Rooting for the Home Team: Episode I

Part 1 of 4: Home Sweet Homaha

Apr 05, 2024

My mom made it very clear what terms she had for my higher education:

“I will make sure you don't have any student loans, but you have to go in-state."

It felt like a good deal. Follow your dreams but make them affordable. Your dreams will change anyways, so make sure you can pay for them. Nothing worse than making student loan payments for a shitty dream that you're not even dreaming anymore.

Most high school kids in Nebraska have their college options narrowed down to three. There are a host of state colleges, but people that I knew went on some sort of athletic scholarship. There was Creighton University in Omaha, but that lot typically required a trust fund to divert funds out of or a relative with a name on the side of a building.

And then there were the three University of Nebraska campuses:

University of Nebraska- Kearney

o   Location: Kearney, Nebraska
o   Mascot: Lopers (like an Antelope, but Lopers sounds cooler and Antelopers sounds dumber)
o   Also known as: U.N.K.
o   Motto: "You can't spell DRUNK without U.N.K.!"

University of Nebraska- Omaha

o   Location: Omaha, NE
o   Mascot: Mavericks (those deranged bulls that run away. Or maybe a horse or a cowboy hat if you’re a basketball fan from Dallas)
o   Also known as: U.N.O.
o   Motto: "Oh yeah I forgot about that one, it's a 'commuter school.' "

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

o   Location: Lincoln, NE
o   Mascot: Cornhuskers (someone who husks corn)
o   Also known as: U.N.L.
o   Motto: "I just assumed this was where you were going to go, Go Big Red Baby!"

●●●

My sister Denise went to UNK. It was known for its teaching program, and she majored in special education. My oldest brother Kevin chose UNL since it was the only engineering school in the state. He majored in Electrical Engineering, teaching himself to code in his free time and now working full time as a computer programmer, never to electrically engineer again. And then there was Jason, who seriously anguished over my mom's ultimatum. He toured several art schools in Colorado and really liked a couple of them. He applied for a few different scholarships and got the top ones he was eligible for, but it still wasn't enough. So, he did what any college-bound kid in Nebraska without a clear path in mind does and moved to Lincoln.

But Jason didn’t really like it. He hadn't even applied to UNO as a high schooler, but something about it got his attention. And then he transferred. And then he loved it.

In some ways Jason was following in the family legacy. My dad took a bunch of random classes while he was in the army working toward a criminal justice degree. His transcript was an assortment of transfer credits from whichever university felt like supporting the troops. His favorite, as evidenced by the education section of his Facebook profile, was the University of Hawaii. But ultimately, he finished up at UNO. He doesn’t reminisce about it much, but my parents always speak fondly about their time living in Omaha. Including presently, since after they retired that’s exactly where they ended up moving back to.

My brother and my dad never really meant to go to UNO, but it became home for both. My brother named his cat Maverick (it fits, he's an asshole of a cat and likes to poop everywhere) and my dad still wears his Alumni t-shirt I bought him. He doesn't own that many t-shirts though.

●●●

Like every Nebraska kid growing up in the 90's, I knew I would be a Husker. I spoke about it with a degree of inevitability, pretending to be Kris Brown the placekicker while playing football in the backyard. I thought it was cool I had the same name as him, even if he spelled it like an idiot.

But when college selection time rolled around, I toured UNL’s engineering building and wasn't exactly impressed. And then I took a placement test that UNL uses to determine what level of math you should take, and when my teacher handed it back he said, "uhhhh, what happened? That's really not good."

And then I toured the engineering building in Omaha and was blown away. And then I got a super good scholarship to go to Omaha that paid for my tuition, room, board, books, and a free laptop. And then I saw the dorm rooms in UNO, which were individual suites with maid service compared to the concrete prison bunkers in Lincoln.

Omaha, despite my preconceived notions, was winning in every category. Except one.

It was UNO.

Unfairly or not, UNO people carried with them the stigma of someone thinking, "oh, UNO? Must not have been quite UNL material."

I had one consolation, there was only one engineering school in Nebraska and it was through UNL. So, despite taking all my classes in Omaha and on the physical campus of UNO, if I chose to study my intended major of architectural engineering, I would receive a degree that said, ‘University of Nebraska-Lincoln.’ I could claim to be a Husker. I could stamp that on my resume and put a red ‘N’ on my LinkedIn profile. Or at least have an acceptable rebuttal when I felt like an idiot for not being UNL material. I decided that was good enough. I could go to a better engineering school, live in a more interesting city, sleep in a much more comfortable dorm room, pay way less for my education, and still claim to be a Husker if someone wanted to give me shit about it. Especially if that someone was my own insecurity.

Omaha became my new home.

●●●

On dorm move-in day, I performed my ceremonial first grocery run. As I passed through the threshold of the sliding Target doors, I proudly declared to my mom: "I love that I don't know a single person in here." I was craving a fresh start.

I wanted to get to Omaha early so I could have more time to settle in. I thought I would be the first person in my dorm, but one of my three new roommates beat me to it. Jeff had arrived in time for the Fall football camp. He was on the same academic scholarship as I was, but his rhino sized frame made him an attractive walk-on player. We never really clicked, but he was the only person I could talk to for about a week, so he shared some football stories.

He would rehearse skits with other freshmen for their pseudo-hazing talent show in our living room and was careful to remove his Husker hoodie before going to any team function.

“No one is allowed to wear any Husker gear. The coaches fucking hate them."

"Why?"

"They lose a lot of potential players because they would rather walk-on at Nebraska, they have to constantly recruit against them."

"I guess that makes sense."

It did make sense, even though I venture there wasn’t a single player on the UNO football team from Nebraska that didn't have the bulk of his clothing with a red ‘N’ on it. And it's not like Adidas was shelling out the cash for complete UNO branded outerwear for every day of the week like they were in Lincoln. It was pretty clear who the little brother was.

●●●

UNO had a less streamlined history than UNL, which was gradually told throughout my freshman year since the school was celebrating its 100th anniversary. It had started as ‘Omaha University’ and operated independently for a number of years until the University of Nebraska system was established, absorbing UNK as well and turning the threesome into some bureaucracy that kind of works together but kind of doesn't. The University of Nebraska Medical System got thrown in there too. But Lincoln landed the coveted ‘Nebraska’ moniker while everyone else had to settle for some clunky U.N.__. abbreviation. Locals still say UNL and rarely talk about 'Nebraska' unless it’s referencing sports. But locals reference sports a lot in Nebraska, and when we do we talk about ‘Nebraska.’

Around when this happened, the school newspaper had a vote for a fresh mascot. Mavericks was ultimately chosen, but only after narrowly defeating the runner-up of Unicorns in a final tally of 566 votes to 515. You have to admit, ‘UNO Unicorns’ sounds kind of cool.1 The right choice was made, though I’m sure it led to way fewer t-shirt sales to tourists in town for the College World Series.

This oral history is often untold because no one cared to tell it and no cared to listen to it. The school wasn’t perceived as a place to belong as much as just somewhere to get a degree. A university education with a community college level of commitment to campus life. But when I arrived, none of this narrative seemed to fit. There were substantial construction efforts being made, including gorgeous campus hosing. No one was shy about stating it was being built to shed the 'commuter school' reputation.

It only took a few weeks on campus to realize how severely undersold UNO had been my entire life.

●●●

I went to watch Jeff, my other new roommate TJ, and fellow engineering students Dan and Ken stand on the sidelines of the football games. The team had a good reputation in the Division II circles and some fervent supporters, but the overall game day environment didn't feel any more electric than Friday nights at Grand Island Senior High. And we were all in a rush to get back to our dorms in time to catch kickoff for the Husker game, even if the Mavs were tied in the middle of the fourth quarter against a big rival none of us had heard of.

But football was only a role player in the campus life. The real fun came at UNO hockey games downtown in the two-thirds full NHL-sized arena. The team was good, but not a real contender. They would knock off a Top 5 opponent from time to time and was in and out of the college rankings. The biggest crowds were drawn when programs that also had a name brand football program came to town like Ohio State and Michigan, even if they weren't that good at hockey.

Hockey was the only Division I sport, and we were mostly happy to just be included. We felt like a big boy, and it was something that Creighton, Nebraska, or even UNK didn't compete against us for. Hockey was all ours, even if no one else really wanted it.

And then I met some wrestlers.

●●●

There has only been one men's team to win a national championship at UNO at any level, and they did it 7 times. The first came in 1991, but by 2011 UNO had won six out of the last eight wrestling titles.

Six out of the last eight national championships.

That's really, really, really fucking good.

Since Coach Mike Denney took over the wrestling program in 1980, he only did the following:

181 individual all-americans
33 individual national champions
Prior to winning the first title in 1991, the team finished fourth or better 7 times in the national standings
Between the 1991 and 2004 titles, the team finished second or third 9 times in the national standings
A three-peat team national championship in 2004, 2005, and 2006
Another three-peat team national championship in 2009, 2010, and 20112

I went to a college ministry with a lot of former wrestlers. Most of them had graduated and were marrying the hot girls, but they were really good dudes. Really, really, good dudes. And they had nothing but admiration for UNO and for Coach Denney. It was a really cool thing to be proud of. To have something like this: arguably the most dominant wrestling program at any level of college athletics and one of the best across any sport.

The closest dynasty I could relate to was ‘Nebraska’ Football in the 90’s. The program in Lincoln that had just fired their coach (again) the year before I moved to Omaha.

●●●

I had no idea we were in the market for an Athletic Director when a big name was announced to be taking the job. Granted, not a big ‘Athletic Director’ name, but rather former Husker linebacker and ESPN guy that yells into the camera Trev Alberts was taking over. I wasn’t sure what his athletic directing credentials were, but he was at a bit of a professional crossroads after flaming out of the NFL and getting fired from ESPN for not showing up to work.3 I’m not sure how those experiences prepared him for this new role, but his homeboy Tom Osborne had offered him a job at the UNL athletic department the year before, which Trev turned down.4

“What I wanted was somebody whom I could trust, and people who knew this individual said he was bright and trustworthy, and deeply committed.5”

- Chancellor John Christensen

It got our attention. My friends and I had an "ok why not" kind of attitude. It didn't seem like being the UNO Athletic Director was that big of a deal. Brag about the wrestling team. Go to football games. Hope for a breakout hockey season, but otherwise just schedule a bunch of blue blood football schools to attract fans that are curious. I didn't imagine it being an easy job, but it seemed like a simple job. The stakes didn't seem that high.

“One day I was reading the World-Herald online from Atlanta. I saw the headline that said UNO was replacing another athletic director. The narrative (of the article) was, ‘What a disaster, David Miller leaving after only two years and where does UNO go now?6”-Trev Alberts

But Trev seemed to want to make the stakes high. He seemed to want to make this job a big deal, even though no one else really had in the past.

And maybe, that's just what UNO needed.

●●●

Trev wasn't fucking around. I thought he was a gimmick. There was an article in the school newspaper with his picture on the front page, and I thought about carrying a copy in my backpack to try to get an autograph in case I saw him. But no one told Trev that he wasn't supposed to take himself seriously.

He wasn't hard to find. I went to watch some friends on the women's soccer team, and he was there on the sideline along with the 15 other fans. He always sat at the same spot at the Qwest Center to watch the hockey team. Not in a box, but on an aisle seat slightly above the first lower bowl. I eventually brought a hockey puck along to a game and made him sign it. It was the same day he was announced as an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame. He never issued an official comment, I think he was trying to separate himself from the football player persona, but I did congratulate him. He knew exactly what I was talking about, he was super friendly. He even put his old football number on the autograph.

Trev was an outsider to the administrative side of college athletics but had the experience of a public sports figure. This gave him a unique perspective while evaluating UNO's assets. He thought a lot about the 'brand'. Prior to Trev, UNO's brand was, "oh I think my cousin went there." That wasn't ESPN ready.

On the rare occasion that UNO was on national television, Trev lobbied to be known as ‘Omaha’ rather than the clumsy ‘Nebr-Oma’ that was stamped next to the current score and time remaining graphics. He quickly latched onto the lack of competition UNO had in hockey against any other school in the area and started crafting a bigger presence in the national scene.

Prior to Trev's arrival, UNO hockey had a single coach for its entire 13-year history. Mike Kemp built the program from the ground up, recruiting under the radar players and even coming up with a home game tradition where someone throws a frozen fish onto the ice after the first goal. Why a fish? Why not a fish?

But the program had grown stagnant, and Trev wanted to aggressively shake that snow globe. So, he did.

The first move was to tastefully put Coach Kemp to pasture. He got a 'promotion' to the newly created ‘Associate Athletic Director of Hockey,’ and stayed in that role for the remaining 15 years or so of his professional career. As former UNO Athletic Director and founder of Maverick Hockey (his signature is painted onto the ice every year) Don Leahy put it: “Mike Kemp took one for the team.7” Kemp was UNO hockey, he had no desire to go anywhere else. This was his home.

Mike was also easy to find. After he stepped away from the bench, his suit and bald head (he shaved his head as part of a team charity fundraiser and never grew his hair back) could be seen walking the concourse before and after every game. I eventually remembered to bring a puck to a game and got him to sign one as well. He was also super friendly.

But with Mike out of the way, it was time to find the next big hockey coach to take UNO to the promised land. So, Trev lured to Omaha someone who many considered the best college hockey coach still working. Dean Blais had won two national championships and lost another one while leading powerhouse North Dakota. He had a silver tooth and was featured in a David Letterman skit called ‘Guys Who Look Like Dave.’

Everyone in the college hockey world figured if Blais made a move, it would be for an established power like his alma mater Minnesota. Trev had other ideas.

But Blais wasn't the only big shake-up. UNO had been a long-term member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) conference. It was a decent conference, but not the best. Trev wanted to be in the best, so he negotiated an entry into the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Now Blais’s old North Dakota team was in the same league as his new Omaha one along with a bunch of other big names in college hockey. And conveniently, North Dakota was real easy to root against.

●●●

The North Dakota games were always packed. Their fans travelled in drunken mobs and sold more visitor tickets than any other opponent. Just to embrace the moment, UNO had a 'Blais Bell' promotion at one North Dakota game where free cowbells were given away.

This scene likely contributed to Trev's next big idea: playing outside at the home of the College World Series. North Dakota seemed like the natural opponent.

The game was a mess. Direct UV rays melted the blueline on the ice and it gradually expanded from a five-inch strip to a five-foot amorphous blob as players skated across it. Even from the nosebleeds you could see the forwards slow down and hop over the swamp as they attempted to carry the puck through the neutral zone. The game had to be delayed to cover the ice and allow it to re-freeze, and then delayed again due to rain. UNO didn't exactly show up to play either and lost 5-2.8 An outcome that one North Dakota fan made sure to point out when I walked by in my Mavericks gear and he looked me directly in the eyes, grabbed the Fightin’ Sioux logo on his jersey (it wasn’t racist yet), and yelled:

"YEAH!!! FUCK YOU!!!”

The whole night was a bust by any metric, but Trev did succeed in one thing: I now despised all things North Dakota. He had created a rival.

●●●

It was easy to see Trev wanted to be considered a national player in college hockey, and despite the lackluster outdoor event it was hard to argue that he wasn’t doing a damn good job. He was trying stuff, and it was fun. Rumors were even circulating that he was raising funds to build a brand-new hockey arena on campus. But his plans for the other sports were less clear.

Until they weren't.