Ostergard returns to athletic department
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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
The new guy in the Nebraska athletic department didn’t need much in the way of introduction.
Everyone already knew the name. Doak Ostergard is back.
“It’s a little bit more comfortable than when I was here last year,” he said Thursday.
The 48-year-old returned to the department a couple weeks ago, carrying the new title of outreach director.
Among Ostergard’s duties is to be a contact person for the N Club, made up of Husker letterwinners. He’s also to be a consultant for athletic medicine, strength and conditioning and nutrition.
“It’s a position that’s going to be evolving for a while,” Ostergard said.
Ostergard was a full-time trainer at Nebraska since 1990 and the football team’s head trainer for nine years before he was asked to resign by former Husker coach Bill Callahan in February of last year.
That whole episode soured some former Huskers, who even held a golf tournament partially in his honor last spring.
After the event, Ostergard provided key details and wrote the forward for the book “The Nebraska Way.”
The book chronicled the relationship between Nebraskans and the football program, but also contained some accounts from Ostergard about some dealings with Callahan that put a less-than-flattering light on the coach.
Besides his work with the book, Ostergard started a small company that sells durable medical equipment (things like athletic braces) online at doaktraining.com.
Shortly after the new football staff was in place, Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne called Ostergard in to talk about the possibility of him returning to the department.
Ostergard had maintained a close relationship with Osborne. Accepting a job offer from him wasn’t exactly difficult.
“I missed being around the athletes, all the relationships,” Ostergard said. “I went from interacting with about 100 people a day to a handful.”
Briefly
* The All American Football League, the pro league Eric Crouch was set to play in, might not even get off the ground.
The league is going to postpone its 2008 season unless it can get some late financial help.
The six-team league’s inaugural draft was in January, with the former Husker and Heisman Trophy winner being drafted by the team in Houston.
The season was supposed to start in April. Training camp was going to open Wednesday.
ESPN.com reported that the league will push its plans back a year unless it can orchestrate some type of TV deal or way of generating additional funding.
* As of Thursday, about 40,700 tickets had been sold for Nebraska’s Red-White spring game on April 19.
Jeff Jamrog, Nebraska assistant athletic director for football operations, has said it’s a goal for the game to be a sellout.
The record attendance for a Husker spring game was set in 2005, during Callahan’s second season, when 63,416 fans showed up.
Reach Brian Christopherson at bchristopherson@journalstar.com or at 473-7439.
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