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Four Huskers Selected to 2019 Nebraska Football Hall of Fame

There are a lot of “halls of fame” in Nebraska, which one are you most likely to be voted into?

Jay Foreman

Four former Husker players were selected to be inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame this fall, along with a Chadron State coach and a University of Nebraska-Kearney record-setting receiver.

Alex Henery, Jay Foreman, Greg Jorgensen and Mark Behning are your stand out Huskers.

Henery was one of the most accurate field goal kickers in college football history, hitting 193-of-194 PATs and 63-of-65 field goals within 50 yards in his career. Henery gave Husker fans one of the most thrilling moments in recent Husker history with his record-setting 57-yard field goal to take the lead over the evil Colorado Buffaloes in 2008. (Okay, maybe 2008 isn’t “recent”, but I’m old, just shut up and go with it.)

Foreman won three national titles from 95-98 and was All-Big 12 his junior and senior years. Foreman was a fifth-round pick of the Buffalo Bills in the 1999 NFL Draft. He played eight seasons in the NFL with the Bills, Houston Texans, New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers. Man, I loved Jay Foreman. Still do.

Jorgensen was a three-year starter at offensive guard from 75-77, selected as a second-team All-American by the Football News as a senior and was a two-time honorable-mention All-American and a two-time All-Big Eight selection in his final two seasons for the Huskers in 1976 and 1977.

Behning was an offensive tackle from 82-84, meaning he was part of the “Scoring Explosion” offense that propelled Mike Rozier to a Heisman Trophy.

Richie Ross played at UNK from 2002-05. He caught 279 passes for 4,882 yards and 50 touchdowns. That’s a crapload of passes, yardage, and scoring.

Brad Smith coached at Chadron State for 18 seasons (1987-2004). He was a three-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Coach of the Year (1996, 1999, 2001). Smith led Chadron State to a 10-0 regular season and a final No. 7 AFCA national ranking in 2001.


Nebraskans take football pretty seriously and all of these people are deserving of their place in that institution. But it also begs the question, what else do Nebraskans take seriously enough to maintain a hall a fame?

Here are some of the other halls in Nebraska:

  • Nebraska Hall of Fame - Prominent people who were born or resided in Nebraska are eligible for the Nebraska Hall of Fame. One person every five years is selected and a bust of that person is displayed in the capitol building. Buffalo Bill is among the people in this hall.
  • Nebraska Athletic Hall of Fame - appears to be restricted to the University of Nebraska athletes, coaches or administrators and no central website was found (I’m sure there has to be one somewhere). Carol Frost was one of the 2019 inductees.
  • Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame - A lot of guys at the bar were good at high school sports, but were they “hall of fame” good?
  • Nebraska Baseball Hall of Fame - not just for players, but also umpires, managers, and entrepreneurs (whatever the hell that means).
  • Nebraska Business Hall of Fame - appears to exist according to Google, but you get a 404 message when you try to click on the website. I guess the Silicon Prairie is too busy to update. (Note: I did find a rather sparse UNL page that appeared to be related to the business hall of fame - better than nothing?)
  • Nebraska Golf Hall of Fame - I bet the audience has to clap softly at the induction ceremony.
  • Nebraska Sandhills Cowboy Hall of Fame - Now we’re talking. This is a true Nebraska hall of fame. One question, why are there no horses in the hall?
  • Nebraska Journalism Hall of Fame - I bet there are no bloggers in there.

There was also a Nebraska Aviation Council Hall, a Nebraska Auto Racing Hall, a Special Olympics hall of fame, and the US Tennis Association even maintains a Nebraska tennis hall of fame.

ALL of these come up on Google searches before you even get a hint that there is a Nebraska basketball hall of fame. Make of that what you will.

Okay Corn Nation, three questions:

  • Which hall of fame would you start if you could?
  • What other hall of fame does Nebraska need?
  • What hall of fame are you most likely to be elected to?