Maybe it was me. Maybe I was the reason Nebraska reeled off 36 consecutive football victories over Kansas University.

Is it just a coincidence I was Journal-World sports editor for those three dozen years? Is it merely a fluke the Jayhawks ended that streak just a couple of months after I stepped down?

Would the Jayhawks have snapped the seemingly endless skein if I had been in the Memorial Stadium press box Saturday?

Surely they would have. And yet if you want to accuse me of being the Bernie Lootz of Kansas sports journalism, you can make a strong case.

Lootz is the chronically unlucky man portrayed by William H. Macy in the movie “The Cooler.” Lootz was employed by a casino manager to spread his bad luck to other gamblers.

I’m not chronically unlucky, by any means, but the Jayhawks certainly had no luck against Nebraska while I was covering them.

Where was I Saturday? About a mile away at Haskell Stadium, where I definitely was not a Bernie Lootz. I covered Haskell Indian Nations University’s pulsating 24-21 double-overtime football victory over Peru, Neb., State.

Sure, it wasn’t the thrill of seeing KU defeat Nebraska, but it was a Lawrence university defeating a Nebraska college, which perhaps proved I wasn’t really the whammy, after all.

By the way, when do you suppose was the last time two Nebraska universities lost football games in Lawrence on the same day?

In retrospect, my absence from Memorial Stadium probably was a good thing. If I had been there, I would no doubt have been removed from the press box.

I would have been asked to leave because I would have broken the Cardinal Rule. I would have been cheering in the press box. As loud as I could. So loud that maybe Bob Hentzen would have heard me.

For those of you who don’t know Hentzen, he was sports editor of the Topeka Capital-Journal for about as many years as I headed the J-W sports department. Hentzen retired in 1996 and died while playing golf in 2000. He’s the only sports writer in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Hentzen and I covered many KU football and basketball games over the years. Often we sat side-by-side in the press box. In the fall of 1981, we were covering the Kansas-Nebraska game in Lincoln, Neb., and we were thinking the Jayhawks were about to end their 12-year losing streak against the Huskers.

Late in the third quarter, Kansas was leading 12-10, and Hentzen and I were talking about the end of a dozen years of frustration. But then Nebraska scored again. And again. And again. The Huskers won, 31-15.

That’s when Hentzen came up with the idea. When Kansas finally defeats Nebraska in football, he said, let’s cheer in the press box. Great idea, I told him.

Our compact remained in effect even after Hentzen retired because I vowed I would cheer in the press box if Kansas ever defeated Nebraska in football.

And so when the KU-NU score was announced in the Haskell Stadium press box Saturday, I cheered. It wasn’t a loud cheer, and it was out of context, but I consider the pact fulfilled.