Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 97 – Pat Engelbert and Jeff Ogard
The lack of an obvious standout makes for some hard choices. This one is even harder because the pool of candidates isn’t as deep as other numbers – just 24 players. Aside from three guys in the 1920s, no Husker wore a number higher than 89 until 1965. That is when unlimited substitution came to college football, creating the two-platoon system (i.e., players split between offense and defense) that we know today.
The candidates for the greatest 97 fell into two camps: NFL draft picks (Bill Barnett, Dean Gissler, and Toby Williams) and high academic achievers (Bill Engelbert and Dan Titchner). Since getting drafted isn’t always a great indictor of a standout career (especially in the days when the draft had 17 rounds), I’m choosing academics. In his Huskers.com bio, Pat Engelbert is described as “one of the most decorated Husker student-athletes” earning Academic All-America honors twice (second team as a junior, first team as a senior), an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and a place on the CFA Scholar-Athlete team.
On the field, Engelbert was no slouch. He was second team All-Big Eight as a senior and earned ESPN Player of the Game honors in the Colorado game. He also received the Guy Chamberlain Award, given to the Husker who “has shown by the play and contributions to the betterment of the University of Nebraska football squad that he has the qualities and dedication” of Chamberlin. The University of Nebraska has had more Academic All-Americans (108) in football than any other school. During Tom Osborne’s 25 years as head coach, Nebraska had 65 Academic All-Americans – more than any other football program had in their entire history. Notre Dame was second, producing 50 selections in 45 years.
For a long time, the entire athletic department had the high total of Academic All-Americans in the nation. However, in the last few years Stanford has surpassed Nebraska for the top spot. While I could cynically note that Stanford’s top spot is aided by offering 15 more varsity sports than NU, second place to one of the nation’s most prestigious schools is pretty good company for a land grant university in the middle of America.
Pat Engelbert / 1990 Nebraska Football Media Guide
In his Huskers.com bio, Pat Engelbert is described as “one of the most decorated Husker student-athletes” earning Academic All-America honors twice (second team as a junior, first team as a senior), an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and a place on the CFA Scholar-Athlete team.
On the field, Engelbert was no slouch. He was second team All-Big Eight as a senior and earned ESPN Player of the Game honors in the Colorado game. He also received the Guy Chamberlain Award, given to the Husker who “has shown by the play and contributions to the betterment of the University of Nebraska football squad that he has the qualities and dedication” of Chamberlin.
Jeff Ogard / Nebraska Athletics
*As I mentioned in the beginning, some of the reasoning behind the “Dave’s Faves” picks will be odd and/or only amusing to me. Ogard’s jersey number (97) corresponds to the year I graduated from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. I would be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to brag up my college experience.
You see, I believe that no other college student – from any school – can claim a better football experience than me and my fellow members of the UNL Class of 1997… especially if they started in the fall of 1993 like I did.
