so did the way fullbacks were used. Former Husker coach Bill Callahan occasionally used fullbacks as receivers but he rarely had them carry the ball. No fullback had a carry last season.

That’s not to say a fullback carrying the ball didn’t create a memorable moment during Callahan’s tenure. In the 2004 game against an Oklahoma team with a defensive coordinator named Bo Pelini, Husker fullback Steve Kriewald rumbled 48 yards in the game’s final minute.

The score was 30-0 for OU, but Callahan wanted to get on the board. He ran Kriewald again,  then Joe Dailey spiked the football to allow a field-goal try.

The Huskers made the kick. Some perturbed Sooner fans threw oranges and Callahan left the field uttering his infamous “hillbillies” line.

This all probably never happens if not for the Husker fullback.

Jeff Makovicka is admittedly a bit biased — having two brothers (sophomore Justin and incoming freshman Jordan) who could contribute at fullback — but he’s like plenty of Husker fans, optimistic that the position might become a weapon again for the NU offense.

“I think it’d be something neat to bring back,” he said. “Not just for nostalgia’s sake, but for the sake of winning games.”