FOOTBALL; Nebraska’s Berringer Killed in Plane Crash

Brook Berringer, the Nebraska quarterback who overcame two collapsed lungs to become an essential part of the 1994 Cornhusker championship season, was killed yesterday afternoon in the crash of a private plane in an alfalfa field in Raymond, Neb. He was 22.

Berringer and Toby Lake, the brother of Berringer’s girlfriend, died when the two-seat, 1946 Piper J-3 Cub Berringer was piloting crashed shortly after takeoff from a grass airstrip not far from Lincoln.

An assistant fire chief at the scene, Harold Danly, said the airplane was in flames and the victims were dead when firefighters arrived.

Berringer, who was expected to be selected in the National Football League draft this weekend, held a pilot’s license. Harry Barr, the owner of the 50-year-old plane that crashed yesterday, said Berringer had flown more than 100 hours over the past three years. Barr said Berringer had flown the plane an average of twice a month and had not gone more than four miles from the airstrip.

During the emotional 1994 season, Nebraska’s first championship in 23 years, Berringer started seven games as a junior after Tommie Frazier, the heralded first-string quarterback, developed blood clots in his right leg. Wearing special protection for his chest, operating an offense slightly readjusted to make use of his passing skills, Berringer aompleted 94 of 151 passes, 62 percent, for 1,295 yards, 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

Before his junior season, Berringer had completed a total of 17 passes at Nebraska. But as teammates adjusted to the jolt of Frazier’s absence and the frightening possibilities the blood clots created, Berringer’s defiant leadership helped return the Huskers to business.

“People have said that the season is over, the national championship is over,” Berringer said in October 1994. “That’s ridiculous. We haven’t missed a beat.”