The NCAA News - News and Features

December 22, 1997

Osborne ready to retire after 25 years as Nebraska football coach

He reveals plan to bow out after seeking third national championship in Orange Bowl match with Tennessee

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, football coach Tom Osborne will retire after 25 years, but not before getting another shot at winning a national championship.

The 60-year-old coach announced December 10 he is retiring because of health problems and to spend more time with his family and at church. He had heart bypass surgery 13 years ago and was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat last month.

He will coach his final game when the Cornhuskers -- ranked No. 2 in wire-service polls -- play the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in the Orange Bowl January 2.

If Nebraska wins -- and the top-ranked University of Michigan loses to Washington State University in the Rose Bowl -- his reign likely would end with a national championship.

Osborne said he was concerned that his announcement might distract his players before the Orange Bowl.

"That's the risk and the downside -- that this might upset the chemistry, that it might in some way lessen the resolve," Osborne said. "I don't think it will. I think everybody will want to win and play very hard."

Quarterback Scott Frost told his coach not to worry.

"He didn't just teach us football," Frost said. "By the example he sets, he teaches us how to be grownups, to be men. We're going down to the Orange Bowl to make sure he goes out a winner and a champion."

Osborne clearly was choked up as he announced an end to one of the most successful careers in the sport.

"I think it's wise to back off before you leave feet first or somebody tells you it's time to go," Osborne said.

He will be succeeded by running backs coach Frank Solich, an assistant to Osborne for 19 seasons.

"I don't know how you replace Tom Osborne as much as you follow him," Solich said. "In his 25 years, nobody has equaled him."

Osborne's list of accomplishments is topped by consecutive national titles in 1994 and 1995. His career record of 254-49-3 ranks him sixth in career victories in NCAA Division I-A history, behind Bear Bryant, Pop Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden.

Osborne's winning percentage of .835 is first among active I-A coaches and fifth in history behind Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, George Woodruff and Barry Switzer.

With Nebraska's 69-7 win over Oklahoma November 1, Osborne reached the 250-victory mark in 302 games -- faster than any other coach. Penn State's Paterno is second, reaching 250 wins in 320 games.

The Cornhuskers are 59-3 over the past five years, with five straight 11-win seasons, an NCAA record.

"He accomplished it all," said Switzer, the current Dallas Cowboys coach who battled Osborne for years in the old Big Eight Conference while coaching at rival Oklahoma.

"No one won as consistently as Tom did," Switzer told The Associated Press. "He won every year and a lot of times he was undefeated. What more could he do?"

"Tom Osborne is one of the good guys in coaching and in any profession," said Bowden, coach at Florida State University. "He's an icon in Nebraska and in this nation."

Osborne may be remembered most for a game his team lost.

After his team scored a touchdown with 48 seconds left to pull within 31-30 in the 1984 Orange Bowl against the University of Miami (Florida), the Huskers needed only a tie for the national title. But Osborne, in what may go down as his defining moment as a coach, went for the win. The two-point conversion pass fell incomplete and Miami ended up winning the national title.

Osborne's retirement closely follows recent retirements of two other coaching greats -- basketball's Dean Smith and college football's Eddie Robinson.

Before becoming head coach, Osborne helped Bob Devaney win national titles at Nebraska in 1970 and 1971. Much like Osborne has done with Solich, Devaney picked Osborne as his successor in 1973.

Osborne grew up in Hastings, Nebraska, the son of a minister. After his 1959 graduation from Hastings College, he played three seasons in the NFL -- two with the Washington Redskins and one with the San Francisco 49ers -- as a reserve wide receiver.

Osborne returned to Nebraska as a graduate assistant in 1962. He became a part-time coach in 1964, full-time receivers coach in 1967 and then offensive coordinator under Devaney.