1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - 5 All Time Most Important Huskers: June 30th, 12:25pm

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

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You're listening to One-on-One with DP, sponsored by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul, on 937 The Ticket and The Ticket FM.com. Bach kind, sir. It's amazing to say, Bach is about to give us his five most important Huskers, five most important Husker athletes in specifics, and it does not have to be current. It can be all times.

As a matter of fact, it probably should be. The people who built Husker Athletics. The people who Husker Athletics is built on their shoulders, their production, their name. The names, Bach, matter. And the production matters, right? Because you had to produce something in order

to be considered amongst the grates. So this is not a Mount Rushmore. This is simply a statement of in your mind. And I understand that it could go in two different directions because it could be the five most Husker, the five most important huskers to you, Bach, the people who made you a Husker for that, right? Which may be a different question.

So, sir, if you would please, your five most important huskers. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely interesting too, as you kind of go along that path to what is what is important mean right is uh george flipping breaking the color barrier for the football team you know is that might be a different list than who helped nebraska win championship and what he went through right what he went through i mean people i don't know how many husker athletes were boycotted and petition right like i don't know and still play like that affected the way business is being done even today a hundred years later

So, but, so yeah, you know, kind of putting that, I guess I did my list more on kind of important to winning and building tradition and such like that. Yep. I would say Tommy Fraser's got to be probably number one. And it's interesting because obviously Brooke Beringer helped quite a bit in Tommy's absence in 1994. But you just think about that three-year run that we all love so much, right, 93, 94, 95. And the importance of Tommy Frazier in that. that's why many regard him is the best Husker football player of all time. Is he the best Husker athlete?

I think you'd have to put him close. I mean, you have to put them up there. Again, it's kind of interesting, too, when you do these lists, because Nebraska is different than, like, is he a better athlete or you have a better career? If you do it in totality, then many Huskers had plenty of success at the next level. You know, might not be the best athlete, per se in totality, but to Nebraska, I think he was. So I put him there and then, you know, I kind of think of that, that era. And then I also think about the 70s, right? And that's where

Johnny Rogers sticks out, obviously, as the Heisman trophy winner that helped with those titles, was not a first team, All-American in their first title. Jerry Murtaugh was. So you could have, kind of have an argument there. But, you know, Johnny Rogers kind of sticks out to me as as deservant of that spot. I think as you start to kind of think about other sports, again, it can kind of be, it can get difficult because there's a lot of championships that have been won around here. But, you know, you could think of like a Jordan Burroughs or somebody like that in the wrestling program who kind of stands out. So I can put him there. And that's why I kind of get to Nebraska baseball. Is there, you know, Darren said it was the first pick. You could definitely

go with him. I wouldn't have a problem with it, but did his teams win all that much? Alex Gordon was, you know, a top pick and his teams won and went to the college board series. So I think I'd probably include Alex Gordon in there. Like I said, probably Jordan Burroughs. And then at number five, it's tough because I want, I would love to get into a basketball discussion. And there are discussions about who's the most important Husker basketball player of all time. But again, the program just hasn't at that moment. They're the only program that just has not had the moment of knowing what it's like

to win in a meaningful postseason game, not to say the crown or the United States championship. Well, the big eight tournament. Right, right. Is a win. But is the big eight tournament. And so strict would definitely be in the end this conversation. But is that equivalent to, you know, all these other championships like we're talking about in, you know, national championships and other sports and certainly in football. So I'd have a problem getting there. I do think, you know, you don't want to overlook the the Heisman trophy winners as well. So you can maybe make your pick between they already included Johnny Rogers. Rozier was certainly important to those 80s teams.

For me, I'd probably go Crouch because I'm at least a little bit more familiar with it. I live through that. And I do wonder, one, what would happen? Well, there's several in that era. What would happen if Tom Osborne stuck around for Eric Crouch's tenure? That would be interesting. What would happen if they had a playoff in 1999? Nebraska was the number three team that year. They could have been, you know, obviously maybe could have beaten Florida State or Virginia Tech at the top there. As we seen this past year. Ohio State, what, what, six seats, something like that? So certainly that would be one of my thoughts there.

So I think Eric Crouch probably would round out my tough fun. Would the Sioux team have made the playoffs? The Sioux team? Yeah. I don't think so. By the time they beat Arizona, that's when they kind of moved catapulted to number 14. Now, they would have made it if they would have beaten Texas in the one second.

If you put that one second back on, then the Big 12 champs makes it. Not only would they make it, according to last year's poll, they might be, might have top four seed. With the 96th team. 96 team would have made it, yeah. Right. So there's several teams.

There's a lot of Tom Osborne's teams that would have been. You put a 14 team playoff. I think maybe one or two teams wouldn't have made it. Right. Like it becomes interesting, right, that timing matters. And that if you said, uh, for corrective sake,

the standard is finishing in the top, How many top five finishes were there under Osborne? Because I think that's the number, right? You could say top eight. But if you said top five, you're really pointing out how good those programs were. I could do the math. I mean, it wouldn't take too long.

Yeah. Well, because, again, in today's age, with the way things are being handled, I think also an interesting thing would be to consider how many all-conference player of the years were there at Nebraska. So there's a ton of athletes on track, track athletes who won the Big Ten title.

There were a couple of gymnasts that were Big Ten gymnasts of the year. There were certainly, how many softball players were all conference players of the year would be another one. And then volleyball, I mean, it's just who do you pick from there? Well, but that's the discussion, right? that if Lexi Rodriguez, Jordan Larson are a part of the conversation,

Jordy Ball, has she stepped into being the best softball player ever? Is that, or is that Peaches? Like, how would you how would you break that down? Where does Jordy Ball fall in the goat conversation for softball? Yeah, at least in my lifetime, I would think that she has been there, at least when, you know, my tracking

it, like you said, Peaches James would have an argument, but I'd have to go back and look. Numbers why, I mean, Nebraska just has to have. hasn't had the best player in the country. So, or 1, 81, A1B, like you said earlier. What, if we said who's the most important baseball player, is it Erstad or Gordon or somebody else? Because quite frankly, here's news.

And I do want to share it because I'm a fan. Bryce Matthews has been selected to the All-Stars Future game. He will play in the All-Star game as representative of the Houston Astros. He would join a group of 25 prospects on the, American League roster. Of course, they'll go against 25 from the National League. The game will be held in Atlanta, nationally televised.

On July 12th at 3 o'clock, you can watch the former Husker. Bryce's AAA and has been balled, has been balling for the Astros, hitting 285. Currently second in the Pacific Coast League in triples, second and third

stolen bases, fifth and walks, 10th, and OBP. He's having quite the year with the 10 bombs to 11 doubles and 30 RBI with 23 stolen bases. So he's playing for the Sugar Land affiliate of the Astros. But who's the best baseball player? Like I said, I would probably go Alex Gordon because his teams had the college world series success, which is the pinnacle of what Nebraska baseball's been able to do.

But yeah, there have been some good names over the years. Again, I think Jared Irstad would come right up there. But I'd lean Gordon in that case. And then hopefully, like you said, Bryce Matthews currently, too, on 11 game hitting streak, 18 game on base streak. Don't forget about those walks, which he's doing a great job. You mentioned there, fifth and the league there. He's just 10 bombs.

The power thing showing up at the AAA level is important. And again, an opportunity for him. We also, if I think Brett Baker, our friend, dear friend, Brett Baker was pointing out that last night, or sometime in the last two weeks, he was watching John Oliver and Max Anderson. Showed up. Max Anderson made it to HBO as he did a feature. So pretty cool along the way. The most important women athletes.

And if you said to me that you started with volleyball, but consider gymnastics, consider softball, consider basketball, where do you land? Who comes to mind? And you can never be wrong. So who comes to mind as the best or most important Husker female athletes?

Yeah, I mean, again, I think I think Jordy Ball is in that discussion now as we're going through it. But I do think, you know, volleyball, there's just so many names. What I love about Nebraska volleyball is they put up all their All-American banners everywhere. It's just littered everywhere throughout Bob Devaney Sports Center and the Coliseum before that. My first introduction to that was probably Gracially Saperro back in the, you know, when they went to the 2000 championship, I believe she was on that team. And so, you know, you almost got to go like I did with baseball. Once you get to the level of championships, you know, that kind of has to kind of put you over

in the most important list because that's the ultimately the ultimate team goal, right? So I'd look at some of those girls that ultimately won championships at Nebraska. Jordan Larson is the name that kind of sticks out to me at the top. But yeah, I have to kind of look through it. And like you said, there's just there's so many names that are probably not coming to mind, again because of just the time frame that it happened before my time or, you know, just not a front of mind, that would have an argument in there as well. I, you know, Willie says this on the text, I says, you know, you have to, the people that

got him interested, Andre Smith, Jack Moore, Combo, Turner Gill, Rulon Gardner, Merlin Ote, Gordo, those are all fair. I, we forget how important Rulon Gardner was and is. I would still say that Jordan Burroughs the goat wrestler. I don't think that's much of a reach, but that there are people in the conversation. So if you had Jordan Larson as the goat that Lexi Rodriguez and, et cetera, are some folks who are also in the conversation,

and you're not wrong in thinking about it, where do you put Lawrence Phillips? Boy, that's a tough one. Certainly, you know, you'll ask anybody that watched him play, that's the discussion is, well, there's this and that, but man, was he good, right? So you put him in there. I think, I think that you put him in. I don't know if he's in this conversation, right?

But if Sue's in the conversation for being the best and just not winning the Heismet, Lawrence Phillips has to be in that conversation. The problem with Lawrence Phillips in my mind is that Amon Green is a little bit underrated throughout his career. 100%. Because, and I mean this, because he was a thousand yard back. for the 95 team, despite not, you know, kind of starting midway through, right? So was able to replace Lawrence Phillips.

So to a degree, replaceability would have went there. They might, you know, probably would have won, I suppose, without Lawrence Phillips on that roster. Maybe I'd get in hot water talking to Vijay or somebody thought that. Right. But then the other thing is, you know, and then 96, 97, if he would have came back for his senior year, he would have broken every record. And I'm not sure if they, I'm not sure if they fall to nine and four that year, which

was a big deal at the time, right? I think him on green might have been if he would have came back for a senior season in these conversations certainly as well. I don't disagree that that's who he was in the space. And it's fascinating. There are just people. I'm not sure you could pick five linemen.

I don't think you can pick five off of the linemen, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to ask you. So Bach, when we come back, I'll ask you from the pipeline, longevity over the history of this thing, and you have to go back to the 70s and determine who you need five blockers. You don't need it.

You don't have to put them by position. You just need five blockheads to clear paths for these great runners and quarterbacks. Bach will give us that list when we go back. Download our app by searching 93.7, the ticket in your app store. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 93-7 the ticket and the ticketfm.com.