Tom Osborne
Tom Osborne
Thomas William Osborneis a former American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and politician from Nebraska. He served as the head football coach at the University of Nebraska football team for 25 years, from 1973 to 1997. Osborne was one of the most successful coaches in American college football history, with a career record of 255–49–3, 13 conference championships, and three national championships. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1999. Osborne was...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth23 February 1937
CityHastings, NE
CountryUnited States of America
Everybody's got to do what they've got to do.
You can tell by looking at me that I've got more miles behind me than I've got in front of me. When you reach that point, if you've got some good years left, you want to make sure that you use them wisely
As a college coach, I felt you could make a difference in a player's life. There was an educational aspect I thought was important.
Have a spiritual basis which guides you in life. Have a philosophy of life to live by.
Know how to win and how to lose and be able to handle adversity.
Work hard, stay focused and surround yourself with good people.
Is success just about winning? Acclaim? Trophies? Wealth? Our personal happiness or satisfaction? I have been blessed to experience some of these over the years, and I can answer without batting an eye: No. Accomplishments, applause, awards and fortune are rewards that often come as the result of hard work and a determined spirit, but there is something bigger. Something better. Something that will outlast the winningest season, the plushest corner office, the heftiest bonus and the loudest cheers. That something can only be found when we look beyond the final score.
The odds are always against you no matter what your previous history is. You have to overcome the tendency to relax.
The fans used to think Oklahoma was the enemy. They actually made us better.
I celebrate a victory when I start walking off the field. By the time I get to the locker room, I'm done.
My hardest job is to convince the people of Nebraska that 10-1 is not a losing season.
That delay helped us. We had a couple of guys who were ready to fall out from the heat. We went inside and watched 'Hoosiers' for for about 30 minutes, and told the kids to just get relaxed. We fed them some fruit and peanut butter, and then came back out and played well.
I have told these kids that they could be the best senior class that we have ever had, ... All five are going to be great contributors and solid leaders. And they want to make sure they are having fun. They know how much they are depending on these juniors and sophomores and freshmen.
One of the goals we have set for this year is that we never want to get beat by seven points or less, ... That might sound funny, but if you look at last year's results, we lost three games by seven or less. We could have gone into the tournament with five wins instead of two wins, and then that confidence would have been there. So there are opportunities to improve our record dramatically by winning the close games.