Pelini's Personality, Approach Remind 1962 Huskers of the Legendary Devaney

When Nebraska's athletic director was searching for a new head football coach in late 2007, he knew exactly what he was looking for - a coach who could help rebuild the tradition of a program that had just finished the season with the worst defensive stats in school history.

Tom Osborne, the athletic director who always had a penchant for offense as a Hall of Fame coach, had done his research on a defensive coordinator who had spent one year at Nebraska in 2003 and was just helping to put the finishing touches on an LSU team that would win the 2007 national championship.

When Osborne interviewed Bo Pelini, he wasn't comparing personalities with a coach who had won Nebraska's first two national championships 34 and 35 years earlier.

But now, even Osborne will admit that Pelini and Devaney are a lot alike in terms of their strong personalities and their fundamental approach to organizing and motivating a football team.

Osborne isn't the only one who sees remarkable parallels between Pelini and Devaney. So did four members of the 1962 Nebraska team when they were invited to a practice this fall to help promote the first game in a string of 299 consecutive Husker sellouts. That game, played on Nov. 3, 1962, started a streak that celebrates a 300th consecutive sellout Saturday night when the Huskers host Louisiana-Lafayette at Memorial Stadium.

Forty-seven years later, Dwain Carlson, Dennis Claridge, Lyle Sittler and Willie Paschall - four prominent players on Devaney's first Nebraska team - took the time to explain the similarities they see between Devaney and Pelini.

Carlson, a co-captain, said it's ironic that Pelini is almost "a replica" of Devaney since both were charged with turning the Nebraska program around.

Devaney's first starting quarterback at Nebraska, Claridge said the two coaches share certain traits in the way they get things done.

Sittler sees a simple matter of two inspirational coaches finding ways to get players to believe in themselves.

And Paschall said the two shared a vision for keeping players and coaches focused, making sure everyone is on the same page while they teach and motivate every day.

"Bob was very direct, and Bo is very direct. You never have to wonder where they're coming from," Osborne said. "Bob was emotional, and Bo's emotional, and their players seem to feed off that emotion."

Pelini and Devaney also share at least one fault. "Bob had a temper, but it would end very quickly," Osborne said. "For Bo, it's harder to let things go."

More comparisons were discussed Friday night when the Nebraska Athletic Department and the NU Alumni Association co-hosted a banquet honoring the 1962 team at the Wick Alumni Center.

Devaney's son, Mike Devaney from Arizona, and his daughter, Pat from California, both spoke at the banquet.

Mike talked about how easy it was for his father to relate to all people from all walks of life. He pointed out how his dad grew up in the Depression in Michigan and developed a strong work ethic that was balanced out by his wit and his love of people. "He could sit on a piano bench and sing hymns with a recruit's mother or relate to the toughest players in the toughest neighborhoods because he grew up tough, too," Mike Devaney said. "He was also the kind of guy who liked coaching the underdogs because he was one himself."

Pat talked about how her father and his Nebraska players were part of their own civil rights movement when they qualified for major bowl games in Miami and New Orleans in the early to mid-1960s. Host cities, she pointed out, often wanted to divide who could attend certain functions or stay at certain hotels. Her dad, Pat Devaney said, got through those situations by always standing up for what was right.

Twenty-two members of the '62 team are in Lincoln for this weekend's festivities - Ernie Bonistall, Curtis Bryan, Dick Callahan, co-captain Dwain Carlson, Dennis Claridge, Larry Donovan, John Kirby, John Koinzan, Noel Martin, Joe McNulty, William Paschall, Tyrone Robertson, Jed Rood, Willie Ross, Lyle Sittler, Maynard Smidt, John Strohmyer, Larry Tomlinson, Gary Toogood, Douglas Tucker, John Vujevich and Gene Young. 

Four members of Devaney's first Husker coaching staff are also involved in the festivities - John Melton (freshman coach), Jim Ross (ends and defensive backs), Carl Selmer (offensive line) and Osborne, who was a first-year graduate assistant coach on the 1962 team.

Longtime Nebraska trainer George Sullivan, Husker publicist Don Bryant and NU groundskeeper Bill Shepard also participated in the reunion.