Tom Osborne, athletic director of the University of Nebraska, has announced his retirement effective Jan. 1 2013. He will however, continue rendering his services to the team as emeritus athletic director until July 30.
Osborne, who is considered one of the most successful college football coaches in history, said: "At some point, whether you're able to function or not, just the perception that you're getting old can get in the way. I don't want to be one of those guys everybody is walking around wringing their hands trying to figure out what are we going to do with him? That happens sometimes."
He confirmed that he was in good health to negate any speculations that his decision to retire must have come in the wake of health issues since the veteran had undergone a double bypass heart surgery in 1985.
"I'm probably healthier today than when I was a member of Congress," he said. "That takes a big toll on you."
It's noteworthy that Osborne had fired Bill Callahan as football coach to replace him with Bo Pelini who made a significant impact on the team's performance. Among his other notable contributions include the initiation of building projects that includes a massive 16,000-seater basketball arena opening in 2013, the expansion of a Memorial Stadium to increase seating capacity by more than 90,000.
Chancellor Harvey Perlman, who had first approached Osborne in 2007, said Osborne was instrumental in shaping the university and both the university and the state of Nebraska "are in his debt."
Perlman recalled that the circumstances prior to Osborne stepping in were pretty unfortunate.
Osborn remembers that he felt duty bound to help when he was approached by Perlman in 2007 to take over as athletic director for Nebraska, after Steve Pederson had been fired a few days ago.
"The first day that I was on the job, it was 8 o'clock in the morning and I walked into a meeting with the executive team and we had maybe two or three mental-health counselors who were talking to them about stress reduction," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"I thought, 'This is odd'. I wouldn't say things were awful, but things were a little fragmented and some people quit and some were thinking about quitting. So it was kind of a difficult time; but people pulled together very quickly."
Bill Callahan who had been fired as coach by Osborne, told The Associated Press: "The old coach did retire. He's paid his dues. He's got such a great love for Nebraska that I thought he was going to probably be there forever... I think he's a smart man, one of the greatest football, college football, coaches in the history of the game."
Osborne also served in politics, in the House of Representatives and after his crushing defeat to incumbent Dave Heineman in 2006 he returned to the University to continue his teachings in leadership and business ethics and then took over as athletic director.
"I feel we're well positioned. We worked hard on the culture and part of that has not just been internal. We've tried to link this place with the former players. Whatever we've accomplished couldn't happen if we didn't have a united fan base.
"It would be hard to find one equal to our fans around the country. It allows a program in a state of 1.8 million to be competitive with programs in densely populated areas."
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