C O M M E N T A R Y
T A D    S T R Y K E R
February 18, 2009

Whatever you think of ESPN, it's clear that the national sports network hatched a good idea this time.

You've got to admit that it came up with an interesting way to help sports fans fill that dead period between the end of football season and the start of baseball with some good old-fashioned debate. It has come up with a list of the four biggest sports icons of all time for every state of the union – in other words, a "Mt. Rushmore of Sports" for each state.

ESPN chose Tom Osborne, Bob Gibson, Tommie Frazier and Gale Sayers to be chiseled onto Nebraska's Mt. Rushmore of sports. I can agree with only two of its choices.

I have to eliminate Sayers from the list immediately. Although he was one of my most enjoyable interviews ever and his NFL career with the Chicago Bears was meteoric, Sayers played in Nebraska only at Omaha Central. He was a great prep football player, and his state long jump record stood for more than 40 years, but come on – he went to the University of Kansas.

There were several other athletes who had greater impact on Nebraska sports than Sayers. I immediately think of Heisman Trophy winners Mike Rozier, Eric Crouch and Lombardi Award winner Grant Wistrom. I think of Bob Brown, the great offensive tackle who was inducted into both the NCAA and NFL halls of fame.

But none of them made the crowd stand up the way Johnny Rodgers did.

Rodgers, an Omaha native and the Huskers' first Heisman winner, made crowds come to their feet just be dropping back to receive a punt. He is the most exciting athlete in the state's history, and he has to be included on Nebraska's Mt. Rushmore. His kick returns alone might qualify him, but he holds several NU pass receiving records as well. He took some criticism for robbing a gas station as a 19-year-old, but has atoned for that crime and has continued to be a goodwill ambassador for Husker sports throughout his life. Most importantly, he made the biggest play in Nebraska football history in the biggest game in Nebraska football history.

Frazier also deserves a spot on Nebraska's Mt. Rushmore. Although he came to the University of Nebraska from Florida, Frazier cemented Nebraska's place in the college football chronicles by leading the Huskers to back-to-back national championships in 1994 and 95. Frazier may have been the best college quarterback ever. He was not quite the pure triple-option quarterback that Oklahoma's Thomas Lott (1976-78) or Jamelle Holieway (1985-88) were, but Frazier was a better passer and leader, and was tougher. Frazier probably deserved the Heisman as a senior. He lost a controversial vote to Ohio State's Eddie George, but in a reverse of the Heisman jinx, Frazier came back to lead a rout of the highly-touted Florida Gators in one of the most one-sided national title games ever, finishing with a tackle-busting 75-yard run. In his junior year, he overcame adversity (blood clots in his leg) and came back to win the MVP of the Orange Bowl against a Miami team that had All-Americans Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp on defense. Brook Berringer was heroic in replacing Frazier while he recovered, but Frazier was the ultimate difference-maker.

Osborne was a bridge between Rodgers and Frazier, and has to be considered the most important figure ever in Nebraska football. Osborne was a father figure to Rodgers in some ways, helping him through the aftermath of his robbery conviction. He tried to do the same thing for Lawrence Phillips a generation later, but it backfired in his face when Phillips didn't respond as well as Rodgers did.

Osborne will forever be linked to his option offenses of the 1980s and 1990s, but he liked to throw the ball as the offensive mastermind of the 1970-71 national champions. Rodgers calls him the creator of the pro and spread offenses. That may be stretching things a bit, but there's no denying that Osborne was ahead of his time in many ways. He also was a standout athlete at Hastings High and Hastings College.

Osborne's profile has the lines worthy of Rushmore. Bob Devaney's might be a little too pudgy. But considering the impact of Devaney's hard-driving 11-year career in Lincoln, it's hard to say that Osborne is worthy and Devaney is not

In 1962, Devaney rescued Nebraska football and started the Husker renaissance. Both he and Osborne served honorably as athletic director. The Bobfather will always be revered, but I will put only one coach on my Nebraska Rushmore, and Osborne's 255 victories (including a 60-3 finish) in a quarter-century as head coach and three national titles trump Devaney's 101 wins and two national titles at Nebraska.

That leaves one final spot in the place of honor, and I decided to give it to a major-league athlete. It's hard to argue against the choice of Gibson, an Omaha native who dominated the National League in the 1960s. When you think of power pitchers, Gibson is near the top of the pack. Gibson was an intimidating figure on the mound, and he led the Cardinals to two World Series titles (1964, 1967). He was an eight-time All-Star selection. Gibson's earned-run average of 1.12 in 1968 is an all-time Major League record, as is his 17 strikeouts in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series against Detroit. He was the first NL pitcher to record 3,000 strikeouts and was a good hitter and baserunner. His toughness and durability far exceeded anyone you'll see on the mound today, when pitchers live on pitch counts.

But there was a Nebraska native who did a little better in the majors. Grover Cleveland Alexander played against the likes of Rogers Hornsby, Frankie Frisch and Babe Ruth in the era before the All-Star Game was launched.

Born in Elba, Nebraska, Alexander was known for his drunkenness, but it's a little-known fact that he also was an epileptic, and that he drank partly in a misguided attempt to control his epilepsy. He had his greatest years pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies as a righthander in the tiny Baker Bowl, where he protected a right-field wall only 272 feet from home plate, closer than Fenway's Green Monster or old Yankee Stadium's short porch in right. Alexander also pitched in Wrigley Field for the Cubs, but was sold to the Cardinals in the middle of the 1926 season and had his crowning achievement that fall in the Series, winning Game 2 and Game 6 as a starter. Then, in Game 7, he came in as a reliever, and leading 3-2 with two outs in the seventh inning, struck out the Yankees' Tony Lazzerri with the bases loaded, and went on to save the game – all against a New York team that was one year away from possibly the greatest season in Major League history.

Alexander also won 30 games in three consecutive seasons, was a four-time National League earned-run average champion and led the league in wins six times while pitching 219 complete games.

So I'll chisel Osborne, Rodgers, Frazier and Alexander on my Nebraska Mt. Rushmore. How about yours?

Formerly the sports editor at the North Platte Bulletin and a sportswriter/columnist for the North Platte Telegraph, Tad Stryker is a longtime Nebraska sports writer, having covered University of Nebraska and high school sports for more than 25 years. He started writing for HuskerPedia in 2008. You can e-mail him at tad.stryker@gmail.com.