Alberts Credits His Family, Osborne, Big Red Fans

Four Husker Legends Will Be Honored Saturday

A Touch of Sadness with Hall-of-Fame Honor

17 Huskers in College Football Hall of Fame

Five Huskers in Pro Football Hall of Fame

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When Trev Alberts is introduced Saturday at halftime of the Nebraska-Wisconsin game, Big Red fans inside Memorial Stadium will pay tribute to the Huskers’ newest College Football Hall-of-Fame selection.

Even though Alberts (pictured above causing a fumble against Missouri) will be officially inducted into that elite group at New York’s historic Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Dec. 8, the University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Vice Chancellor of Athletics can’t help but appreciate Saturday’s prequel. He will, after all, be standing on Tom Osborne Field, named after the man who recruited him, coached him and mentored him into the leader, husband and father he is today.

“It’ll mean the world to me,” Alberts said about being introduced Saturday as the 17th Husker to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. “I’ve told many people that outside my faith and family, everything that I enjoy today is the result of the opportunity that Tom Osborne gave me. I’m very appreciative that Coach Osborne saw something in me. I’m not sure what he saw, but he saw something. He not only gave me an opportunity, but worked very hard to help me. He created a staff, a team and a culture that really embraced the student-athletes. We were able to maximize our talents and God-given abilities through the hard work of the team that it created. Obviously I’m very, very grateful and thankful. It’ll be a real honor to be standing on that field.”

Alberts: Will Shields the Epitome of a Nebraska Football Player

On Saturday, Will Shields (pictured above) will be recognized for his recent induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Alberts is every bit as excited about seeing his former teammate and applauding his double-barreled Hall-of-Fame feat as he is about being recognized for his own honor. Shields is one of only three Huskers in history to be inducted into both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, joining trailblazers Guy Chamberlin and Bob Brown.

“Will Shields and I were both part of the 1989 freshman class,” Alberts said. “I think Will Shields is the epitome of what a Nebraska football player is. If you tried to come up with the utopian University of Nebraska football player, I think you would come up with Will Shields. He was a Lawton, Oklahoma, graduate and an outstanding high school football player. When he arrived on campus, you certainly wouldn’t have known it in the way he conducted himself. He was a humble guy, quiet, unassuming. He didn’t feel the need to tell others about who he was or what he had done or what he was ranked.

“Will came in as a true freshman and became our second-team right guard. Nobody, EVER, at the University of Nebraska, did that. I mean, if you were REALLY a good player, you got to redshirt. We still had a freshmen team then. Here’s this 18 year-old kid who walks in, and he’s getting substantial reps in a different era than today, where freshmen are playing consistently. Will was the ultimate Husker. He worked hand-in-hand with Keith Zimmer on the ‘School is Cool Jam’. They got that started. Community engagement and service are very important to Will. He was a very good student, very quiet, and a great leader. I have profound respect for Will Shields and what he’s accomplished both on and off the field.”

Dave Rimington’s Performance Reflected What It Meant to Be a Husker

Because Alberts is a disciple of Nebraska football history, I ask him about Dave Rimington (above). “I’ve seen video of Dave. He’s just a relentless player...a home- state guy from Omaha South High School,” Alberts said. “He understood what it was and what it meant to be a Husker and how important it was to the state. You can tell that by the way he played the game.”

Even though he doesn’t know Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Mick Tingelhoff, who also will be honored Saturday in the first half, Alberts puts the Minnesota Vikings’ legend in the category of Huskers who paved the way for what he was able to experience at Nebraska. “In 1989, when Will Shields and I walked in the door, we were the beneficiaries of what was built through the incredible work ethic and the culture of people like Mick Tingelhoff and Dave Rimington. Ultimately, they created it, and we benefited from their hard work and that was the beauty of it.

“Future Husker teams, hopefully, benefited from the stewardship that we exhibited while we were there,” Alberts said. “It’s kind of like passing down excellence, if you will, and recognizing that much of the great benefit that we had as players was a result of people like Mick and Dave paying big prices and being good stewards at that time in history of Husker football. You don’t want to be the group, the class or the captain that, ultimately, is a part of a broken chain. You want to carry your weight and, if you can, leave it even a little better than you found it.”

Greatest Privilege: Being Surrounded by Hall-of-Fame Influences

Alberts believes strongly that his greatest privilege was being surrounded by others who made a Hall-of-Fame difference in his life. He puts his family and teammates in that category with a true Hall-of-Famer in Coach Osborne and the impact that defensive coordinator Charlie McBride had in helping him become one of Nebraska’s most decorated student-athletes in history.

In addition to winning the 1993 Butkus Award that recognizes the nation’s best linebacker, the National Football Foundation (NFF) recognized Alberts as a National Scholar-Athlete. He also earned the NCAA Top Eight Award, the highest honor bestowed on a student-athlete's  academic/athletic accomplishments, plus an NCAA postgraduate scholarship. “We’re thrilled to honor Trev in front of the Nebraska faithful at Memorial Stadium Saturday,” NFF President and CEO Steve Hatchell said. “He truly epitomizes the scholar-athlete ideal.”

Indianapolis selected Alberts with the fifth overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft. A Cedar Falls, Iowa, native, Alberts spent three years with the Colts’ franchise. Nebraska retired his number in 1994, and he’s a member of Nebraska’s All-Century Team and the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame. After his playing career, Alberts spent time as a college football analyst for ESPN and CBS Sports Network.

Trev Alberts Favors Communication, Cooperation and Collaboration

Events like the one Alberts will experience Saturday are often “the ultimate capstone” to Hall of Fame careers, Hatchell said, because they give inductees a chance to take the field and hear the crowd roar their name. The NFF’s Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute program has been a hallowed tradition since its inaugural class in 1951.

Alberts (above) applies strategic thinking in his administrative role at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. His objective is to win, but it required changing campus relationships, communicating with Chancellor John Christensen and integrating athletics into the institution as a whole. “All those little things are absolutely critical if you’re going to have any value at all on campus,” Alberts said. “We have really high expectations, and it’s been fun to watch UNO come together both academically and athletically by really stretching ourselves.”

For Alberts, personal success boiled down to three basic things when he was a student-athlete: 1) his family, including his late mother, plus his father, brother and sister, and the collective support they gave him during difficult times while encouraging him to persevere; 2) Osborne’s support, which included several recruiting promises that were all fulfilled; and 3) Nebraska fans. “The people in our state and the support that they embrace and give to the program is incredible,” Alberts said. “We should never take our fans for granted. Their loyalty amazes me. If you remove that element, I’m not sure what you have.”

Alberts: Until You’re Gone, You Don’t Truly Understand Fans’ Significance

Talk about a letdown while transitioning from Memorial Stadium’s sellout crowds to the RCA Dome, the former NFL stadium for the Indianapolis Colts. In essence, Alberts went from packed house to half full. “My first game in the NFL was an exhibition against the Seattle Seahawks,” he recalled. “Lamont Warren, who played at Colorado, was a former rival of mine. We played against each other in college and there we were as teammates of the Colts. We were stretching prior to the game and in my naivety, I look up at the clock. I know it’s a preseason game, but there’s like 35,000 people there. I told Lamont that fans must still be tailgating at the last minute. He laughed and said: ‘Trev, this isn’t the Huskers, my friend. This isn’t Lincoln. This is what we’re going to have here today.’”

That was a memorable moment in Alberts’ lifetime love for the fans who supported him and his teammates. “You don’t truly respect and understand the significance of the people and the fans we had at Nebraska until you’re away from it and have a different experience,” Alberts said. “It was at that moment when I really realized what made Nebraska special.”

We end with another life lesson that showed why Osborne was equally special as a coach who wrote a book about more than winning. Alberts finished his Husker career as a captain who was named the 1993 Big Eight Conference Male Athlete of the Year, representing all sports. He finished as a unanimous first-team All-American who became Nebraska’s career leader in sacks. He helped lead Nebraska to three conference titles and four bowl games, including that 18-16 loss to Florida State in the national championship game that ended his collegiate career.

All That Matters: Osborne Called Huskers’ 1993 Team Champions

That 1993 team was the first part of a five-year run that saw Nebraska win 60 of 63 games. “Nobody at that time knew what would come next,” Alberts told me Wednesday. “Maybe Tom Osborne had an inclination, but we didn’t know Nebraska would move on and win three national championships. The thing I remember most was how down everybody was. To be honest with you, we were pretty angry. Several of the folks felt like some of the calls were really bad, but our coaches didn’t allow us ever to question calls publicly because it’s part of the game.”

“What I remember most was Coach Osborne coming into the locker room and telling us that he was very proud of us and that the scoreboard doesn’t say it, but in his mind, we played like champions,” recalled Alberts (pictured above finishing one of his three sacks against Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward, the 1993 Heisman Trophy winner). “What Coach Osborne taught us was not to worry so much about the score, but what we could control with our effort, our attention to detail, and our discipline. We focused on small details and basic fundamentals.

“At the end of the game, you look up and see what the score is,” Alberts said, recalling how obviously discouraged the team was until their coach addressed them. “Our leader looked us in the eye and told us that he was proud of us and that in his mind, we were champions. That’s all I needed. I didn’t need the affirmation of media or other coaches. When my leader told me and my teammates that we were champions, that was enough for me.” 

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