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In the summer of 1986. Grimminger tried out for the
Seattle Seahawks. Before the first preseason game, the
former All-America selection was released.
At first, it was hard for him to accept, but then he realized
that maybe he wasn’t talented enough to play professional
football.
Grimminger said in the National Football League athletes
compete against the best football players in the world.
“It doesn’t matter if you were an All-American when you
were in college because the coaches that pick the players to
play on their teams don’t care about that,* Grimminger said.
“What they want are the best players because professional
He wishes things would have worked out differently in
1986. He didn’t allow himself a chance.
“When I think back to that summer, I now realize
that I wasn’t prepared to make the team," Grimminger said.
“i knew coming into camp that I stood a good chance
of getting cut because the Seahawks really didn’t need that
many people on the offensive line.
“I don’t feel good about getting cut because I really didn’t
give myself the chance to make the team. But maybe it was
all for the better," he said.
After that summer, he went back to school to get his degree
in secondary education.
Because the academic program at UNL has strong ties with
the athletic department, he said it was easy for him to study.
“For the five years I played at Nebraska, I was required to
study in study hall," Grimminger said. “The program they
have set up to help athletes here at UNL is great.”
Grimminger said he had some incentive for getting his
degree.
Fear.
He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to get a job especially if
he didn’t have a college degree, he said.
But even as he held his degree in hand in December
1986, Grimminger’s heart was set on coaching.
“When you play college football for six years in one of the
best programs in the nation, you really learn a lot about the
sport," Grimminger said. “I chose coaching because I knew
that once I felt comfortable it would come natural to me."
Despite the number of years Grimminger had put into
his sport, few high schools were interested in his
coaching talents. He Just didn't have the experience.
But opportunity knocked at his door the day he received a
call from DeCater High School in Oberlin, Kan.
The job offer was too good to be true, he said. They wanted
him to be the head football coach. Head coaching would give
him a chance to teach the same things he had learned at
Nebraska. Grimminger said.
“I had other offers from schools to coach football, but they
were only as an assistant, I didn’t even think about saying no
to DeCater." Grimminger said. “If you look at my team right
now our offense runs basically the same plays as Nebraska
does."
Along with coaching the football team at DeCater. Grim
minger teaches history. Grimminger quickly found out that
teaching is not the easiest thing to do.
Grimminger fought to control his temper when students
didn’t pay attention.
In his last year of college. Grimminger learned teaching
methods like playing games or showing movies that
would help him keep students’ attention. But none of
those methods worked.
“At first I would come home at night really frustrated be
cause it seemed like the kids really didn't care about history,"
Grimminger said. “But then I realized that’s the way high
school kids are. They don’t really want to be in class and they
don’t know how important school is.
“When I was in high school I was pretty much the same
way and until you come to a big university most people don’t
know how important an education is."
Instead Grimminger tells jokes or allows open discussions
on a variety of historical topics.
Another thing that helps Grimminger is his size. Kids are
intimidated by his towering frame. His occasional loss of
temper adds to that.
“If it seemed like the kids didn’t do their homework assign
ment." Grimminger said. “I would walk around the classroom
with a ruler which would really get their attention."
His six-foot-three appearance has the same effect on
the football field. But that didn’t make his first season as
head coach any easier.
His first season his team finished 1-8.
^ _ t’s hard to come into a program where the football
j team has been at the bottom of the conference for the
™ last five years." Grimminger said. “When the kids at
the school heard that Harry Grimminger was going to be the
head coach a lot of them came out.
“But after the first few games when things didn’t go too
well people started to quit."
Grimminger said he learned several things about being
head coach during that losing season.
Now he understands the pressures involved with coaching.
With Oberlin’s population being 2,500, he said, everybody
knows what’s going on in practice and on the sidelines
during games.'
A lot of people weren t too happy with my profanity on the
sidelines during games." Grimminger said. “Plus, because I
played at Nebraska everybody expected us to win and it just
doesn’t happen like that."
Grimminger said the things he learned at Nebraska he
implements in his program at DeCater. One of the first things
he implemented was a weight training program. Next season
his team will be bigger and stronger, he said.
Most all of his team is returning, he said, so he expects the
players to have the system down. They’ll know what is ex
pected of them.
As for professional football, Grimminger said he doesn’t
miss it.
f f w really don’t miss it that much because I’m still in
1 volved with football," Grimminger said. “I don’t miss
“ waking up the morning after a game and hardly being
able to move because I’m so sore.
“Sure I’m not making a lot of money but that really doesn’t
bother me because maybe some day I’ll move up to college or
the pros."
Sometimes on football Saturdays Grimminger thinks back
to those days he walked into Memorial Stadium and saw
76,000 Nebraska fans decked out in red.
When he attended the Nebraska-UCLA game earlier this
season, it gave him chills to stand on the sidelines.
iviayDe some aay 111 oe able lo come back to Nebraska,
except as a coach.” Grimminger said. “It sure would be nice.”
But former Nebraska gymnast Jim Hartung has already
returned to Nebraska.
Hartung. who was a Gold Medalist as a member of the
1984 United States Olympic team, now works for the Ne
braska Athletic department in fund raising and promotions
for minor sports.
The emotional high of being on the gold medal team at i
the 1984 Olympics was detained by frequent appear
ances and exhibitions. Hartung said.
“We did a lot of things because of our popularity." Hartung
said. We did exhibitions, television shows, appearances, if
you can think of something weird, we did it.
“There wasn’t any kind of emotional letdown until about a
year and a half later, and that’s pretty much when I decided
that I needed to set some new goals and try something new
besides gymnastics."
Even though he retired from competition, he is still in
volved with gymnastics. On weekends. Hartung coaches
clinics for the United States Gymnastics Federation.
Hartung is probably the most famous gymnast to ever
come out of college gymnastics, Nebraska gymnastics coach
Francis Allen said.
“Jim Hartung put Nebraska gymnastics on the map,"
Allen said. “And because he is so good, he is a good coach
because gymnastics comes naturally to him."
When he first started his job in the spring of 1986. Hartung
said it took some time to get used to working behind a desk
But the job allows him to continue his involvement in athlet
ics.
After Hartung came to Nebraska in 1984 he led
the Comhuskers to four consecutive NCAA gym
nastics championships while earning 22 All-American
