I love football season. Around here, Nebraska football can get in your blood. Some of my earliest sports memories are of going to a Husker football game. There just isn’t anything quite like a Husker game day.
Last fall I arranged a surprise for some of our RHYTHMinTWENTY leaders who were in Lincoln for a reunion. We were able to sit down in the coaching offices with Tom Osborne, the great Nebraska Football Coach, U.S. Congressman, and University of Nebraska Athletic Director. He was set to retire, and in fact, was being honored the next day at the last home game of the year. He talked with us some about leadership and finishing well.
Tom Osborne is an incredible leader who has impacted tens of thousands of people; from players, to colleagues, to fans, and countless
Tom Osborne
others, with the way he has lived his life. As he was speaking, I found myself wondering what it was about this quiet and unassuming leader that makes him so special. What makes his impact on others so profound and so significant? Even though we had only a short time with him, I feel I gained some insight into what makes this man truly great.
Years ago it was another football game day in Nebraska. It was a Thursday evening and we were playing Rice. This game was significant because the terrorist attacks of 9-11 had happened just one week prior. There were 80,000 fans in Memorial Stadium and the mood was one of quiet fear. You could sense the tension; everyone was a bit on edge and seemed to be struggling to return to life as they knew it. A video came on the HuskerVision screen with Tom Osborne addressing the crowd. He was serving as a U.S. Congressman at the time and in a voice so familiar to all of Nebraskans, he said “We are going to be okay. We, as a country, will make it through this.” You could literally sense a shift in the crowd — a sense of relief and of hope. There was a palpable trust and comfort in his words. It was as if, collectively, 80,000 people took a deep breath and truly believed that no matter what else happened we really could make it. We will be okay.
It was an incredible lesson in the power of leadership. It was an incredible how this one man’s credibility, his character, his success, and his commitment to his principles and his values, and the consistency in which he lived his life both publicly and privately gave him such an incredible platform of influence.
As he spoke to us and gave us one of his last talks as an employee of the University of Nebraska, I could see those things in him. What I saw was a humble man whose life and actions had done all the talking. I saw someone who was not seeking the spotlight; someone who gained his strength from times of quiet and solitude. In fact he named those times of solitude as a key for him in sustaining leadership over the long haul, and setting him up to finish well.
So here is to listening to those key leaders that have been through some battles and have stayed the course. Here is to watching and learning from people who have been down the road a bit farther than we have.
And here is to some football…
