Rooting for the Home Team: Episode 4
Part 4 of 4: Moving Out
"I would be remiss if I didn't thank my colleagues at UNO. We spent a long time together and I can tell you that I would have never left UNO for any other job but this one.1"
Trev seemed to think of UNO as a steppingstone, but he left it better then he found it. And we were ok with that. You would be hard pressed to find a Maverick that didn’t want ‘Nebraska’ to succeed as well, and someone needed to do something about the dumpster fire that was Scott Frost.
In his introductory press conference, Trev talked a lot about how he wasn’t afraid of working hard and 'making tough choices.' Us Omahans could fill in the blanks by what he meant there. A brand-new baseball stadium for UNO had just opened, Trev's most recent project, and we were eager to see where all of this untampered vision and enthusiasm would take ‘Nebraska.’ And Nebraska. Trev was no longer a novelty of an Athletic Director. He was another savior of the things we held most dear. And we needed that. Our last savior hadn't worked out so well. Someone needed to fire that guy.
After an onside kick in Dublin, the football season was sent down a trajectory where ultimately Trev would do just that. I really loved Scott Frost. I remember waiting hours in line at the South Locust Pizza Hut in Grand Island to get his autograph. He was fresh off of leading Nebraska to the 1997 National Championship following a victory over Peyton Manning's Tennessee Volunteers in the Orange Bowl. I still have the autograph framed in my basement and remember my mom screaming “hit him in his bad shoulder!” in reference to Manning’s most recent injury prior to the big game. But the guy had to go. And Trev got rid of him.
Trev loved the hell out of a good press conference, and in the one announcing Frost's departure he vowed to fix this whole mess. He didn't take the Bill Moos approach and inflict upon us an entire lost season of watching someone awkwardly digging their own grave. Instead, he put the Wide Receivers Coach Mickey Joseph in as the interim guy until the Carolina Panthers fired their coach Matt Rhule and Trev could scoop him up. There were some people upset that Mickey didn't ultimately end up with the job, but Joseph silenced those critics by allegedly strangling his wife and getting charged with domestic abuse. The charges were later dismissed, but not after Joseph was removed from the athletic department.2
The team was all Matt's. And the program was all Trev's.
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Trev applied much of the same formula that proved successful in UNO. It's hard to parse out who did what for the momentum in the Athletic Department, but other than Rhule, there weren't a ton of new faces brought in. All sports seemed to be making gains. Trev rebranded Herbie Husker, because he likes to do that sort of thing. I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of the end product though, I kind of liked the troll version of Herbie with the removable hat.
The volleyball team— easily the most consistent program in the State — had spent the bulk of the season ranked number 1 overall and eventually lost in the National Championship to stupid Texas. Trev even attempted an outdoor game again, however this time, nothing melted. He invited his old friends from Omaha to get demolished for a Husker tune-up game in Memorial Stadium. Trev’s objective was clear: reclaim the regular season volleyball attendance record that Wisconsin had just taken from the Huskers. It worked: 92,003 people showed up to what became the single largest women's sporting event in the world of all time.3
It was incredible and without me it would have been 92,002. You’re welcome.
Trev would take Matt Rhule to Omaha Hockey practices for P.R. events and was supposedly "getting ahead of Name, Image, and Likeness," (something that all Athletic Departments say even though they're not actually supposed to have anything to do with name, image, and likeness so it’s not clear what exactly they're getting ahead of).
Everything looked great. We all easily ignored a story that got leaked about how the new Omaha Athletic Director claimed that Trev had grossly mismanaged the UNO Athletic Department's budget and spent way more money than they had, putting UNO’s current administration in a difficult financial spot.4 We all just shrugged and thought "quit your bitchin." When a former basketball player issued a lawsuit against: Trev, Women's Basketball Coach Amy Williams, and others for allowing one of their male assistant coaches to groom her for a sexual relationship, we pretty much said the same thing.5
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March 13, 2024
The football team still hadn't won more than 5 games since Eisenhower was in office, but we won the offseason. Undefeated. It was Spring Break in Lincoln and nothing really goes on then. Nebraska Basketball had just clinched their first NCAA berth in two coaches and was chasing after that elusive first NCAA tournament win— the only major conference team yet to win in the March Madness tourney. Nebrasketball had their best ever regular season, only a year after Trev had a come-to-Jesus meeting with head coach Fred Hoiberg while many thought Fred should have been fired in the offseason. The same kind of meeting he had with Scott Frost but with a different outcome. Matt Rhule was out golfing with his son. I was doing a routine morning drive back from the YMCA and a subpar treadmill run.
I always leave the radio on AM 1620 Local Sports Talk. Gary Sharp’s voice cut in just above the sound of my Chevy Malibu’s engine turning.
"Well more news soon as this bombshell story seems to be confirmed. Trev Alberts is reported to have accepted the Athletic Director Job at Texas A&M..."
What.
The.
Fuck.
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This can’t be happening. There were denials and comments from the Nebraska Athletic Department how nothing was confirmed, but sure enough a few days later there was a man that looked a lot like Trev standing behind a podium in front of a maroon backdrop. I still couldn’t believe it. No way it was actually Trev, I mean this guy had glasses. Clearly this was some evil doppelganger from whatever parallel universe Bizarro is from.
Trev made it two years into the job of a lifetime. Two years fewer than the truncated administrative tenure of his idol Tom Osborne. The man who encouraged Trev to enter the front office in the first place.
Two years: the same amount of time that previous AD David Miller had been at UNO prior to Trev taking over:
“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
The same job that Tom Osborne took as a favor to the people of Nebraska just because he knew how much this place meant to the State. We thought it meant that much to Trev as well. The fact that Trev bolted for Texas A&M was even more bizarre.
Husker fans don't put the Aggies on the same shit list as Texas, Colorado, or Iowa- but they would likely be on the next one. Prior to Trev, my memories of Texas A&M were the following:
Former Athletic Director Bill Byrne also bolting Nebraska for the same job at Texas A&M
Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman as the doucheist player (and first freshman) ever to do so
Watching the Netflix Johnny Manziel documentary conforming him as the douchiest player ever
November 29, 2010: The largest crowd ever at a Texas A&M home game up to that point. Nebraska was ranked number 9 in the country just as Coach Pelini seemed to be righting the ship. But the captain lost control again and it quickly capsized. There were so many penalty markers thrown on Nebraska for questionable calls that the student section in Lincoln made a mockery of it the rest of the season by throwing hundreds of yellow hankies after every penalty. Tom Osborne had to issue an apology for Head Coach Bo Pelini's behavior as a result of how pissed off he got.
But the most vivid memory of that game: That time Ben Cotton got an unsportsmanlike conduct call after an Aggie grabbed Cotton’s balls in the pile. Not footballs, testicle balls. Yes. Ben Cotton got his family jewels confiscated in an attempted robbery, tried to kick the guy off of him, and Cotton called for 15 yards.
These were now Trev's people.
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And we no longer were.
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The narrative didn’t line up, but Trev had cut his media teeth at ESPN and knew how to spin a narrative to his liking. In a podcast interview Alberts did with Omaha World-Herald journalist Dirk Chatelain, Trev explained how ESPN would try to manufacture drama to create good TV. They’d film a debate segment on college football topics between Trev and co-host Mark May and would keep running through questions until they found a pre-determined number that Alberts and May disagreed on. Those disagreements were the only ones that made it on air. Trev knew how this machine worked.
I tried to go back and re-listen to that interview, but the episode is mysteriously missing from the Apple Podcast app. All my other favorites seemed to be there: Harrison Beck, Joba Chamberlain, Larry the Cable Guy, Richie Incognito. But oddly no Trev. I did some searching and found the announcement of the release on the World-Herald website, but since I’m not a subscriber I couldn’t listen via that route either.7 The only other episode I couldn’t account for was with Nebraska Volleyball Coach John Cook.
Hmmmmmmm…
It’s really too bad, Trev told a really good jock strap story from the 1993 Orange Bowl that I can’t remember the details of.
A few days after Doppelganger Glasses Trev left for College Station, the matchups for the first round of both the Men's and Women's NCAA Basketball Tournaments were announced. This was the year that the men were supposed to make history and end the joke of never having won a tournament game. Within a few hours of each other, both teams had their brackets. Both teams had their first-round opponents. Both teams were facing Texas A&M.
The coincidence didn't seem coincidental to Matt Rhule, who specifically mentioned that he wanted the new Athletic Director to have the kind of pull with the NCAA to make sure that things like that don't happen. But regardless, again, one man became the focal point of the vitriol.
Despite how Rhule felt, on the night of the basketball game we were eager for our sweet, sweet vengeance.
And again, after blowing a fast start and getting chased out of the gym without that first ever tournament win, Nebraska fans were left shaking their heads and saying, "what the fuck is going on?”
The women won their game though. Good for them
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There are a lot of things about my sales job that I really enjoy, but somewhere along the line I felt a need to look for something with more tangible purpose. At least more purpose than making money by controlling the temperature of an office building with products my company makes. I really wanted to teach something. I reached out to several people at my old engineering school and was met with a pretty enthusiastic response. It seemed like an opportunity was out there to teach as a part time instructor for UNL, and a few even encouraged me to apply for a full time Professor position. I was so excited. It was one of those all the stars are aligning kind of sensations. I had so many advocates. So many people in my corner. And I had spent so many years wondering what to do with my vocation in a way that felt meaningful. This had to be it.
I interviewed for the job. And never heard back.
I emailed, asking for an update.
"Oh, all the finalists have already been notified. But we are always looking for part-time teachers, if that would be of interest, please let us know."
I told them I was of interest. I told them I was of so much interest that I wanted feedback on why I wasn't selected so I could improve and try again later.
And I never heard anything.
And I still haven’t.
A few months later, I was laying on our guest bed depressed. With no pretense, I had the thought, ‘I wonder if UNO has a sales class I could teach.’
I googled it. Found a contact. Emailed her. And got an response back within a few hours saying how excited she was and would absolutely be interested in having me teach a course.
I just finished up my lesson plans for my Week 13 lecture. The experience has been beyond lifegiving.
I remembered why UNO was my home.
Why UNO is my home.
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It might be unfair of us to hold Trev to such high standards of loyalty, but it's not unnatural. We simply wanted his commitment to be the same standard we hold ourselves to. And we all know how despicable fair-weather fans are.
We don't resent Trev because he wanted us to become more than we were. We're hurt because he wasn't satisfied if this is all we are.
We all want to belong to something more than ourselves. We use the same tactics to build civic allegiance to a Nation that we do for a school. We replace National Anthems with Fight Songs. We replace Old Glory with a swoopy "O" logo and a red bull without a mangled ear. We replace Bald Eagles with Durango the bull. We ask not what our country, or our sports teams, can do for you, but what you can do for your country and sports teams. Is it our fault if those methods work at manufacturing loyalty? If we actually want to be a part of something larger as a result? And if we feel let down by leaders that don’t?
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The day after Nebraska lost to Trev's Aggies, the Creighton Bluejays took on the Oregon Ducks. Jays coach Greg McDermott was offered the head job at Ohio State a few seasons ago, but decided to turn down the (on paper) more attractive position to stay home8. To lead Creighton, and the City of Omaha, as far as he could take them. With that decision, it was clear (at least to me) that he was sending a message that he intended to retire a Jay.
Their opponent was coached by Dana Altman. Altman was no stranger to Creighton fans, he was the man that McDermott replaced after Altman left Omaha to coach at the home of Nike. Altman had a track record of doing this kind of thing. Back in 2007, he was announced as the head coach at the University of Arkansas, and then the very next day returned to Creighton9. He left an odd legacy.
The Jays held on to win in double overtime and in the process booked their third trip to the Sweet 16 in four years. Something we all thought was impossible. Until McDermott helped us believe that it wasn’t.
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We say that sports are a ‘what have you done FOR me lately’ business, but it's also a ‘what have you done TO me lately’ business. We're willing to forget slights. We’re willing to overlook character flaws. We're willing to ignore betrayals. We’re willing to forget about the fact that Robert Kraft was implicated in a sex trafficking ring10 but only recently put away our pitchforks for slightly underinflated footballs.
We'll overlook a lot if we have something to get excited about for the upcoming season.
But maybe there are some values that we ought to esteem more. We seem to hold ourselves as fans to higher standards, maybe it’s fair we do the same for our leaders.
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I needed a photo of the UNO soccer scoreboard to find out whether or not David Sokol had in fact taken it back, so I drove down to campus for the first time in years. It was the weekend, so I likely could have parked on campus without fear of a ticket, but out of habit I found a spot in Elmwood Park where the limited jurisdiction of Campus Security doesn’t extend. I picked up a golf ball that had been shanked from a tee box nearby, and bounced it on the concrete as I walked up to Canigila Field.
I had never been to a soccer game here, but I surprisingly felt a sense of ownership toward the stadium. The same awkward stands that had been built onto the back of the adjacent building greeted me. The same field where I had gotten my ass kicked in intramurals, even though it was now striped for a different version of football. I did a lap toward the Pep Bowl.
A new statue had been installed, honoring former UNO quarterback Marlin Briscoe who became the first black quarterback in the NFL11. His story doesn’t get told a lot, and one would think that the opportunities would be even fewer now that the sport he played isn’t offered at his alma mater. But the bronze plaque next to his likeness made sure his memory would outlast any athletic budget cuts.
I bounced my golf ball toward the Milo Bail Student Center. I was hoping to look for any books on UNO history that could help with these essays. The bookstore was closed and the entire building had been taken over by a middle school space camp. College volunteers wandered the hall with pizza boxes and headbands with styrofoam planets stuck to long, bouncing coils. I sat down at the table where I used to meet up with Ted from Campus Crusade and did some reading.
The library was open. I didn’t remember the art on the walls being so interesting. There was a new center where you could use a 3-D printer and laser engravers, I would have had a lot of fun with those when I was a student. I walked to the bottom floor so I could go out the exit next to where a girl once asked me to study with her a day after I told her how much I liked her.
Past the public art display with reliefs of tribal painted U.S. Presidents and 5-foot condoms, I took the long route over to the Durham Science Center. I was leaving that building the night my mom called me to tell me that she had kidney failure and would die if she didn’t get a transplant. I was on the sidewalk about 10 paces from my car when the phone rang and changed my life forever.
There used to be a bench next to the Weber Fine Arts Building that some art students made to resemble a bunch of cigarette butts and match sticks. Only now the concrete pad has a Pegasus unicorn meant to honor police officers that died in the line of duty. I probably should have taken a few more art classes in order to understand and appreciate that tribute.
My golf ball and I weaved past the UNO Outdoor Recreation Center where I always meant to borrow snow shoes from but never got around to it. We hiked through the sidewalk next to the Biomechanics Research Facility, the building whose structural skeleton I redesigned for my final project of Grad school.
There wasn’t any LARPing going on in the park as I retrieved my car, which was odd since it was Saturday afternoon. I wonder when that LARP tradition stopped. I can only imagine what a LARP falling out entails (probably pool noodles).
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Deep down, I think Trev was still rooting for Nebraska Basketball that night in March. Deep down I think his heart was broken along with the rest of Nebraska's. Deep down our loyalties do lie somewhere, even if our paychecks come from somewhere else. If your home is truly where your heart is, then that space isn't easily leased in the course of a week after a lucrative job offer is made. Perhaps it’s not even buried that deep down.
https://huskers.com/news/2021/07/14/trev-alberts-press-conference-transcripts
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/36080162/assault-case-ex-nebraska-coach-mickey-joseph-dismissed
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/38294591/nebraska-volleyball-sets-world-record-attendance-women-sporting-event
https://flatwaterfreepress.org/memo-uno-athletics-lacked-discipline-needed-cash-infusions-while-led-by-trev-alberts/
https://apnews.com/article/nebraska-cornhuskers-lawsuit-77a7d3fad3072270bd527dfb074e75f5
Fey, John Martin, and Don Leahy. A Date with Destiny: The Inside Story of the People and Events That Led to Baxter Arena. Omaha: Interstate, 2015. p.31
https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/where-i-come-from-a-2017-interview-with-now-husker-a-d-trev-alberts/article_8f85f6a6-e4b2-11eb-b52b-676faf5fb424.html
https://www.espn.co.uk/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19573898/creighton-coach-greg-mcdermott-offered-job-ohio-state?device=featurephone
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/news/story?id=2824653
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/robert-kraft-prostitution-charges-dropped-florida-prosecutors-n1240964
https://unoalumni.org/briscoebreakingbarriers