The Nebraska 100: Our Greatest Athletes

the nebraska 100 our greatest athletes

the nebraska 100 our greatest athletes

the nebraska 100 our greatest athletes

Editor

Dan Sullivan

Designer

Christine Zueck-Watkins

Photo imaging Jolene McHugh

Executive editor

Mike Reilly

President and publisher Terry Kroeger

At right, volleyball star Jordan Larson.

On the previous page, Gale Sayers in 1961.

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior consent of the publisher, Omaha World-Herald Co. Omaha World-Herald Co., 1314 Douglas St., Omaha, NE 68102-1811 First Edition ISBN: 978-0-692-55518-7 Printed by Walsworth Publishing Co., Marceline, MO

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the nebraska 100 our greatest athletes

1 Bob Gibson 2 Gale Sayers 3 Grover cleveland Alexander 4 Bob Boozer 5 Johnny Rodgers 6 Lloyd Hahn 7 Richie Ashburn 8 Ahman Green 9 Tom Kropp 10 Jordan Larson 11 Jim Hartung 12 Dazzy Vance 13 Ike Mahoney 14 Sam Crawford 15 Mike McGee 16 Allison Weston 17 Marlin Briscoe 18 Erick Strickland 19 Lloyd Cardwell 20 Gilbert Dodds 21 Ed Weir 22 Mick Tingelhoff 23 Tom Novak 24 Johnny Goodman 25 Pat Fischer 26 Ron Boone 27 Dave Rimington 28 Nile Kinnick 29 Mel Harder 30 Eric Crouch 31 Maurtice Ivy 32 Bob Cerv

33 Alex Gordon 34 Kent McCloughan 35 terence “bud” Crawford 36 Roger Sayers 37 Bobby Williams 38 Jay Novacek 39 Julie Vollertsen 40 Jordan Hooper 41 Guy Chamberlin 42 Glenn Presnell 43 Bernie Masterson 44 Roland Locke 45 Steve Hokuf 46 Bobby Reynolds 47 Dean Steinkuhler 48 Scott Frost 49 Karen Dahlgren 50 Randy Rasmussen 51 Carol Moseke FROST 52 charles “Deacon” Jones 53 Joe Stecher 54 Gregg Olson 55 Les Witte 56 Tom Rathman 57 Phil Cahoy 58 Larry Station 59 Zach Wiegert 60 Danny Woodhead 61 Val Skinner 62 Howard Debus 63 Bob Hohn 64 Verne Lewellen 65 Carl Vinciquerra 66 Dan Brand

67 Les Mann 68 Alice Schmidt 69 Cory Schlesinger 70 Kelly Lindsey 71 Charley Brock 72 Joseph Orduna 73 Teri Steer 74 George Sauer 75 Nancy Kindig 76 Angee Henry 77 Brad Vering 78 Dave Hoppen 79 Tom Osborne 80 Fred Hare 81 Gary Anderson 82 Johnny Hopp 83 John Parrella 84 Danny Noonan 85 Peaches James 86 Louise Pound 87 Andre Woolridge 88 Todd Brown 89 Ken Geddes 90 Ron Kellogg 91 scott usher 92 Kerry Trotter 93 Barrett Ruud 94 Christina Houghtelling 95 John “Choppy” Rhodes 96 Curt Tomasevicz 97 Paul Tierney 98 George Flippin 99 Charles Bryant 100 Jeff Kinney

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Bob Gibson was so good that his success sparked fundamental changes in the rules of baseball. In 1968, he led the domination by pitchers at a level unseen since the early 1900s. The St. Louis Cardinals right-hander went 22-9 with 13 shutouts and the lowest ERA (1.12) since 1914. “For that

1 bob gibson Sport Baseball

played for Omaha Tech High Creighton Bluejays Harlem Globetrotters St. Louis Cardinals

Hometown Omaha

BORN 1935

entire year,” Gibson said, “I felt baseballwise that I could do whatever I wanted.”

Then the commissioner’s office stepped in. In 1969, the pitching mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10. That was the first major change in baseball’s playing dimensions since the 1920s. The strike zone also became more compact, virtually eliminating the “high” strike.

Neither of the so-called “Gibson Rules” slowed the man for whom they were nicknamed. In 1969, Gibson won 20 games with a 2.18 ERA. In 1970, at age 34, he went 23-7. In 1971, he pitched a no-hitter. By 1981, in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, Gibson was elected with 84 percent of the vote.

If you jump from that pinnacle back to Gibson’s earliest years, few would have predicted Hall of Fame athletic success. His father died from tuberculosis a few months before Gibson was born in 1935, the seventh child of the family.

At age 3, Gibson fell seriously ill with breathing problems. He also suffered from rickets, a bone disease, as a child. Yet with his mother, Victoria, providing for him and his oldest brother, Josh, mentoring him, Gibson matured into a budding star.

“As a young kid,” Gibson said, “I always thought I was a pretty good athlete because when I was 12 or 13, I played with teams run by Josh, who was 15 years older than me. And those guys were men.

“I used to do a pretty good job. I didn’t know how good at the time, but they always accepted me as another player, not a little kid.”

When he was 14 or 15, his North Y Comets basketball team played against the Omaha University team in an open tournament. “We kicked them,” Gibson said. “We almost ran them off the floor.”

Gibson’s football career ended early, however. “I wanted to play football so badly,” he said. “When I was young, I was a lot smaller kid than most of the guys I played with. But I did a good job against them.” Yet when he went to sign up for high school football at Omaha Tech, the coaches told him he was too small.

“I told them, ‘We all play together all the time,’ ” Gibson said. “They said, ‘When you get bigger, come see us.’”

While Gibson eventually grew to 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, his brother Josh steered him away from football.

Both discussed how injury — a close friend broke his neck playing football — could curtail his chances in baseball and basketball.

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As for baseball, Gibson didn’t play for Omaha Tech until he was a senior and helped break the color line at the school in that sport. He played summer American Legion baseball, though, and was part of a state championship team.

Basketball earned Gibson most of his prep recognition.

Gibson said Neal Mosser, his basketball coach at Omaha Tech, was as influential in his personal development as his brother Josh. Tech played in the state tournament in 1952. Gibson recalled Mosser, who was white, starting four blacks. “I remember going out on the floor, and nobody said a word,” Gibson said.

“Neal got criticized heavily for it. But from that situation, I realized that it’s not white or black; it depends on who you are. I had as much respect for Neal Mosser as I did for Josh. Neal taught me an awful lot about living.”

Although baseball became Gibson’s profession, his participation in the sport in college was almost an afterthought. He said Creighton played fewer than 20 games a season, and he would pitch just two or three times each spring while playing mostly in the outfield.

But basketball provided him with the chance to excel athletically. His name still appears in the Bluejays’ records — he’s fourth in career scoring average at 20.19 points a game, just behind Paul Silas, who played 16 years in the NBA. “The steppingstone to the success I had as a professional was getting the opportunity to go to Creighton University,” Gibson said. “I was trying to get into Indiana University at the time, and they had their quota (of black players), which was one — and after watching them play, they got the wrong one.

Creighton gave me a scholarship, and that was the thing that got me going.”

Gibson eventually became the first member of CU’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

After playing at Creighton, Gibson joined the Harlem Globetrotters during the 1957-58 season. His roommate was Meadowlark Lemon, a basketball Hall of Famer. “I thought Bob was a better basketball player than a baseball player,” Lemon said. “I think Bob could have played with any NBA team. He was that good.”

“I don’t know about being an All-Star,” Gibson said of his basketball abilities. “But I would have played in the NBA.” After Gibson graduated from Creighton, the Minneapolis (now Los Angeles) Lakers sent Gibson a detailed questionnaire, which he meticulously filled out and submitted. He never heard back.

“If they had signed me, I would have never played baseball,” Gibson said. “I’m not as sure I would have been as good a basketball player, but I enjoyed the sport. It’s always been my No. 1 sport.”

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With that rejection, plus the realization that a Globetrotter performance “wasn’t the kind of basketball I wanted to play,” he signed a baseball contract for $4,000 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

“Baseball was going to be tougher for me because I had played more basketball,” he said. “And in the beginning, it was really, really rough. But with the numbers in baseball — 25 on a roster instead of 10 like in basketball — and me being only 6-1, I thought that gave me a better chance.”

The numbers added up slowly for Gibson through his first four major league seasons. His record was 34-36.

But in eight of the next 10 years, he won at least 18 games, and his overall winning percentage was .645.

The 1968 season was all about the numbers, especially the 1.12 ERA and the 13 shutouts. “He’s the luckiest pitcher I ever saw,” Cardinals catcher Tim

noteworthy Gibson also competed in track at Omaha Tech and set a high jump record at Omaha University’s indoor meet in 1957.

McCarver wryly noted that year. “He always pitches when the other team doesn’t score any runs.”

Gibson completed 28 of 34 starts and never was relieved in the middle of an inning. Opposing batters hit .171 against him. The Cardinals’ offense averaged

While at Creighton, he scored 20 points against Holy Cross and Tom Heinsohn, who later starred for and coached the Boston Celtics.

just 2.8 runs a game when Gibson pitched in 1968 — a full run less than usual.

Statisticians calculated that if St. Louis had averaged four runs in Gibson’s starts, his record likely would have changed from 22-9 to 31-2.

“I could throw the ball anywhere I wanted that entire year,” he said. “And it seemed like I could strike out anybody when I wanted. Whether that was true or not, that’s the way I felt. When you have a feeling like that, I don’t know that there is anything to top it.”

Gibson played with a group of college basketball all-stars that beat the Harlem Globetrotters in Omaha in 1957. “The Trotters, usually a big crowd favorite, even drew a few boos in the final period when they questioned officiating and didn’t play their usual jovial selves,” The World-Herald reported.

Gibson won 251 games, struck out 3,117 batters and won an MVP Award (1968), two Cy Young Awards (1968 and 1970) and nine Gold Gloves. And he was perhaps the best World Series pitcher ever, going 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA, eight complete games in nine starts and a single-game record of 17 strikeouts.

During author Lonnie Wheeler’s work on Gibson’s 1994 autobiography, “Stranger to the Game,” Wheeler asked former major league third baseman and manager Doug Rader to name the five toughest pitchers he

He made his major league debut on April 15, 1959, 48 years to the day after Grover Cleveland Alexander made his debut.

ever came across. “That’s easy,” Rader said. “Bob Gibson in 1968, Bob Gibson in 1969, Bob Gibson in 1970, Bob Gibson in 1971 and Bob Gibson in 1972. No one else was even close.”

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After Gale Sayers scored six touchdowns in a 1965 NFL game, he couldn’t understand what all the media commotion was about. After all, he had scored seven touchdowns earlier in his career. Granted, that seven-TD performance came when he was playing for the Roberts Dairy midget football team while growing up in Omaha.

2 GALE SAYERS Sport Football

played for Omaha Central High Kansas Jayhawks Chicago Bears

Still, it remained a fond memory for the NFL Hall of Famer. “That’s one of my first athletic memories and one that I enjoy the most,” he said. “I still have the clipping from that game.”

Despite a professional playing career cut short by injury at age 28, Sayers remains one of the most revered athletes from Nebraska. Though he was born in Wichita, Kansas, and played college football at Kansas, Sayers considered Omaha home. He grew up in north Omaha, the son of a car polisher and mechanic. He enjoyed playing tackle football against boys much older than himself at Kountze Park, along Florence Boulevard between Pinkney and Pratt Streets. “I think that helped make me a better athlete because I did not want to get hit by those guys,” he said.

He went on to become a star running back at Omaha Central, earning all-city honors twice and All-Nebraska distinction as a senior. He also was a standout at track, and his long jump mark of 24 feet, 10½ inches stood 44 years before it was broken in 2005 by Bellevue East’s Robert Rands.

More than 75 colleges offered him scholarships. He chose Kansas because he liked coach Jack Mitchell, and Lawrence was relatively close

Hometown

to home. Dubbed “The Kansas Comet” by the KU sports information

Omaha

director, Sayers earned All-America status in 1963 and 1964. He rushed

BORN 1943

for 2,675 yards during his career and was the first in major college history to score on a 99-yard run from scrimmage — against Nebraska in 1963.

Sayers was the fourth overall pick in the 1965 NFL draft, selected immediately after the Bears had taken another future Hall of Famer, linebacker Dick Butkus. The 6-foot, 198-pound Sayers was named the Rookie of the Year after scoring 22 touchdowns, including his six-TD performance against San Francisco, which tied an NFL record. His career lasted seven seasons, but only 68 games because of two devastating knee injuries.

By the time he retired, Sayers had 9,435 combined yards — 4,956 rushing — and had scored 336 points.

At age 34, in 1977, he became the youngest player to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. He also entered the College Football Hall of Fame the same year. He also is in the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Black Sports Hall of Fame and the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame.

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noteworthy Sayers won the Intercity League football scoring championship as a junior in 1959, the year after brother Roger had led the league.

Three of the top 100 — Sayers, No. 34 Kent McCloughan and No. 37 Bobby Williams — were in the backfield of The World-Herald’s 1960 All-State football team.

The 1971 movie “Brian’s Song” was based on Sayers’ friendship with teammate Brian Piccolo. He was portrayed by Billy Dee Williams. In a 2001 version, he was portrayed

by Mekhi Phifer.

Sayers was named the outstanding player on offense in three Pro Bowl games.

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He was born in 1887 when Grover Cleveland was president. He was portrayed in a 1952 movie that starred future President Ronald Reagan. Grover Cleveland Alexander’s life had several acts. But it wasn’t all Hollywood-like glamour.

One of six Nebraska natives in baseball’s Hall of Fame, the right-hander from Elba battled alcoholism, epilepsy,

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partial deafness and trauma from World War I, yet he still was one of the greatest pitchers in history.

Alexander was 373-208 from 1911 through 1930. Only Cy Young and Walter Johnson earned more wins, and Alexander is second all time with 90 shutouts. He is one of only three pitchers to win the pitching Triple Crown — wins, ERA and strikeouts — three times.

The opening act of Alexander’s career, his first seven seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, was spectacular. He went

Grover Cleveland Alexander

28-13 in his rookie year. The once-mediocre Phillies were in the World Series (losing to the Red Sox) by 1915, Alexander’s first of three straight 30-win seasons. In 1915, he had an ERA of 1.22.

Only one major league starter has done better since then — Bob Gibson at 1.12 in 1968.

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Act Two was rough: Alexander was traded to the Chicago Cubs

Baseball

for two players and $55,000 after the 1917 season, supposedly out

played for

of fear he’d be lost to the war effort. He was, but Phillies owner

Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs St. Louis Cardinals

Hometown Elba

BORN 1887

died 1950

William Baker later admitted he needed the money. In 1918, Alexander served in an artillery unit in France during World War I. It was there that his epilepsy surfaced and hearing loss occurred.

He was solid — on the mound — over seven full seasons with the Cubs. Contemporaries claim he didn’t drink much early in his career, but his personal life had begun to deteriorate in the 1920s. The Cubs sold him to the St. Louis Cardinals for the waiver price in late June 1926, reportedly because he was “using liniment on the inside of his neck instead of using it on his arm.”

Alexander’s final act, a feel-good story, started that October when the veteran won Games 2 and 6 for the Cardinals in the World Series against the powerhouse New York Yankees. Having done his job, Alexander took a seat for Game 7 and watched as St. Louis starter Jesse Haines took a 3-2 lead into the seventh inning. But with the bases loaded, Haines signaled that he no longer could pitch because of a blister on his pitching hand. Manager Rogers Hornsby called for Alexander.

Alexander struck out slugger Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded and then shut down the Bronx Bombers in the eighth and ninth. His performance is commemorated on his Hall of Fame plaque. He won 21 games in 1927 and 16 more in 1928 for the Cardinals before fading. He closed his career back in Philadelphia.

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noteworthy Traveling salesman Fred Turner for Paxton & Gallagher, an Omaha wholesale grocer, saw Grover Cleveland Alexander pitch and tipped off the president of the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs didn’t bite, so Turner then contacted Philadelphia Phillies Manager Charley Dooin. Alexander joined the Phillies and won 28 games in his first season, a record for a rookie.

He was scheduled to pitch for St. Paul in a 1927 exhibition against Dazzy Vance, pitching for Hastings, but missed a train and arrived late. The two later went on a postseason tour through Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming.

He appeared in Omaha in 1935 as a player-coach with the House of David barnstorming team in an exhibition against the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs.

The Sporting News in 1999 ranked Alexander No. 12 on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

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All the good ones have blemishes. The great ones understand that and will do anything to erase them.

Bob Boozer understood and never stopped working to improve. After a solid junior year at Omaha Tech — averaging 13 points a game to earn a spot on the All-Intercity team — he blossomed into a superstar for coach

4 bob boozer Sport Basketball

played for Omaha Tech High Kansas State Wildcats Cincinnati Royals New York Knicks Los Angeles Lakers Chicago Bulls Seattle Super Sonics Milwaukee Bucks U.S. Olympic team

Hometown Omaha

BORN 1937

Neal Mosser (at right). Boozer averaged 25.7 points a game as a senior and topped the conference scoring record by 97 points.

He headed off to Kansas State, determined to keep improving.

For 15 straight offseasons — four at Kansas State and 11 in the NBA — he returned to Omaha and called his friend, Johnny Nared. For 15 years, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they found an empty gym and got down to business.

No dunk contests or half-court shootouts. Just lots of grunt work and attention to detail.

Nared, a former standout at Omaha Central, was the perfect remedy for a hotshot basketball player who was performing in front of thousands of adoring fans. “He was so quick and so strong,” Boozer said. “Playing 1-on-1 against him really improved my quickness on the outside. And he was not easy to score on inside, either.”

Boozer averaged more than 19 points and 10 rebounds during his final three seasons at K-State and was the leading vote-getter on the Wildcats’ 10-man All-Century Team.

He helped KSU go 62-15 during his career and make the 1958 Final Four. In his senior season, Boozer averaged 25.6 points and was named a first-team All-American for the second time.

He was the No. 1 pick of the 1959 NBA draft, but he postponed his pro career to remain eligible for the 1960 Olympics, where he averaged 6.8 points and helped the U.S. win by an average of 42 points en route to a gold medal.

The 6-8 Boozer averaged 14.8 points and 8.1 rebounds over 11 NBA seasons with six teams, with season-high averages of 21.7 points and 11.1 rebounds.

After starting his pro career as a reserve with the Cincinnati Royals and short stints with the Knicks and Lakers, he was taken by the Chicago Bulls in the 1966 expansion draft. He averaged 18 points and 8.5 rebounds as the Bulls

died

made the playoffs in their first season. He was named an All-Star in the franchise’s second season. Boozer retired

2012

after winning a championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971.

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noteworthy Boozer broke Omaha’s Intercity League scoring record in early February of his senior year.

He was joined by Tom Osborne on The World-Herald 1955 all-state basketball team.

At Kansas State he played for Tex Winter, the architect of the “triangle offense” of Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls championship teams.

Boozer was in the first group of players to have their jerseys retired at K-State.

Bob Boozer Drive in west Omaha was named for him.

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Johnny Rodgers says he never considered himself better than his opponents. “I just wanted to win more than anyone else,” he said. “I took a lot of risks, although I never considered them risks at the time. Like never fair-catching a punt. I had the attitude that as a little guy, I always had to try to do whatever it took to make plays.”

Rodgers first attracted attention as a four-sport athlete

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at Omaha Tech, earning All-Nebraska honors in football and excelling in baseball, track and basketball. He moved on to Nebraska, where despite being just 5-foot-9 and 173 pounds, he packed a wallop as a receiver and return specialist.

He contributed heavily to national championship teams

johnny rodgers

in 1970 and ‘71, and won the 1972 Heisman Trophy.

He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000 and was named the Big Eight’s all-time best football

Sport

player as well as the best Nebraska player of the 20th century.

Football

“The Jet” did it all with pizazz. His dip-then-dart 72-yard punt return for a touchdown in the 1971 “Game of the

played for

Century” win at Oklahoma still rates as one of the iconic

Omaha Tech High Nebraska Cornhuskers Montreal Alouettes San Diego Chargers

moments in school and college football history.

He had a 77-yard punt return for a touchdown that helped trigger an Orange Bowl rout of Alabama that secured Nebraska’s second straight national title. And though it

Hometown Omaha

BORN 1951

wasn’t a national championship game, NU coaches let Rodgers showcase all of his Heisman talents in the Orange Bowl win against Notre Dame following the 1972 season.

He played some I-back, running for three scores, and caught a touchdown pass. He also threw a TD pass.

Rodgers called the two national titles his best moments as an athlete: “I probably wouldn’t have won the Heisman if I hadn’t played on those two national championship teams,” he said. “They set the stage for me.”

A first-round NFL draft pick of the San Diego Chargers, Rodgers chose instead to start his professional career in the Canadian Football League. He starred for Montreal from 1973 through ‘76, and helped the Alouettes win the CFL’s 1974 Grey Cup. He signed with the Chargers in 1977, but played only 17 games before a knee injury ended his career.

Rodgers’ life off the field wasn’t always as smooth. He was involved in a gas station robbery while at Nebraska.

But Rodgers drew praise for returning to NU to get his degree 25 years after leaving school. “Life is a roller coaster ride, and I’m glad I’m still riding,” Rodgers said.

The Jet Award, given annually since 2011 to college football’s best kick return specialist, is named for Rodgers.

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noteworthy Rodgers was coached in youth sports by Bob Gibson’s brother Josh.

As a third-grader, he performed with Lothrop Elementary’s tumbling team. For the grand finale the boys would form a pyramid, and Rodgers would fly over the top with a complete 360-degree flip.

He scored a 60-yard touchdown the first time he carried the ball in a varsity game for Tech High.

Rodgers lettered in football, baseball and basketball at Tech and also registered the state’s best triple-jump mark as a part-time member of the track team.

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Four of the Nebraska 100 got together for a golf fundraiser in 2006. From left, Johnny Rodgers (5), Marlin Briscoe (17), Bob Boozer (4) and Gale Sayers (2).

the nebraska 100 our greatest athletes

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Selected by the Omaha World-Herald sports department and longtime observers of Nebraska sports