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What are you giving up for that? Your self? Your soul?” Referring to UNO officials, Bonnie Denney said, “They’re standing behind a system that treats people very disrespect- fully. You just don’t treat people like that, — you just don’t. We’ve got to put it in God’s hands and move on. We’re not going to let it pull us down. We’re going to keep our core and take it someplace else.”
Nobody saw it coming. How could they? Wrestling, with its consistent excel- lence and stability, was the one constant in a topsy-turvy athletic department. The decision by Chancellor John Christensen and Athletic Director Trev Alberts to end wrestling, and along with it, football, was inconceivable in the context of such unprecedented success.
Unprecedented, too, was a university jettisoning the nation’s leading program and coach without a hint of scandal or mismanagement. No NCAA rules viola- tions. No financial woes. It would have been as if University of Nebraska-Lincoln higher-ups pulled the plug on Husker football at the height of Tom Osborne’s reign of glory.
An apples to oranges comparison?
Perhaps, except the only difference between NU football and UNO wrestling is dollars and viewers. The Huskers gen- erate millions in revenue by drawing immense stadium crowds and television audiences.
The Mavericks broke even at best and drew only a tiny fraction of followers. Judging the programs solely by winning and losing over the last half-century, how- ever, and UNO comes out on top, with eight national titles to NU’s five. Where UNO won minus sanctions, NU won amid numerous player run-ins with the law. Noted sports psychologist Jack Stark has said Denney’s high character made him the best coach in any sport in Nebraska. USA Wrestling’s Craig Sesker, who covered Denney for the Omaha World- Herald, said, “He is a man of the highest integrity, values and principles. He’s an unbelievably selfless and generous man who always puts his athletes first.” “He has a unique way of treating every- body like they’re somebody,” said Ron Higdon, who wrestled and coached for Denney. “He physically found a way to touch every guy every day at practice — touch them on the shoulder, touch them on the head. I learned so much from him. I have such incredible respect for him. “One of the reasons I never left is I felt it was a special place. I felt such a con-
Denney addresses wrestlers, coaches and supporters in March after it was announced UNO was dropping wrestling. Omaha World-Herald photo.
nection that I felt this was the place for me. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of it.”
The influence Denney has on young men is reflected in the 60-plus former wrestlers of his who have entered the coaching profession.
Denney created a dynasty the right
way, but what’s sometimes forgotten is that its seeds were planted a decade ear- lier, by another rock-ribbed man of char- acter, Don Benning. In 1963, Benning became the first African-American head coach at a predominantly white university when he took over the then-Omaha University Indian wrestling program. Having already made history with its coach, the program — competing then at the NAIA level — reached the peak of small college success by winning the 1970 national title.
Once a UNO wrestler or wrestling coach, always one. So it was that Benning and some of the guys who wres- tled for him attended the We Are One farewell to the program last spring. The UNO grappling family turned out in force for this requiem. In a show of solidarity and homage to a shared legacy lost. Wrestlers from past and present took
off their letter jackets, vowing never to wear them again.
“There was a lot of hurt in seeing what happened,” Benning said. “It was devas- tating. We felt their pain.”
Benning said the event also gave him and his old wrestlers the opportunity to pay homage to what Denney and his
wrestlers accomplished.
“It was a chance for us to say how much we appreciated them and to take our hats off to them. They not only kept going what we started, they did it even better than we did.” Benning left after the 1971 season and the program, while still highly competitive, slipped into mediocrity until Denney arrived in 1979. For Denney, Benning set a benchmark he strove to reach.
“When we came one of the first things I said was we want to reestablish the tradi- tion that Don Benning started.” A farm-raised, Antelope County, Neb. native, Denney was a multi-sport star ath- lete in high school and at Dakota Wesleyan College. He played semi-pro football with the Omaha Mustangs. He became a black belt in judo and jujitsu, incorporating martial arts rituals and mantras into his coaching. For example, he called the UNO wrestling room the “dojo.” He has the calm, cool, command of the sensei master. He taught and coached at Omaha South and Omaha Bryan before joining the staff at UNO, where in addition to coaching he taught. With his John Wayne-esque swagger, wide open smile, genial temperament, yet steely resolve, Denney was the face of an often faceless UNO athletic depart- ment. In a revolving door of coaches and ADs, Duke, as friends call him, was always there, plodding away, the loyal
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