[2][3][4] Unranked Nebraska was the Big Seven runner-up to undefeated Oklahoma, the defending Orange Bowl champions.
[1][3][5] Included in the record attendance was Vice President Richard Nixon,[2] an alumnus of Duke's law school.
The Blue Devils won all four of their conference games; they tied Purdue and lost to both Army and Navy.
This was Duke's fourth bowl game appearance, and the first in ten years.
The unranked Huskers were making their second bowl appearance, the other was fourteen years earlier.