After just a few years, the university sought a more "representative" mascot and debuted Huskie the Husker, a farmer who stood ten feet tall and wore overalls with a straw hat on top of a fiberglass head.

Harry's head was so large it couldn't fit on the team's traveling bus, and it was so heavy the student wearing the costume had to be switched every 45 minutes.

NU hired Disney cartoonist Bob Johnson to refine West's design into a costume, and Herbie made his first appearance at a Nebraska football game at the 1974 Cotton Bowl Classic, a 19–3 Cornhuskers victory over Texas.

[5] Historically, Herbie had blond hair and dressed in denim overalls (with an ear of corn in the pocket), a white undershirt, and a red cowboy hat.

On April 17, 2023, the university unveiled a redesigned Herbie that closely resembles the 1974 design, with blond hair, dressed in denim overalls with an ear of corn in the back pocket, a white shirt, and a red cowboy hat.