March 2021 marks the 10-year anniversary of UNO Athletics making the transition from Division II to Division I sports, which led to highs and lows for the university.
As the university was looking to join Division one in March 2011, the Mavericks were facing financial and Title IX issues. They needed to make budget cuts and decisions to provide equity for both men’s and women’s athletics.
The situation led UNO’s athletic administration to make a difficult decision to drop the program’s two most successful sports football and wrestling. The Nebraska Board of Regents approved the plan on March 25, 2011, for UNO Athletics to reclassify themselves as a Division I program.
Before this change, both football and wrestling were trending in the Division II landscape. The wrestling program became a Division II powerhouse winning seven national championships under head coach Mike Denny in 1991, 2004-2006 and 2009-2011, which would be the last seasons for the program.
The Mavericks football teams were dominant from the 2005-2008 seasons under head coach Pat Behrns. An interesting fact about the program is that they produced the NFL’s first black quarterback in the history of the league with Marlin Briscoe.
As the Maverick faithful move on towards a new era for UNO athletics, former football teammates Greg Wunderlich and Troy Kush share their side of the ordeal and reminisce memories of playing football in front of a full house at Caniglia Field.
Wunderlich, from Naperville, Ill., played quarterback from 2005-2009 and Kush, from Gretna, Neb., played wide receiver from 2005-2008 for the Mavericks. Both were a part of the programs’ most successful seasons, including winning three conference championships and finishing a historic 2007 season a 10-1 record.
“UNO at the time was still growing,” Wunderlich said. “It wasn’t as big as it is now, but it was a cool, unique place to play.”
While Wunderlich was an out-of-state product, Kush noted his decision to commit to playing for the football program as a part of the family tradition. He originally accepted a scholarship to Emporia State University but changed his mind after receiving one from UNO.
For me, it was kind of a cool thing to play at UNO,” Kush said. My whole family and the scholarship obviously helped and dictated that.” Both Kush and Wunderlich recount some of their favorite games as Mavericks, including matchups against the Dakota teams, Pittsburg State, and most notably their instate rival Nebraska-Kearney.
“We pulled ten to 12 thousand fans,” Kush said. It’d be littered like up and down the whole stands to be packed [and] the side hills would be packed behind the end zone. I see a bunch of friends and [they] paint their chests and stuff. It was pretty wild to be the playing in front of that many people.”
“This was a field we spent so much time on,” Wunderlich said. “We practice there every day and [we] obviously played our games there.”
Kush and Wunderlich remembered talks about the rumored Division I transition on a Friday night UNO hockey game on March 11, 2011. This was also when the Mavericks wrestling team were capping off their third consecutive Division II national championship in Kearney.
They remembered the excitement within football and wrestling surrounding the potential opportunities for the programs. Then news hit the following day as the university confirming the rumors but announced they were also cutting football and wrestling.
“Literally that midnight, or whatever [it] was, into the next day, well no, they canceled the program,” Wunderlich said.
“It went from pure joy and exultation to being more upset and hurt and confused I’ve ever been in my entire life,” Kush said.
What shocked even more for both Kush and Wunderlich was the university cutting the wrestling program moments after capturing their third consecutive and seventh national championship.
“[Mike] Denny had built a powerhouse program,” Kush said. “Everyone in the [Sapp] fieldhouse knew coach Denny. He was an instrumental mentor to so many people, even me, who- I didn’t wrestle, and to hear that the university team had won the national championship the night before. And [then] the doors and the locks were changed when they got back in middle the night.”
After the decision was made, coaches, athletes, and fans rallied at the Sapp Fieldhouse to get the university to reconsider its decision of dropping the two programs. Among those who spoke were Denney, Behrns, former UNO football coaches, and Kush as well.
“It was a lot of confusion and a lot of hurt and a lot of wanting answers and no one could give them to us,” Kush said. “And funny enough 10 years later, still no one can give them to us.”
Despite attempts to get the university to change the decision, the Nebraska Board of Regents voted unanimously to move further with their decision to drop football and wrestling and move onward to rebranding the Mavericks as a Division I program.
Since the transition, men’s golf, men’s soccer, and, starting next year, men’s swim and diving teams were added into the athletic program. New facilities opened as the Baxter arena hosts hockey, basketball, and volleyball. The new ballpark complex, the Tal Anderson and Connie Claussen Field, opened as the Mavericks baseball and softball’s permanent home. Caniglia Field was upgraded to support its soccer programs.
Neither Kush nor Wunderlich believes there’s a chance football will return to campus again. Both agreed wrestling has a better shot considering the championship pedigree they had over a decade ago. Both would be welcome if that were to happen in the future.
“I played with so many guys that you were like you would have been a freaking all conference studs at UNO,” Wunderlich said. “So if those opportunities became available back to kids eventually, I think no one would deny that.”
“I can dream and I can wish and that’s honestly one of the things that I think I would literally cry if I ever went to a UNO Maverick football game,” Kush said. “You know, it would be funny, but again, there’s a lot of us out there that still care.”
Kush and Wunderlich live in Omaha pursuing their careers. Kush is a co-owner of the family-run furniture store, while Wunderlich is the head football coach for Mount Michael High School. However, neither of them nor their former teammates have stayed in touch with UNO Athletics through the past years.
“If you’ve been a college athlete, and you’ve gone through what I’ve gone through and then to have your own lottery ticket taken away, I think I’m pretty justified in that,” Kush said.
“It’s sad and disappointing to me because I played and gave five years and more to this program into the school, and I don’t feel like I have an alma mater,” Wunderlich said. “That feels so wrong to me.”
Despite attempts to get the athletic administration to share their side, they declined to comment.
