Another part of Husker history departs
The final remaining cog in the Devaney-Osborne football machine now is departing Lincoln. Boyd Epley is leaving the University of Nebraska after 37 years to move to Colorado Springs in a new job with the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Although Epley was removed from his strength and conditioning position when Steve Pederson arrived as the new AD a few years ago, Boyd will be well remembered for his pioneering efforts.
For years colleges came to Lincoln to understand what Epley was doing. He basically invented the modern use of strength and conditioning as a key element in building a powerhouse football team. He took average athletes and remade them into supermen. Schools around the country tried to copy his systems. Several of his assistants went on to run their own strength and conditioning programs. No one will ever be able to calculate just how important his efforts were to the stellar record the Huskers achieved on the football field. Those tremendous second half/fourth quarter victories all owe a tremendous debt to the superb conditioning of the team.
In the later years of his career, other schools learned how to develop their own strength and conditioning programs and Nebraska's superior edge eventually became less of a factor. Husker fans even started criticizing Epley for relying too much on the specialized machines he invented and blamed him for a rash of pubalgia injuries suffered by the football team. The departure of Bill Byrne and the falling fortunes of the football team led to Epley's replacement by current strength and conditioning guru Dave Kennedy. Epley was "kicked upstairs" to manage the new athletic construction projects. Now as the biggest construction project winds down, there just isn't much more left for Epley to do in Lincoln.
No matter how it ended, no one can take away the glory years that brought good fortune to the Nebraska football team and national fame to Boyd Epley. Epley will always be a Husker legend.
Go Big Red,
RedCap
For years colleges came to Lincoln to understand what Epley was doing. He basically invented the modern use of strength and conditioning as a key element in building a powerhouse football team. He took average athletes and remade them into supermen. Schools around the country tried to copy his systems. Several of his assistants went on to run their own strength and conditioning programs. No one will ever be able to calculate just how important his efforts were to the stellar record the Huskers achieved on the football field. Those tremendous second half/fourth quarter victories all owe a tremendous debt to the superb conditioning of the team.
In the later years of his career, other schools learned how to develop their own strength and conditioning programs and Nebraska's superior edge eventually became less of a factor. Husker fans even started criticizing Epley for relying too much on the specialized machines he invented and blamed him for a rash of pubalgia injuries suffered by the football team. The departure of Bill Byrne and the falling fortunes of the football team led to Epley's replacement by current strength and conditioning guru Dave Kennedy. Epley was "kicked upstairs" to manage the new athletic construction projects. Now as the biggest construction project winds down, there just isn't much more left for Epley to do in Lincoln.
No matter how it ended, no one can take away the glory years that brought good fortune to the Nebraska football team and national fame to Boyd Epley. Epley will always be a Husker legend.
Go Big Red,
RedCap
posted by RedCap at 8:20 AM
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