LINCOLN, Neb. — As Nebraska’s coach, Tom Osborne had one of the most successful runs in college football history.
As athletic director, he pulled the football program he and Bob Devaney built out of a nosedive and repaired a fractured department where staff morale had nearly bottomed out.
And now, he’s almost done.
The 75-year-old Osborne announced Wednesday that he will retire Jan. 1 after five years on the job. He’ll become athletic director emeritus and stay involved in department operations through July 30.
“At some point, whether you’re able to function or not, just the perception that you’re getting old can get in the way,” Osborne said. “I don’t want to be one of those guys everybody is walking around wringing their hands trying to figure out what are we going to do with him? That happens sometimes.”
Osborne, who had doublebypass heart surgery in 1985, said he has no health issues that led to his decision.
“I’m probably healthier today than when I was a member of Congress,” he said. “That takes a big toll on you.”
Osborne’s first acts as athletic director were to fire Bill Callahan as football coach and hire Bo Pelini, who has returned the proud program to its winning ways. He shepherded the school’s move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten, and initiated building projects including a 16,000-seat downtown basketball arena that opens in 2013, a Memorial Stadium expansion that increases capacity to more than 90,000 and the Hendricks Training Complex for basketball and Olympic sports.
This past August, Osborne told chancellor Harvey Perlman that he thought he had done about all he could do to position for the future what traditionally has been one of the nation’s most competitive athletic programs.
Perlman agreed, saying the university and the state of Nebraska “are in his debt.”
Taking over the 23-sport department was a massive undertaking, and one Osborne wasn’t sure he wanted. But the native Nebraskan said he felt a sense of duty when Perlman asked him in 2007 to take over for Steve Pederson, who had been fired a few days earlier.
At the time, Callahan’s football team was on its way to a 5-7 season including some of the most embarrassing losses in program history. Former football players spoke publicly about feeling frozen out by Callahan and Pederson. There was a disconnection between donors and the department.
“The first day that I was on the job, it was 8 o’clock in the morning and I walked into a meeting with the executive team and we had maybe two or three mental-health counselors who were talking to them about stress reduction,” Osborne said. “I thought, ‘This is odd.’
“I wouldn’t say things were awful, but things were a little fragmented and some people quit and some were thinking about quitting. So it was kind of a difficult time, but people pulled together very quickly.”
Dale Jensen, a major athletic donor, said Osborne was exactly the man Nebraska needed at the time.
“Pederson tried to do everything he could to reinvent the program to his own liking,” Jensen said. “It had its own life. You can’t reinvent the program. Quite frankly, I can’t think of one other person who could have stepped in with the credibility Tom had to right the ship.”
Perlman called the circumstances around Nebraska athletics “unfortunate” before Osborne took over.
“There was considerable anxiety among the fans and supporters of Husker athletics,” Perlman said. “I think the last five years have demonstrated Tom’s ability to bring those constituents together.”
Besides the success his Cornhuskers football teams enjoyed from 1973-1997, Osborne served in Congress and lost a gubernatorial bid before returning to the university in 2007. In addition to hiring Pelini, who led the Huskers to the Big 12 championship game in 2009 and 2010, Osborne brought in Tim Miles from Colorado State to coach men’s basketball and former major-leaguer Darin Erstad to coach baseball at his alma mater.
Though Osborne fired him, Callahan told The Associated Press he was happy for his former boss and wished him well.
“The old coach did retire. He’s paid his dues,” Callahan said. “He’s got such a great love for Nebraska that I thought he was going to probably be there forever... I think he’s a smart man, one of the greatest football, college football, coaches in the history of the game.”
Osborne at a glance
AGE-BIRTH DATE-LOCATION 75; Feb. 23, 1937; Hastings, Neb.
EXPERIENCE University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic director, 2007-present; U.S. Congress, 3rd District of Nebraska, 2000-2006; Nebraska head football coach, 1973-1997; Nebraska assistant head football coach, 1972; Nebraska assistant football coach, 1967-71.
COACHING RECORD 255-49-3 in 25 years, all at Nebraska; 3 national championships (1994, 1995, 1997); 255 victories are sixth-most among major-college coaches; .836 winning percentage ranks fifth all-time.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS COACH College Football Hall of Fame, 1998; 60-3 record from 1993-1997 is best five-year run in college football history; all 25 of his teams won at least nine games and played in bowls; won 13 conference championships; coached 65 Academic All-Americans.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR Oversaw Nebraska’s transition from Big 12 to Big Ten in July 2011; facility upgrades including Memorial Stadium expansion, downtown basketball arena, Hendricks Training Complex for basketball and Olympic sports and indoor baseball-softball practice facility; hired football coach Bo Pelini (2008), baseball coach Darin Erstad (2010) and men’s basketball coach Tim Miles (2012).
EDUCATION Nebraska, Ph.D. in educational psychology, 1965; Nebraska, M.A. in educational psychology, 1963; Hastings College, B.A. in history, 1959.
FAMILY Wife, Nancy; son Mike; daughters Ann and Suzanne; four grandchildren.
Sports, Pages 17 on 09/27/2012