Why Dave Rimington Was the Inaugural NU HOF Choice

On Trev Alberts                      On Wisconsin

On Dave Rimington               On Match-Up

On Will Shields                      On History

On Mick Tingelhoff                       On NFL

    

Randy York N-Sider

Official Blog of the Huskers

Saturday’s marquee event in Lincoln is Nebraska vs. Wisconsin, two proud Big Ten Conference football programs colliding in an ABC matinee telecast that reaches across America using ESPN2 in the outer markets. For those who enjoy showcasing the Huskers’ rich tradition, Saturday promises to be one of the most compelling game-day celebrations in Nebraska football history.

At the 20-minute mark during pregame in the northwest corner of Memorial Stadium’s 20-yard line, Dave Rimington will be honored for his August induction into the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame. During a first-quarter break, Will Shields and Mick Tingelhoff will be honored for their recent induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At halftime, after the Cornhusker Marching Band’s performance, Trev Alberts will be honored at Memorial Stadium’s “N” in a midfield tribute to his College Football Hall of Fame induction this December. With Alberts, Rimington, Shields and Tingelhoff, Saturday celebrates a Mt. Rushmore-like foursome.

Overall Edge: Dave Rimington Is a Trailblazer in Every Sense of the Word

Shields and Alberts were formidable forces at Nebraska, not to mention other highly qualified candidates to be the inaugural football inductee into the University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame. A panel of judges, however, selected Rimington for that honor.

The biggest reason he was the choice might be because Rimington is a trailblazer in every sense of the word, and that, in a nutshell, explains why he became the first football inductee into the inaugural class of the 2015 University of Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame.

For Rimington, the honor was humbling, especially when he knows all the living legends who have been inducted into the same College Football Hall of Fame he has…Bob Brown, Rich Glover, Tommie Frazier, Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier, Will Shields and Grant Wistrom.

First Husker Academic All-American is the Only Two-Time Outland Winner

One of the most decorated players in college football history, Rimington was the first Husker enshrined in the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 2004. He is also the only two-time Outland Trophy winner in college football history (1981 and 1982) and one of 11 collegiate players to win the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award in the same season.

The Rimington Trophy, honoring college football’s center of the year, was launched 15 years ago in Lincoln. The Big Ten Conference also presents the Rimington-Pace Offensive Lineman of the Year award. It was created in Rimington’s and (Ohio State’s) Orlando Pace’s honor in 2011, the first year Nebraska competed in the Big Ten.

As compelling as all of those facts are, the next one distinctively defines why Rimington was voted to be the first football student-athlete to be inducted into the University of Nebraska Athletics’ own Hall of Fame. In 1983, Rimington won the NCAA Top Five Award, joining Stanford’s John Elway as the only two football players ranked among the top five scholar-athletes in all of college athletics across all sports. The Top Five, which expanded to Top Six, then Top Eight and now Top 10 Award, is the highest individual honor the NCAA can bestow. It’s the top of the academic/athletic heap and puts all inductees into a league of their own.

A  Retired Jersey Plus a Fairwell Sweep of the Outland and Lombardi Awards

Rimington’s No. 50 jersey was retired in 1982, the same year he won both the Outland and the Lombardi. The following spring, the Cincinnati Bengals drafted Rimington in the first round. He played five seasons in Cincinnati and his last two years with the Philadelphia Eagles before retiring from football in 1989. When Rimington was named the Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year in 1981, it marked the only time in conference history that a lineman earned that prestigious honor, which serves as another separator in comparative analysis. Perhaps the most compelling honor Rimington received was being the first and still the only Husker Academic All-American who has been selected into that prestigious group's Hall of Fame.

Every honor that could come Rimington’s way did: team captain; National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete; Walter Camp All-Century Team. No wonder the Omaha South graduate helped the Huskers win back-to-back Big Eight titles in 1981 and '82 and was the center of attention when NU led the nation in rushing his senior season.

Rimington Helps Raise $105 Million for the Boomer Esiason Foundation

One accolade after another became the norm for Rimington, who has spent the last 20 years serving as President of the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF). Esiason, the former Bengals’ quarterback, hired Rimington for two years, then asked the Omaha native to preside over the foundation named after him. Under Rimington’s leadership, the Boomer Esiason Foundation has raised more than $105 million toward finding a cure for cystic fibrosis. Rimington, his wife Lisa, and their four children live in an apartment across the street from Central Park in New York City.

Most recently, Rimington led the charge for Boomer’s Foundation to donate $10 million to help develop a drug that was approved and has provided a cystic fibrosis cure for 4 percent of the CF population. “Once they get FDA approval, we’re one of the partners in a $3.3 billion drug that is looking to cure up to 50 percent with different genetic mutation for CF,” Rimington said. “It takes a lot of money and a lot of collaboration to find a cure. We’re enthused that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is part of the plan to bring pharmaceutical companies and donors together.”

 

Rimington Credits Osborne for His Positive Leadership Style

Tom Osborne, is the only living Nebraska coach inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and it’s no surprise that Rimington credits Osborne for his positive leadership style. Osborne was either Nebraska’s head coach or an assistant coach for eight of the nine Husker living legends who have been inducted into the College Football Hall-of-Fame. The only Husker Hall-of-Fame player that Osborne didn’t coach was the late Forrest Behm, who died this past summer.

“Dave was a big man in the 1980s,” Osborne said. “He probably weighed close to 300 pounds, was an avid weightlifter and had amazing quickness.” Rimington played in the Shrine Bowl Game before he enrolled at Nebraska and tore his ACL. “He played his whole career with a torn ACL,” Osborne said. “He had strong enough quads and muscle to be able to survive, but he eventually ended up with a pretty bad knee. Dave was one of the very last people who had an ACL injury that was never repaired.”

Rimington Was the Quickest Big Guy that Osborne Has Ever Seen

In the 1980s, surgeons had not perfected the technique and “didn’t really know how to do it,” Osborne said. “That was unfortunate for Dave, but that’s the way it was in football for years and years. Lots of people ended up with really bad knees when they got older. I think Dave probably had his professional career shortened to some degree by that.”

Osborne said Rimington’s greatness was the result of his strength, size and quickness. “For a big guy, Dave was the quickest guy I’ve ever seen,” Osborne said. “He could really anticipate the snap count. Sometimes, he was so quick, it made it hard for everyone else to keep up with him.”

The same could be said for Nebraska’s best football players in school history. When it came down to measuring the totality of accomplishments – academics, athletics and lifelong skills – Dave Rimington was in a league of his own and from here on out, he’s the standard by which others will be measured.

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