Dave Feit's Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 50

Dave Feit is counting down the days until the start of the 2025 season by naming the best Husker to wear each uniform number, as well as one of his personal favorites at that number. For more information about the series, click here. To see more entries, click here.

Greatest Husker to wear 50: Dave Rimington, Center, 1979 - 1982

Honorable Mention: Glenn Munn, Fred Preston, William Schabacker, LaVerne Torczon

Also worn by: Donald Fricke, Jemarcus "Yoshi" Hardrick, Julius Jackson, Kurt Mann

Dave's Fave: Rimington

TO: Troy Dannen, Director of Athletics, University Nebraska - Lincoln
FROM: Dave Feit (on behalf of Husker Nation)
SUBJECT: Dave Rimington

Troy,

I know you're a busy man, so I'll get right to the point:

It is time for Nebraska football to permanently retire the #50 that center Dave Rimington wore during his extraordinary Husker career.

Dave Rimington is one of the greatest student athletes to ever play for Nebraska - regardless of sport. The namesake of the Rimington Trophy (given annually to the nation’s best center) deserves to have his number* permanently retired.

*To avoid confusion, allow me a quick sidebar about how Nebraska differentiates between “retired jerseys” and “retired numbers”:

A retired jersey is a huge honor. It is reserved for Huskers who have won national awards (such as the Heisman, Outland, Lombardi, Butkus, etc.) or have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. To date, 22 Huskers have had their jerseys retired - including your predecessor, Trev Alberts. These players have their names and numbers listed on the north stadium façade. But the numbers from retired jerseys are still in regular rotation among current Husker players.

A retired number is the highest honor given to a Nebraska football player. The number he wore is removed from circulation. Currently, Nebraska has three retired numbers:

Tom “Train Wreck” Novak’s #60. It was retired in 1949 immediately after Novak finished his career as the first – and still only – Husker to be named all-conference four straight years. Nobody has worn #60 since.
Bob Brown’s #64. It was permanently retired in 2004. Kurt Mann was the last player to wear #64.
Johnny Rodgers’s #20. The Jet had his number retired after the 1972 season. Johnny allowed it to come out of retirement to be worn by his son Terry in 1986. It was briefly re-retired after Terry graduated but came back into circulation in 1995 (Michael Booker). It has not been issued since Adi Kunalic and Jase Dean wore it in the 2008 season.

Dave Rimington had his jersey retired back in 1982. Additionally, the number 50 was out of circulation between 1982 and 1996, when linebacker Julius Jackson wore it. Since then, it’s been in regular rotation. No disrespect to the guys who have worn #50 in that span (notably, Kurt Mann and Jermarcus “Yoshi” Hardrick), but it has largely been a forgettable group of players.

Dave Rimington is in an entirely different category. Among the many, many bullet points on his résumé, these stand out:

The only two-time winner of the Outland Trophy (1981, 1982).
One of just 14 players to win the Outland and Lombardi Award in the same season (1982).
1981 Big Eight Offensive Player of the Year. In the long history of the Big Eight, this was the first and only time a lineman won that honor.
First Nebraska student-athlete (regardless of sport) to be inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-American Hall of Fame. For a school that rightfully touts its nation-leading number of Academic All-Americans, Rimington is still at the head of the class.

Dave Rimington and Turner Gill, Nebraska vs. Colorado in 1981. — Dave Rimington prepares to snap the ball to Turner Gill against Colorado. | 1982 Nebraska Football Media Guide

We’ve focused primarily on his playing career and academic success, but Rimington’s achievements after retiring from football (president of the Boomer Esiason Foundation, former interim Nebraska athletic director, and namesake of a major college football award) are also the stuff of legend.

Fans and media members tend to toss around “GOAT” labels freely. But Dave Rimington is a true GOAT.

It is time to permanently retire #50.

Respectfully,

Dave (on behalf of Husker Nation)

***

I would wager that we have reached the point where the majority of Husker fans have no recollection of Dave Rimington's career. Sure, we know who he is, and can list some of his many accomplishments and accolades. But how many of us have ever seen him play?

I'm right on that dividing line. When Rimington was a senior in 1982, I was an 8-year-old kid. At 8, I had never been to a Nebraska game and probably didn't pay too much attention to the couple of times a year they were on TV. I definitely didn't know who Dave Rimington was.*

*My best friend invited me to go with him and his family to Fan Day in 1982. They wanted to get autographs from the Husker players. Honestly, that really didn't interest me. I just wanted to hang out with my buddy.

When I asked my dad for permission to go, he said yes - but with a very specific instruction: "Be sure to get an autograph from Dave Rimington, #50. He's their best player." You got it, Dad!

When we got to Memorial Stadium, that plan went completely out the window. I think we spent the entire afternoon running around on the field. I have a vague memory of trying to sneak up into the balcony, but the tunnels were closed. Suffice it to say, I did not get anybody's autograph, let alone Dave Rimington's signature. I doubt my dad was disappointed - or surprised - when I came home empty-handed.

A year or two ago, I was working on a project that had me watching videos of old Nebraska games on YouTube. There was one game that really stuck out: the 1980 Sun Bowl against Mississippi State.*

*That game is wild. Husker players are wearing two noticeably different jersey styles. One is what they wore all season (with "N" on the sleeves), and the other says "NEBRASKA" across the chest. The legendary Pat Summerall does the play-by-play. And the coin toss was performed by the San Diego Chicken. The Chicken, for reasons that are never fully explained, arrived at midfield locked in the trunk of a Cadillac.

In the 1980 Sun Bowl, Dave Rimington is at the end of his sophomore season. He's not yet at his Ndamukong Suh-esque level of dominance, but you can see the flashes. On NU's first touchdown, he pulls and knocks down a defensive back in the open field. Speaking of flashes, Rimington is a lightning bolt coming off the ball. In one rapid movement, he snaps the ball to Jeff Quinn and is immediately blocking a defensive player across the line of scrimmage. Even the announcers note that he's so fast it looks like he's offsides. You have never seen anything like it.

But as a senior? Wow. Rimington still explodes off the ball, but that raw, 250-pound sophomore is now 290 pounds of muscle and experience. The Huskers are averaging 395.5 rush yards per game, and their all-everything center is a big reason why.

Watch Rimington against 11th-ranked Oklahoma in 1982. On some plays, he goes power, blasting Sooners out of the way. On others, he crab blocks, shooting into the legs of defensive lineman like a wrestler going for a takedown. In pass pro, he's a brick wall.

On fourth-and-one, Tom Osborne calls a play right over the top of Rimington. Mike Rozier gets the carry, but you or I could have picked up the first down. On another fourth-and-one, Rimington pulls to the right and opens a lane for a Turner Gill touchdown run. NU's next two touchdowns were right behind Rimington as well. Why do anything else?

Seriously, if you've never watched Dave Rimington play, pull up any Nebraska game between 1980 and 1982. You don't have to be a student of offensive line play to appreciate how dominant he was.

Which makes the next sentence the most unbelievable thing you'll read today:

According to Tom Osborne, Dave Rimington played his "whole (Nebraska) career with a torn (anterior cruciate ligament)" in his knee.

As Osborne told Huskers.com writer Randy York, during Rimington's career, the surgical procedure for repairing / replacing ACLs had not been perfected, so Rimington got by largely on the strength he had in his legs. As you would expect, that injury ultimately impacted Rimington's seven-year pro career.

***

Dave Rimington is the greatest center in the history of college football.

This is not hyperbole, nor is it a passionate fan and alumnus looking at things through scarlet colored lens.

It is fact.

Dave Rimington is the greatest center in the history of college football.

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