New book chronicles fall of NU football
Johnny Perez and Luke Nichols
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: News
Editor's Note: Jonathan Crowl is a sports reporter for the Daily Nebraskan. His responsibilities include coverage of the Nebraska football team. All of the reporting and writing for his book, "The Nebraska Way," was done independent of his role as a Daily Nebraskan reporter. He provided a copy of the book to the Daily Nebraskan in advance of its publication.
A book written by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln student charges that the recent decline in the success of Nebraska football can be attributed to the abandonment of cultural values that once gave the program strength.
The book, "The Nebraska Way," was written by Jonathan Crowl, a senior English major, and it devotes substantial discussion to the past half century of Nebraska's storied football program.
But several chapters contain accounts of animosity, frustration and alienation within the Athletic Department during the tenures of former athletic director Steve Pederson and NU Coach Bill Callahan.
The book also includes an account of profane criticism from Callahan toward former football coach Tom Osborne, who was described as "trying to run things from Washington" during his tenure in Congress.
Osborne was named NU's interim athletic director after Pederson was fired this week.
Using several sources, Crowl also discusses the firing of former football coach Frank Solich, the hiring of Callahan, changes to the team's walk-on program and changes in the management style of the team and the Athletic Department.
The book should be available in some bookstores by early November and will be published by the independent publisher iUniverse Inc.
Its foreword was written by former head football trainer Doak Ostergard, who Crowl relied on heavily as a source.
Ostergard joined the Athletic Department in 1984 and was fired abruptly in February 2007.
Ostergard said the main purpose of the book was to educate people on the qualities of the football program and speak on the way "business has been done recently."
"We need to try and define what that Nebraska way really was," Ostergard said in an interview with the Daily Nebraskan. "From the outside, people can't understand it, and from the inside, people can't explain it."
Crowl's book seeks to identify how a sparsely populated, flat state in the middle of the country can generate a powerful football program, Ostergard said.
"Some people have taken the approach that, well, the football team has shaped the character of the state," Ostergard said. "But I think in the book here it's the other way around. I think the program was shaped by the culture of the state.
"That's why people are so passionate about it - no matter where you are in the state, that was something you could identify with."
Ostergard told Crowl he was originally impressed with Callahan's attempts to learn the culture of Nebraska football when he was first hired, but several incidents forced his opinion to deteriorate.
Some of Crowl's accounts - mostly from Ostergard - indicate that Callahan became disconnected with the state, its traditions and the history of its football program.
In one instance, Ostergard recalled a meeting with Callahan where the coach voiced his frustration over an article printed in a local newspaper.
In the book, Ostergard continues to quote Callahan:
"Why don't they go read a book or get lost in the Sandhills? I'm going to get me a real newspaper. I'm going to read The New York Times."
Callahan also grew impatient with former coach Osborne, Ostergard told Crowl.
After a phone conversation with the former coach, who was serving in Washington as a congressman, Ostergard said Callahan referred to Osborne as "a crusty old f-."
NU's Sports Information Office said Callahan was not available to return calls seeking comment about the book's content Wednesday because of numerous staff meetings that were scheduled.
During a short press conference following Wednesday's team practice, Callahan said his administration had maintained commitment to Nebraska's traditions.
"We've done a lot of positive things that added to the traditions of what Nebraska's all about," Callahan said. "We do understand Big Red football."
"It really comes down to one thing, and that's winning," Callahan added.
Crowl also wrote about the decline in the Athletic Department's relationship with the public.
When Pederson took over, he began to close himself off from people he didn't want to talk to, while tightening media and stadium access, Crowl said in an interview.
"I mean, security down there is on steroids compared to what it used to be," he said.
The new atmosphere was noticed by former players as well, including Mike Minter, a former NU and NFL player who Crowl quoted in the book.
"It was starting to be a compound, as opposed to the stadium," Minter told the Daily Nebraskan. "It felt like a family atmosphere, (but) it started to feel more like a corporate atmosphere in the past five years.
"Now it's like Fort Knox."
A former employee Crowl quotes anonymously in the book said the environment inspired two running jokes among the department's staff: "Everything's great," and "Let me see what Steve thinks."
Crowl also discusses changes made in the team's walk-on policy.
During Osborne's tenure, Crowl said, anywhere from one-half to one-third of the Cornhuskers' travel squad would be composed of walk-ons.
After Callahan took the program's reins, he adjusted the walk-on program in an effort to reduce the roster's size, Crowl wrote.
Said Minter: "A lot of kids waited to walk on, then three years into the program they become a starter - your team is really made on your role players, not your superstars."
Callahan said he was a "firm believer in the walk-on program" after Wednesday's practice.
The book, which also speculates on why Ostergard was fired and quotes several other former players, ends with a letter written by Ben Kingston, a fullback from the class of 1999, sent to Pederson on Feb. 19, 2007.
One statement in the letter reads, "I can honestly say, based on my conversations with the former players, coaches, etc., that we now feel that the 'Nebraska' we knew, the character that made this family great, has been lost … at least for now."
Daily Nebraskan
Book excerpts about Callahan, Osborne create waves at NU
BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Oct 18, 2007 - 09:09:27 pm CDT
And you thought this week couldn’t get any more bizarre.
Two days after being hired as Nebraska’s interim athletic director, Tom Osborne was already issuing statements defending comments attributed to football coach Bill Callahan.
Excerpts from the book “The Nebraska Way,” written by University of Nebraska student Jonathan Crowl, with help from former Nebraska trainer Doak Ostergard, were released in a Thursday article in the Daily Nebraskan, NU’s student newspaper.
Among the brow-raisers was a story told by Ostergard in which Callahan, upset after a phone conversation with Osborne, said the then-congressman was “trying to run things from Washington,” and referred to Osborne as “that crusty old f—.”
Osborne said earlier this week he would evaluate Callahan and his coaching staff at the end of the season.
In a prepared statement released Thursday, Osborne said he understood the frustrations and emotions of being a head coach.
“I’m not surprised that my long-term influence on the program could sometimes be felt as a controlling force even while I was away, but that was never the intent,” Osborne said. “That’s why I don’t pay any attention to what may or may not have been said years ago. All that matters is I’m very supportive of Coach Callahan and his staff. We are trying to help our players and rally our fans. Right now, that’s our entire focus.”
The book also details an Ostergard story in which Callahan was upset over a newspaper story.
“F-ing people need to get a life,” Callahan said, according to Ostergard. “Why don’t they go read a book or get lost in the Sandhills? I’m going to get me a real newspaper. I’m going to read the New York Times.”
Callahan, when asked after Thursday’s practice if he denied the comments in Crowl’s book, declined comment and referred to a statement released with Osborne’s. In it, Callahan said he loves coaching and living in Nebraska, and that he respects Osborne.
“We are building a strong relationship with Coach Osborne,” Callahan said. “He knows this program inside and out, and that makes him a valuable resource for me, my staff and our players.”
Callahan fired Ostergard in February, a move that upset Ostergard, largely because the longtime employee said he was given no reason for his sudden dismissal. Crowl, a senior English major and sports writer for the Daily Nebraskan, wrote an article on the situation from Ostergard’s standpoint.
Ostergard later approached Crowl about writing a book about Nebraska football and its relationship with the state. Crowl agreed in March to write the book. Published by iUniverse Inc., “The Nebraska Way” should be available next month — a little later than originally planned, Crowl said.
The 125-page book chronicles many details of Nebraska football — from the success under Bob Devaney and Osborne to the turmoil surrounding the firing of Frank Solich and the leadership of recently fired athletic director Steve Pederson.
Crowl said Thursday’s Daily Nebraskan article had been planned last week, before Pederson’s firing. He said he’s not heard feedback from anybody within the Nebraska athletic department regarding the released excerpts.
“From what I’ve heard about people’s reactions today,” Crowl said, “I think one of the more misconstrued aspects of the book ... there’s a lot of focus on the controversial subjects that relate to Callahan and Pederson, but really, if you look at the book, almost two-thirds don’t deal with any controversial subject matter.”
Ostergard didn’t return phone messages seeking comment. But earlier this week, when asked to comment on Pederson’s firing, Ostergard declined, telling the Journal Star he wanted to take “the high road.”
Said Callahan of Ostergard: “I think he’s a fine man. We wish him the best.”
Hmm... If it's getting hot in the kitchen, it's about to reach inferno levels...
