Tom Osborne was the fastest coach in Division 1A to get to 250 wins. Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1999. Coach of three national football championship teams and named by ESPN as coach of the decade for the 1990's. In 2007, ESPN online voters named him the greatest football coach of all time.

In his quarter century as head coach, Tom Osborne never won fewer than nine games in a season. His 255-49-3 record gave him the best winning percentage (83.6%) among active Division 1-A coaches at the time of his retirement and the fifth-best of all time. During his last five seasons, the Husker went 60-3 and won three national championships. In the fall of 2007, after serving three terms in Congress and making an unsuccessful run for governor of Nebraska, Osborne returned to the university as athletic director.