Dave Feit’s Greatest Huskers by the Numbers: 87

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 87: Bob Martin, Defensive End, 1972 - 1975

Honorable Mention: Bill Weber, Tracey Wistrom

Also worn by: Tom Banderas, Nate Boerkircher, Jeff Finn, Mark Gilman, William Haug, Chris Hickman, Brandon Reilly, Dan Svehla, Matt Svehla, Nate Swift, Tom Werner

Dave's Fave: Nate Swift, Wide Receiver, 2004 - 2008

"It was an easy decision to go to Nebraska… it was a religion for in-state players to be a part of the Husker football team." -Bob Martin (in a 2024 interview with Huskers Illustrated)

The backbone of the Nebraska football program has always been homegrown, in-state players. Yes, that sentence definitely reads like romantic homer-ism, but it is also an accurate statement. In the first 135 years of Nebraska football (1890 - 2024):

Over 2,200 Nebraska natives have appeared on a Nebraska roster.
Of those, more than 1,300 earned at least one varsity letter.
205 Nebraska natives have earned first team all-conference honors at NU.
37 of Nebraska's 108 first team All-Americans were born in the Cornhusker state.

If we drill down into the 42 years of the Devaney / Osborne / Solich eras:

983 Nebraska natives appeared on a Nebraska roster.
Of those, 552 earned at least one varsity letter.
83 Nebraska natives earned first team all-conference honors at NU between 1962 and 2003.
23 of Nebraska's 73 first team All-Americans during this era were born in the Cornhusker state.

That's pretty darn impressive when you consider Nebraska is a small state, population wise. Only 13 states have fewer people, and two of them share a border with Nebraska.* There's not exactly a wealth of elite talent within the expanses of this great state or the surrounding areas.

*Nebraska ranks 37th in population. The population rank of the six surrounding states, starting with South Dakota and going clockwise: 46, 31, 18, 34, 21, 50.

Yes, walk-ons accounted for a big chunk of the player and letterman numbers (I don't have exact figures on the split). That said, Nebraska - especially during the Devaney and Osborne eras - put a serious focus on in-state recruiting. We'll get more in depth on Devaney's recruiting later. Today, we’ll talk about in-state efforts during the Osborne era.

Bob Martin assists on a tackle during the Fiesta Bowl after the 1975 season. | Nebraska Football Media Guide

When it came to getting Nebraska kids to accept a Nebraska football scholarship, Osborne had an excellent track record. At the end of his coaching career he said, "You can count on almost one hand the (Nebraska) players we've recruited heavily who we haven't gotten."*

*I can't say for sure who he would count on that one hand, but I'll note that during Osborne's 25-year tenure, only 14 Nebraska natives played in the NFL without playing at Nebraska first. Of those, only four attended what is currently considered a "power conference" school: Junior Bryant (Notre Dame), Quentin Neujahr (Kansas State), Larry Station (Iowa) and Gene Williams (Iowa State). I'd guess Bryant and Station are on the "ones who got away" list.

The 11 other Nebraska natives from the Osborne era who played in the NFL went to in-state schools (UNO, Wayne State, Chadron State, Doane, Nebraska Wesleyan), lower level (South Dakota State) or non-power FBS schools (Wyoming and Colorado State).

For reference, in that same span, 38 of Osborne's Nebraska-born Cornhuskers went on to play in the NFL.

Osborne's level of in-state recruiting success is understandable. At the start of Osborne's tenure, the Nebraska program had been a statewide institution and point of pride for over 50 years. Nebraska was coming off back-to-back national championships in 1970 and 1971. Osborne is a man of impeccable character. And during Osborne's 25 years as head coach, his Huskers won. A lot.

The Nebraska natives who played college ball outside of the state often waited until Nebraska said no before pursuing other options. Even then, many considered walking onto the team.

Bob Martin was a great example of Nebraska's in-state recruiting success in the wake of the 1970 - 1971 championships. A native of David City, Martin earned 14 varsity letters across four sports. As a senior in 1972, he was named high school athlete of the year by the Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha World-Herald. A player with that résumé would have had multiple options, even 25 years before recruiting services.

Even though Martin signed before Bob Devaney's final season (1972), assistants Osborne and Cletus Fischer handled his recruitment. As Martin said in that 2024 interview, "I committed right after they offered me a scholarship."

Martin started his Husker career on the freshman team as an I-back before moving over to defense. In 1973 - Osborne's first season - Martin bypassed a redshirt and earned a Blackshirt. Martin would start every game as a sophomore.

A three-year starter, Bob Martin was a force at defensive end, earning All-Big 8 honors twice and All-America in his senior season. As a senior captain, 13 of his 61 tackles went for a loss. Sacks would not become a tracked statistic for another six years.

Martin went on to a successful NFL career with the New York Jets, starting as a rookie.

Even though Bob Martin's career coincided with the transition from Devaney to Osborne, he also has family ties to several other eras of Nebraska football. Martin's wife, Sheri, is a granddaughter of Cornhusker legend Clarence Swanson. He's the uncle of Mike Ekeler, an assistant coach on Bo Pelini and Matt Rhule's staffs. His son Jay was on the team from 2007 - 2011.

***

Nebraska receiver Nate Swift pulls in an 18-yard touchdown pass against Ball State in 2007. — Nebraska receiver Nate Swift pulls in an 18-yard touchdown pass from Sam Keller against Ball State in 2007. | Bruce Thorson-Imagn Images

We don't talk enough about Nate Swift, one of the greatest receivers in Nebraska history.

Admittedly, Nebraska has never really had a reputation as "Wide Receiver U." When Frank Solich was fired in 2003, 1,000 receiving yards - in a career - would have been just outside the top 10* at Nebraska.

*Every Nebraska player with more than 1,000 career receiving yards when Bill Callahan coached his first game in 2004:

Johnny Rodgers, 2,479
Matt Davison, 1,456
Irving Fryar, 1,196
Guy Ingles, 1,157
Tracey Wistrom, 1,150
Todd Brown, 1,092
Tim Smith, 1,089
(tie) Jon Bostick, 1,083, Bobby Thomas, 1,083
Chuck Malito, 1,057
Junior Miller, 1,045

Trey Palmer's "down there somewhere" 2022 season, in which he had 1,043 receiving yards, would have placed him 12th on the 2004 CAREER list (just two yards behind Junior Miller, who played for three seasons). His 71 receptions would have been sixth on the career list, one behind Tim Smith and three behind Guy "The Fly" Ingles.

So, yeah, Nebraska didn't exactly have a storied history of receivers catching dozens passes for hundreds of yards.

And then, Nate Swift arrived at Nebraska.

Nate Swift's name is all over the Nebraska record books. And yet, we don't really talk about him or his career. Why is that? I think a big part of that is - generally speaking - Nebraska fans don't like to say positive things about the Bill Callahan era.

Look: I get it. Callahan was not "one of us." He rarely (if ever) demonstrated any desire to become one of us - a fact that rubbed most of us the wrong way. A career winning percentage 200 points lower than the beloved former player and coach he replaced certainly did not help his cause.

Believe me, I'm not here to defend Callahan, nor the four years he spent as Nebraska's head coach.

Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller against Nevada in 2007. — Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller looks for a receiver against Nevada in 2007. | Bruce Thorson-Imagn Images

But I will stand up for his players. Even the ones whose names tend to elicit snickers and sneers from the fans.*

*And yes, that includes Sam Keller, whose greatest crime** was insisting that he receive some compensation for a wildly successful video game using his name, image and likeness without his permission.

**Well, technically, his greatest crime was a disturbing-the-peace citation for (allegedly) throwing a plastic cup at the vehicle of somebody who (allegedly) took a spot from him in a parking garage. But I think you get my point.

Nebraska fans have a saying: "Once a Husker, always a Husker." On the surface, it is something you would expect from a fan base with the reputation of being one of the greatest in college sports. Once you play here, you're ours forever.

But it doesn't always seem to work out that way. Many times, the expression seems to be "Once a Husker, but now you're dead to me."

Maybe I'm naïve, but I don't see any asterisks leading to paragraphs of legalese disclaimers in six-point font describing the terms and conditions for determining which players get our eternal admiration and respect, and who is disowned.

Some fans seem to have a decision matrix flow chart of if/then/else statements where they can determine who gets the "Once a Husker…" treatment and who does not. More power to them if they do.

Personally, some of the exceptions I see being applied are - at best - inconsistent, if not blatantly hypocritical. But I learned a long, long time ago that "Captain of the Fan Police" is NOT a title I'm interested in holding. To each their own.

As for me, "Once a Husker…" means - at a minimum - not disowning a player's playing career once he leaves. I can think of three examples of former players who - for wildly different reasons - have fallen out of favor with many Nebraska fans: Trev Alberts, Scott Frost and Lawrence Phillips. Without going case by case, I'll over-simplify by saying each was involved in things off the field and/or after his playing career that caused me pain and/or embarrassment as a Husker fan. Things that I won't attempt to defend.

Yet, I'm willing to set those unfortunate things off to the side and remember the player's career in a bubble. I truly enjoyed watching all three of those players shine on the field. I can savor those memories AND be disappointed by things that transpired after they took off the helmet. Frost won a championship as a player but failed miserably as a coach. Alberts won NU's only Butkus Award but broke our hearts by leaving for Texas A&M. Phillips could have been the best running back in school history, but he did horrible things to an innocent woman.

Not everyone is going to be a shining beacon of excellence until the day he dies. That doesn't necessarily mean we have to dismiss or trample on the things he did as a player. Again, that's how I view things. You get to apply "Once a Husker…" however you wish.

Virginia Tech defender Kam Chancellor tackles Nebraska's Nate Swift in 2008. | Bruce Thorson-Imagn Images

With that said, here's an important thing to know about Nate Swift: I cannot think of anything he ever did to embarrass Nebraska. He was a class act as a teammate, exemplary in the classroom (twice named second-team academic All-Big 12), and starred on the field. If he had been a walk-on, played for a championship team or graduated from Wood River High, we'd canonize him.

Swift was part of Bill Callahan's first recruiting class (along with high school teammate Lydon Murtha). After a redshirt year in 2004, he was ready to start rewriting the Husker record books. In 2005, he led the team in the big three receiving categories (receptions, yards and touchdowns). He was the first Husker with back-to-back 100-yard receiving games in 22 years.

Throughout his career, he just kept climbing the career charts. By the end of his senior season in 2008, Swift was the all-time leader in receptions and just three yards short of Johnny Rodgers' record 2,479 receiving yards. Swift's 22 receiving touchdowns were three behind the Jet's record.

In addition, Swift was an excellent punt returner. In 2008, he was second in the Big 12 (and eighth nationally) with 14.8 yards per return. He had an electrifying 88-yard punt return touchdown against Virginia Tech, then the fourth-longest in school history.

So, why are we so dismissive of Nate Swift's sterling career? Sure, a case can be made that his record-setting numbers were part of being a "system" guy - like a Texas Tech quarterback during the Mike Leach era. But riddle me this: Couldn't that same argument be made about most of Nebraska's I-backs during Tom Osborne's career? Or do they get a pass because the team won a minimum of nine games every year and fans largely idolize Osborne?

That's something each fan gets to decide for himself. While you do that, I'll be over here remembering Nate Swift's excellent career and the legacy he set by raising the bar for Husker wide receivers.

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