Tom Osborne, the legendary former Nebraska coach, announced his retirement from his position as the school’s athletic director in a press conference on Wednesday.
Tom Osborne retiring from Nebraska in Jan. 2013
Osborne, a native of Hastings, was the Cornhuskers football coach from 1973-1997, where he won 13 conference championships and 3 national titles.
An enormously popular figure in the state, he went on to serve three terms as a congressman from 2000-2006 after leaving football.
However, after losing a close race for the governor’s office, he returned to campus, taking over as the athletic director in 2007.
From his position in Lincoln, he helped shepherd Nebraska’s move from the Big 12 to the Big 10. Osborne had long resented the influence of Texas after the Big 8 absorbed the former SWC schools in the mid-1990’s, and he viewed the other Midwestern state schools in the Big 10 as a better fit with the Cornhuskers.
Osborne, who will serve as an athletic director emeritus until 2013, is already a member of the Collegiate Hall of Fame and he will go down as one of the most influential figures in the sport’s history.
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