Weir 'Laid The Foundation For Husker Nation'

Ed Weir III treasures what he believes to be the only autographed professional football card – when it came out in the 1970s – of his grandfather, Nebraska legend Ed Weir.
 
Proud of his possession, Weir III has shown the card to family members, including one time, about 3 years ago, while visiting his cousin, Julie.
 
Julie's husband saw the card, and proceeded to go to a nearby shelf and remove a book about the legendary Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. (Weir had played across some of college football's most famous players – excelled against them, even – from 1922-24.)
 
The book included the signature of not only Weir, but also each of the Four Horsemen.
 
You could say Julie and her husband one-upped her cousin.
 
"Did they ever," Weir III said with hearty laughter.
 
That's when he first learned how the Four Horsemen had attended Weir's 1951 induction into the National College Football Hall of Fame – Nebraska's first-ever inductee – and asked Weir to sign the book, which they had also autographed.
 
"It's just the way they treated a gridiron foe in the 1920s," Weir III said. "They were compatriots. Honorable men, honoring each other."
 
That Weir III never heard this story directly from his grandfather didn't surprise him.
 
Boasting wasn't part of Weir's nature.
 
"He just carried himself with dignity and honor," Weir III said. "Never did anything that would besmirch, never did anything that would disdain the University of Nebraska, in his entire life.
 
"He lived an exemplary, gentlemanly life."
 
Weir, a two-time football All-American and accomplished track athlete and coach, and for whom the Nebraska outdoor track stadium is named, died in 1991 at the age of 88. His three children are also deceased, meaning Weir III, one of eight grandchildren, will deliver the acceptance speech Friday at Memorial Stadium when Ed Weir will be among seven people to join the fifth class of the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
"He was one of the people who laid the foundation for Husker Nation," Weir III said. "The way the university treated him and took care of him, it was really, really neat."
 
Weir and Olympian Carol Frost, who coached the Nebraska women's track and field and cross country teams from 1976-80, are entering the Hall as pioneers in honor of the University of Nebraska's 150th Anniversary.
 
Weir was a dominant defensive tackle for Nebraska and served as a driving force behind the Huskers' 14-7 victory over Notre Dame and the Four Horsemen in 1923, in only the third game ever played at Memorial Stadium.
 
Those Four Horsemen, by the way, posted a 27-2-1 record from 1922-24, with the only losses coming to Nebraska.
 
Yes, those are the same Notre Dame teams coached by the legendary Knute Rockne, who marveled at the play of Weir, and made his opinion known, even in defeat.
 
"He burst into the locker room after the game and said, 'Ed, you're the best tackle I've ever played against,' " said Cathy Renk, one of Weir's grandchildren.
 
Suffice it to say she's proud of her grandfather.
 
"I watched him age, from when I was a kid until I was an adult, and he never stopped talking about the University of Nebraska. Ever," Renk said. "I can't even describe how much the university meant to him. He lived and breathed for the University of Nebraska.
 
"I'm sure it would tickle him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and that makes me happy that he's being honored in that way."
 
Renk also remembers her grandfather talking about playing against Illinois legend Red Grange. Weir and the Huskers kept Grange out of the end zone for the only time during Grange's career in a 14-0 victory.
 
"I think when people think about Coach, they think about his football accomplishments in the 20s," said Renk, referring to her grandfather by the only name she, or any of her siblings or cousins, ever used.
 
"I've never called him 'Grandpa,' " Renk said. "I don't ever remember calling him 'Grandpa,' ever, in my entire life."
 
But as famous as "Coach" was on the gridiron, he equally made a name for himself in track and field.
 
At 6-feet, 190 pounds, Weir earned a Missouri Valley Conference title in the 120-yard high hurdles in 1926 and led the Huskers to the MVC team crown. He later became the head coach of the Nebraska track and field team, and developed a special bond with his athletes during a tumultuous period.
 
"We discovered an archive from all the letters the World War II boys wrote my grandfather, and he wrote them back – some of them telegram, some of them letters – from boys who went off to war who he had coached," Weir III said.
 
Many of the athletes promised to return to compete for Weir in track and field, and most who could fulfill those promises, did.
 
"He was so close to those young men that they stayed in touch while they were overseas," Weir III said. "He was a coach, but a mentor, and an example, and just a fine, fine gentleman."
 
Renk also remembers her grandfather talking about a game-winning field goal he kicked. He kept a scrapbook from when he played football, and she's bringing it to Lincoln this weekend for her family to see.
 
All but one of the grandchildren – including one who some cousins haven't seen in 30 years, Renk said – will come to Friday's ceremony, and roughly 32 family members will attend.
 
"It's going to be quite a family reunion," said Renk, who's traveling from Peru, Illinois, while other grandchildren are coming from Wyoming, Indiana and Kansas, and various towns across Nebraska.
 
"It's an incredible honor for our family to represent him this weekend," she said. "He lived and breathed the University of Nebraska."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.