Just looked it up again...it sounds like the number is more like 60 or 70, but that apparently includes time in the locker room and on the way to the airport.
Best Nebraska Athlete of All Time?
- Thread starter StoneTempleHusker
- Start date
Fixed it, thanks for the heads up it's a correction that needed to be made.
Jim Hartung. Won 4 consecutive NCAA titles at Nebraska, won team gold in the Olympics, won NCAA individual all around twice, 22 time All-American, and won the gymnastics Heisman.
Didn’t Strickland try out with the football team his last year? For so reason I’m thinking he was with the receivers, but I could be wrong
I am almost positive you are correct. I remember him walking on as a receiver too. I am sure somebody on here knows the story.
If you're looking solely at one sport, Verne Lewellen of Lincoln High and NU has to be up there. He is in both the college and NFL halls of fame and won championships in Green Bay with Curly Lambeau.
As for all-around Wow, so many ... Bob Gibson, Gale Sayers, Erick Strickland, John Sanders (RIP), others
And John Rhodes, “young Nebraska farm boy with blazing left handed speed.”
Don’t think he’s in the book, but he gives up the home run in the movie.
Bob Gibson and it's not even close .... multi sport star in college and then goes on to a dominant MLB career ending in the HOF. Sayers is great but his lack of longevity or championships impacts this comparison.
Good point but lived most of his youth in Omaha..
He Potentially was the best running back before he injured his knee and ended his short lived career.
He had moves like Barry Sanders but a bigger back..
It’s interesting that two of the greatest running backs of all time, and probably the two shiftiest of all time, (Sayers and Sanders) were born in the same town in Kansas.
No mention of Alex Gordon yet. Maybe not on the level of Gibson or Sayers but definitely a multi sport stud.
Erick Strickland comes to mind for me.
You don't get many dudes that can play football and basketball at at high level.
Turner Gill played was good enough to play pro football and baseball.
You don't get many dudes that can play football and basketball at at high level.
Turner Gill played was good enough to play pro football and baseball.
Gibson one of the all time greats. If you weren't in the batter's box ready to go every 7 seconds, next one was under your chin. I used to time him between pitches, 7 seconds like clockwork.
I remember Game 7 of I think the '68 Series he won 3 games, the 7th on 3 days rest and fanned 17. He threw and won Game 1, 4, and 7 with complete games.
Gibson had a 1.12 ERA that year. Pitchers were so dominant in '68 with the mound at 15", the following year they lowered the mound to 10".
This isn’t about Bob Gibson.. my post was about Alex Gordon..
Sayers and Gibson are the top two..I seen the World Series that year except when I was in school it was during the day..
My reply was intended for Gordon not being on the same level as Gibson. Alex was a good player, but not on the same level as Gibson. I think I repeated myself.
I used transistor with plug in to my ear, during class. Willing to take a chance. Man how things have changed.
Bob Gibson At Omaha (Neb.) Technical High School Gibson was a star in basketball and track, as well as a baseball catcher. He also played basketball and baseball at Creighton University (Omaha). After playing professional basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters for one season, Gibson signed with baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals in 1957 and played with their minor league teams until 1959.
Gibson made the Baseball Hall of Fame. He is a legend in MLB.
Did Strickland make any All-Conference or All-America teams?
I have to go with Gibby due to his baseball achievements.
Unless this post is limited to college performance.
He played 10 years in the NBA…not a lot of native Nebraskans with that sort of resume.
Maybe. I don’t remember that. He quit football after his jr year in HS to focus on bb and baseball.
For football, sure. Finishing 5th at the Nebraska state track meet in the 100m is why he wasn’t highly recruited, not a reason he is the greatest athlete in Nebraska history.
Yah…wasn’t aware of Gibson’s all sports resume until somebody on this thread pointed it out to me. He definitely would have a legit claim for best (given what I’ve learned). I’m my following of college sports (since around 78), the best all-around athlete I remember is probably Strick.
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