Osborne Still Going Strong for Nebraska

Tom Osborne, the 54-year-old football coach now in his 19th season as head coach at Nebraska, has since 1985 learned to balance the demands of winning in a high-pressure college football program with life.

After experiencing tightness in his chest while jogging in 1985, tests showed an arterial blockage. After that season, he underwent double-bypass surgery.

“He’s a machine,” Dave Gillespie, Osborne’s administrative assistant, told Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald. “I’ve never worked at another school, but I’ve talked to a lot of recruiting coordinators around the country about what their head coaches do. I’ve not run into anyone who can match Tom. He recruits in 35 states.

“He’s working as hard as ever. We see no signs of him slowing down.”

Osborne says he complements his jogging program with a strict, low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.

“I used to eat a lot of chicken, but it was deep-fat fried,” he said.

Trivia time: Name the three on-campus college football stadiums in the United States seating more than 90,000.

Night owl: According to William Curran in his 1990 book, “Big Sticks--The Batting Revolution of the Twenties,” the Boston Red Sox in 1919 were annoyed with their young pitcher/outfielder, Babe Ruth. Seems his social life was at a near around-the-clock pace.

According to Curran, the following exchange occurred when Ruth told Boston Manager Ed Barrow he didn’t want to pitch anymore:

Barrow: “How come?”

Ruth: “I’m tired all the time.”

Barrow: “Have you tried sleep?”

Add Ruth: When the Red Sox sold Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920, the Yankees told him he wouldn’t have to pitch. They also tore up his existing three-year, $30,000 contract and doubled his salary to $20,000 per year.

Result: In 142 games in 1920, Ruth hit 54 home runs, breaking his record of 29; hit .376, drove in 137 runs and was walked 148 times. His 1920 slugging percentage was .847, still the major league record.

Off the scale: For two years, no one at West Virginia University could weigh offensive tackle John Ray. A senior, Ray is 6-foot-10 and weighs between 320 and 330 pounds.

“The scales we had only went to 300 pounds,” West Virginia sports information director Shelly Poe said. “During physicals, we’d take John to a meat-packing plant in Morgantown. Now we have a scales that goes to 350.”

Trivia answer: Michigan Stadium (101,701); Beaver Stadium, Penn State (93,600); Neyland Stadium, University of Tennessee (91,110).

Quotebook: Lou Saban, 69, Peru (Neb.) State College football coach, told his players that his first player contract with the Cleveland Browns in 1947 paid $5,500. Said one player: “Jeez, coach--you must not have been very good.”