Former NU athletic director,
Big 6 co-founder dies at 100
ByIevaAugstums
Senior staff writer
For Col. Herbert D. Gish, a former
University of Nebraska athletic direc
tor, life wouldn’t have been complete
without seeing his 100th birthday and
Comhusker football.
“With Dad you never knew what
was going to happen next,” said Mary
Jo Anderson, Gish’s daughter. “He
loved to keep all of us on our toes.”
Gish, who helped form the Big 6
college football conference, died of
natural causes Dec. 28, 1998. He was
100 years old.
As NU athletic director from 1925
to 1932, Gish worked with athletic
directors from the Universities of
Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa State,
Kansas and Kansas State to form the
Big 6 college football conference. The
Big 6 later became the Big 8 and is now
the Big 12.
“I will remember Herb for who he
was - a gentleman,” said Don Bryant,
NU sports information director emeri
tus. “He was a team leader and a per
sonable man - an all-around nice guy.”
Alone with his administrative
duties, Gish worked as a starter and an
official at many NU track events. In
1931, Gish traveled to South Africa as
the coach and manager of the U.S. nine
man track and field team.
Gish was born in rural Abilene,
Kan., and moved to Lincoln in 1916
with his family.
He graduated
from the
University of
Nebraska in 1922.
While at the
university, he was
a member of
Sigma Alpha
Epsilon Fraternity
and ran varsity
Gish track from 1920 to
(photo courtesy 1922, where he set
Of UNL Archives) a record in the
high hurdles.
Gish entered the insurance busi
ness in 1932 and was the co-owner of
the Day-Gish Insurance Agency of
Lincoln. A year later he joined the
Army Reserve.
In 1940 he joined the Nebraska
National Guard and was called to active
duty to serve in California, Hawaii and
New Guinea. When his tour of duty
ended in 1947, Gish became the direc
tor of insurance for the Veterans
Administration at Fort Snelling, Minn.
With 29 years of service, Gish
retired from die military in 1956 and
from the VA in 1968.
Bill Etmund, a Sigma Alpha
Epsilon alumnus, said he often spent
summers with Gish at their family
cabin. The Etmund family and the Gish
family both have cabins north of
Brainerd, Minn.
“The man was very jovial in his
ways. He always loved to tell stories,”
Etmund said.
Anderson said her father had two
ambitions in life. The first was to live
until he was 100 years old; the second -
to live until he was 102 years old.
“It’s not like he didn’t have other
goals in life, he just wanted to live in
three centuries,” Anderson said. “But
we all know Dad was happy with just
two out of the three.”
Gish is survived by his son, Herbert
G. Gish, of St. Paul, Minn., and daugh
ters Anderson, of Omaha, and Phyllis I.
Gerlach, of Sugarland, Texas; 11
grandchildren; and 23 great-grandchil
dren. He was preceded in death by his
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