Steven M. Sipple: There will come a time for Osborne to move on
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Was there anybody left who actually thought Tom Osborne would retire next year?
Is there anybody out there — anybody at all — who has significant reservations regarding Wednesday’s announcement that Osborne and chancellor Harvey Perlman have agreed to extend Osborne’s appointment as athletic director indefinitely?
OK, I have a minor reservation, which I’ll address in a minute.
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Vidcast: Osborne, indefinitely
Steven M. Sipple and Brian Christopherson discuss Tom Osborne becoming the Huskers' athletic director indefinitely. (Anthony Roberts / JournalStar.com...
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With his 2007 hiring as Husker AD, Osborne restored instant credibility to an athletic department that desperately needed it. Oh, Steve Pederson had the shop in sound shape financially. But morale was miserable, and the fan base was badly fractured and bickering incessantly. People literally were walking around at football games with blank stares. I still get a headache pondering the last gasps of the Pederson/Bill Callahan era.
Osborne simultaneously injected energy and calm — a difficult trick. He rescued a football-frenzied state with his intelligence and a sense of stability. Plus, let’s face it, his credibility resonates far beyond the athletic department. He’s a national brand name. As for his AD duties, he’s ideal in that he knows how to keep coaches happy and supply the requisite resources that give them a chance to win.
And, oh yeah, Osborne knows a little about winning.
But will he know when to walk away? Part of being a strong leader often means knowing when to relinquish control.
Osborne, 72, understands that sentiment, saying Wednesday that he’s going to be sensitive about not staying beyond his time.
“Hopefully, I’ll have the judgment to know when that is,” he said. “And if not, I’m going to have some people in place that will tell me. Maybe you guys (the media) will be the ones that do that, I don’t know.”
We’ve seen leaders stay too long on college campuses and in other arenas — from former Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles to German chancellor Helmut Kohl. It’s often difficult to herd an icon out the door. You always hope it occurs without discomfort, for a lack of grace and good feeling in these situations can have wide-ranging impact on a given institution.
Of course, Osborne is grace personified. He’s a quiet magician in that he’s an exceptionally high-profile figure in our little state, yet he somehow manages, for the most part, to remain in the background at various events as opposed to constantly thrusting himself into the limelight.
Osborne seems to be different than Broyles in that Broyles — who was 82 in 2007 when he resigned as Arkansas athletic director — craved control until the bitter end.
Granted, Osborne has constant dialogue with Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini and Husker assistant AD for football Jeff Jamrog.
However, “Coach Osborne’s never told Bo to run a certain play or told me to operate in a certain way,” Jamrog said. “If you talk to any of our coaches in any sport, or any administrator, you’ll find out he has our full support.”
So, we can worry later about whether Osborne will know when it’s time to grab his fishing pole and walk off into the sunset with his familiar squint. For now, Osborne pushes forward with seemingly abundant energy. He has a lot on his mind, projects to oversee. An expanded academic center. A basketball practice facility. And — cross your fingers — a downtown arena.
“If (the arena) doesn’t happen, we’ll look back and say we’ve made a serious mistake,” City Council chairman Doug Emery told me Wednesday. “Name a city of 250,000 that doesn’t have an arena.”
Said Osborne: “We’d like to see it happen, but … we want to make sure it doesn’t sink the whole athletic department.”
A sinking Husker athletic department? Hard to imagine with Osborne in control, so long as he knows when to relinquish that control.
Reach Steven M. Sipple at 473-7440 or ssipple@journalstar.com.
