- Nebraska Head Coach, 1925-28
- Nebraska Record: 23-7-3 (.742)
- Led Nebraska to First Big Six Conference Title (1928)
- Nebraska Men's Basketball Coach (1926)
- Nebraska Football Hall of Fame Coach (1988)
Ernest E. Bearg won Nebraska's first Big Six title in 1928 when his team went 7-1-1. Despite fielding powerful teams during his four years, fans criticized him for not using strategy and deception, which eventually led to his resignation. Bearg also spent one year as men's basketball coach (1926) and posted an 8-10 record.
Bearg's Cornhusker football teams added Missouri Valley Conference runner-up finishes in 1925, 1926 and 1927, before the Huskers' claimed the first-ever Big Six title in 1928.
In 1918 and 1919, Bearg served as the head coach at Washburn in Kansas. He led the Ichabods to a 4-1 mark in 1918 and a 7-1-1 record in 1919 that included a 53-0 win over Wichita State and a 0-0 tie with the University of Kansas.
Following his first term as Washburn's head coach, Bearg served as an assistant coach at Illinois, before taking the top job at Nebraska for the start of the 1925 season. In his first game as Nebraska's head coach, Bearg led the Huskers to a 14-0 victory over the Fighting Illini in Champaign on Oct. 3, 1925. He closed his first campaign with a 17-0 win over Notre Dame in Lincoln, a game that marked NU's last meeting with the Fighting Irish until 1947.
Bearg's 1925 Husker team included All-America tackle Ed Weir, who became Nebraska's first two-time All-American and the Huskers' first player to earn induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
After four seasons in Lincoln, Bearg was replaced by future College Football Hall of Fame Coach Dana X. Bible at Nebraska. Bearg returned to Washburn for a second stint as head coach from 1929 to 1935 and led the Ichabods to a 35-31 record and the 1931 Central Conference championship. Two his his team's three losses during the 1931 season came to Kansas and Kansas State.
Bearg was inducted into the Washburn Athletics Hall of Fame in 1973-74, and earned a spot as a coach in the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1988.