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Love affair with Afghanistan and international studies affords Tom Gouttierre world view like few others
February 21, 2017 leoadambiga	5 comments
In the annals of unforgettable people I've interviewed and profiled, UNO's retired director of Center for Afghanistan Studies and dean of International Programs and Studies Tom Gouttierre ranks right up there. This is my new profile of him for the March 2017 issue of the New Horizons published by the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging. Look for it at newstands and for subscribers in your mailbox starting Feb. 27.
My first encounter with this irrepressible man came some 20 years ago and I'm still recovering from it. I mean that as a compliment. You see, Tom fills up a room with not only his big frame and personality, but with the breadth of his life experience and the depth of his passion for things he cares about. Because he is a citizen of the world and considers his second home to be Afghanistan, where he lived and worked nearly a decade and that he made the center of his professional life,. he has an expansive view about things that you don't run into every day. He's seen things most of his fellow native born Americans haven't. That translates into him apprehending the world in terms most of us don't or can't because we don't have his experience or expertise. He even shakes hands differently than most of us. He calls its an international handshake. His immersion with Afghanistan, first as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a Fulbright Fellow, then as director of the Fulbright program in Kabul and finally as director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he became an official ambassador to that country. He has many close friends who are Afghan. You can't turn around in his Dundee home without seeing something from there. That first meeting I took with Tom was for a long interview I did to inform a cover profile I wrote about him and his love affair with Afghanistan. His affection for that nation and its people runs deep and it's safe to say his thoughts are never far from there and them. The article I did all that time ago contrasted the veritable paradise that the peacetime Afghanistan was in the 1960s and early '70 with the devastated shell the invading Soviets left it in. Like the millions of refugees who fled their homeland, Tom has despaired that his dream place has been so violently disrupted and shattered during three-plus decades of ongoing chaos, terror, violence and war. Like some of the Afghan people, he's never stopped hoping and trying to do what he can to stabilize and rebuild the infrastructure. His UNO Center conducted many education programs with Afghans in exile and with resident Afghans. Tom served as a top U.S. advisor on the country. He retired from UNO from 41 years but the center's work continues and his personal interest in and connection to Afghanistan remains strong.
Here's a link to that earler story I did about him–
https://leoadambiga.com/2010/05/19/in-search-of-a-lost-dream-an-americans-afghan-odyssey/
Tom Gouttierre
©by Leo Adam Biga
Soon to appear in the March 2017 issue of New Horizons
On the surface, Tom Gouttierre led a parochial Midwest life growing up in post-World War Ii America. By the time he was at Bowling Green State, he expected a traditional, stateside education career awaited him. Little did he imagine the far-off places his work would eventually lead, first as a Peace Corps volunteer with wife Marylu, then as a Fulbright Fellow, and finally as longtime director of UNO's Center for Afghanistan Studies and dean of International Studies and Programs.
Gouttierre retired in 2015 after 41 years doing jobs he loved. His work brought him into contact with U.S. presidents, secretaries of state, ambassadors, generals, foreign leaders, geo-political intrigues and momentous events. But what he most enjoyed was interacting with International Studies students. Some came from all corners of the globe and others right from his own backyard.
"The thing driving me more than anything else was advising those International Studies majors – young Midwest kids very much like I was wanting to learn and work in the world," he said. "I was so inspired regularly to be with these young dynamic students who wanted to do something, It was that more than any one thing that kept me working until age 75. That, and the fact that I'd step outside my door and be surrounded by students from all around the world.
"I had what I think most people who are interested in higher education and global affairs would have to be described as the dream job. I got to deal on a daily basis with hundreds of international students. They inform you even by their presence, they inform our students, they stimulate education. It's really dynamic and so much fun."
When Gouttierre came to UNO in 1974 after a decade of living and working in Afghanistan the university had fewer than two dozen international students and only one international program. When he left four decades later there were more than 2,000 international students and scores of programs.
The center's work its first decade-and-a-half revolved around a donated archive comprising the largest collection of Afghan cultural material and documents outside its borders. The center's role broadened after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. With the country in tatters and millions of Afghans in refugee camps, the center tasked itself with rebuilding that Central Asian nation's education infrastructure. Meanwhile, UNO's Intensive Language (ILUNO) program gave the University of Nebraska at Omaha a global presence as students from diverse nations came for intensive training. Gouttierre's experience and expertise made him a go-to U.S. government advisor and media source. During his tenure, the center managed some $120 million in federal contracts and grants.
He was part of high-level, secret negotiations for the Soviet Union to exit Afghanistan after its failed invasion. He oversaw programs that trained hundreds of Afghan residents and refugees in learning English. public administration and advanced teaching skills. Some of those trained by UNO. either here or overseas, became key players in Afghanistan's fledgling democracy. Long before Hamid Karzai became president of Afghanistan, he and Gouttiere knew each other. Another close personal friend is current Afghan president Ashraf Ghani – a former student of Gouttiere's. The American's Dundee home is filled with artifacts from his and Marylu's time there, including collections of rugs and mortars and pestles. Their home features arches reminiscent of Middle Eastern design and a solarium with a running fountain.
It's ironic Gouttierre ended up being a citizen of the world because he barely left his native Ohio before age 25. In 1965 he took his first airplane trip anywhere – to Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul. It was home to Tom and Marylu for may years, Adam, the oldest of the couple's three sons, was born there, The country, the culture and the people fundamentally changed the course of Gouttierre's life.
"I learned their language and culture to an uncommon degree and the reason I did is because i liked them so much," said Gouttierre, who's fluent in Dari. "I learned the language well enough to write poetry in their tongue and to have it published there."
He went first as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a Fulbright Fellow and eventually he headed the Fulbright Foundation there. He also coached amateur basketball teams, even the Afghan national men's team. He once enlisted the advice of the Wizard of Westwood, UCLA coaching legend John Wooden, on how to run his famous zone press. When the Afghan nationals upset the Chinese, Gouttierre got carried off the court by jubilant players and fans chanting, "Mr. Tom."
His immersion was as deep and complete as possible for an outsider. His interest in and affection for the people has never wavered and has been reciprocated in kind.
"They're so warm and receiving and supportive. Afghans are the most hospitable people I've ever met in my life anywhere around the world and I've met wonderfully hospitable people In Japan and elsewhere. But Afghans, who have probably far fewer resources to extend in their hospitality, are heads and shoulders above everybody in their belief in their hospitality. Anybody who tries their language or knows their history is embraced by them and the more one knows these things the more one is drawn to learn more. I still enjoy that very much."
"It's important to know what the people are like."
He admires the fierce, proud nature of Afghans who have famously taken up arms throughout history to repel enemy invaders in defense of their homeland and autonomy.
"They're one of the most independent-minded people in the history of mankind. They defeated the British empire three times, they beat back the Soviet empire. They're resilient."
They're also grateful to anyone who assists their aspirational dreams.
"Afghans would demonstrate and plead with the Ministry of Education to have Peace Corps volunteers teach them English in their schools.
They loved it. They were going through a democratic change at the time. They had a constitutional parliamentary monarchy with a new constitution that took control out of the military state. It was a remarkable thing that roughly coincided with the time I was there."
Tom Gouttiere holding his oldest son Adam in Afghanistan
In more recent years, Afghans have sent teams of teachers and journalists to Omaha for intensive training. But progress is slow in this tortured era of terror attacks. Reconstruction needs are vast. Corruption, rampant. The nearly nonstop fighting of these last 30-plus years has left Afghanistan in tatters. The devastation and loss is a far cry from the veritable paradise Gouttierre once experienced there.
"When I lived there it was a dream place," he said wistfully. "It was the ideal place to serve as a foreign service officer. I got to know the Afghans and I got to know them intimately. And I knew everybody because I was there 10 years and I coached basketball. It's a small town country. So it was ideal.
"Female Peace Corps volunteers like my wife could bike anywhere all by themselves without any fear for security. In fact, the country was charged with protecting these Americans. There were messages on the radio saying, 'These are our guests,' all while radio Moscow from antennas in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) beamed in that we Peace Corps volunteers were handmaidens of the CIA."
None of this seemed a likely landing spot for this child of 1950s mid-America. But beneath the cookie-cutter facade of muscle cars, rock 'n' roil lyrics and school proms Gouttierre pined for adventures far from home. He wasn't sure how to make those yearnings reality until John F. Kennedy laid out a vision for the Peace Corps during his 1960 presidential campaign and encouraged young people to serve their country and the world in his 1961 inaugural address. The vision sparked a sense of wanderlust in Gouttierre that dovetailed with America looking beyond its shores to win hearts and minds during the Cold War.
Coming of age in Maumee, Ohio, Gouttierre followed his devoutly Catholic, hard-working Belgian-American family's lead by going to church and cheering for their beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Detroit Tigers. His sports passion continues unabated today. He also follows Indiana and Creighton University basketball and UNO hockey. He's a Mav season ticket-holder.
His father hailed from a long line of glass blowers but became a master baker. Tom worked in the family bakery from the time he was a boy and mastered the craft himself. Generations of Gouttierres emigrated to the States and Tom became enamored with his grandparents tales of the old country.
"I would constantly ask my grandparents and great grandparents about these things. I knew about Belgium. I was aware of the rest of the world. So I always had this interest."
He studied maps and globes. He devoured books.
"I loved to read from The Book of Knowledge (children's encyclopedia).
I was a curious kid. If I didn't love sports i would have been a geek. We didn't have geography bees but I would have loved to compete in them. I knew where the Zambezi River was and all these things."
He loved foreign languages. One grandmother spoke only French. He went on to learn French. Latin, German, Russian and Dari.
None of his international experiences may have happened though if not for JFK's clarion call to serve.
"I was 20 year-old college undergraduate when John Kennedy gave his address. It was THE momentous political moment in my life. Here was this rock star with a message drawing upon the angels of our nature, not the devils, that really appealed to the values Americans were feeling. It was revolutionary, too, because he was the new generation. He had just replaced one of the oldest presidents (Dwight D. Eisenhower) we ever had. He was calling for this new frontier."
JFK's challenge to Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" and to to the world – "ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man" – was a call to action Gouttierre couldn't ignore.
"It was a tremendous opportunity. Marylu and I were dating then. It really inspired us. I went into grad school, I graduated and we went into the Peace Corps as a married couple. My passions were driven and still are by that particular message. It's the greatest generational message any American leader has given other than FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt), who took us out of hell with "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" and Lincoln who implored us to behave "with malice toward none, with charity for all…"
"I am forever indebted to the Peace Corps and the Fulbright program."
Peace Corps volunteers at a 1965 event outside a Kabul orphanage. Tom Gouttierre and wife Marylu are in the background along with Omaha educator Howard Faber.
Tom Gouttierre, front left, with members of two Afghan basketball teams. His time in Afghanistan began with the Peace Corps in the 1960s and the formation of an Afghan basketball league. It grew into a lifelong dedication to the restive nation and its people.
Gouttierre said new U.S. President Donald Trump's desire to build walls and ban immigrants is "so insular" by comparison.
He said Trump's executive order travel ban has only inflamed immigration fears and frustrations.
"People are up in arms over immigration but Congress does nothing. What Trump has done through executive order is bring a tension. I don't think his order was well-advised and I don't think the content of it was appropriate to the task. The other thing I'm concerned about is that this kind of decision hurts our long-term trade and other political and cooperative relationships we have with numbers of these countries. We need the collaboration of many of them to help track down and vet individuals.
"What we need to have is improved vetting – there's no question about that. I don't think the vetting process now, though not totally unsuccessful, is as efficient and sufficient as it needs to be. It's
chronically underfunded, understaffed and just not able to keep up with the demands."
He said another unfortunate result of the ban will be the adverse effect it has on international student populations around the United States.
He favors rigorous trade negotiations that benefit America, but fears too hard a line might touch off trade wars that prove harmful.
"There's all kinds of things we do we're not going to be able to do or afford if we have trade wars," he said. "We've got to think what this is going to do to our personal economies and our relationships with colleague nations and trading partners. We're able to have the good life in Nebraska as we call it because Nebraska markets abroad."
Among the many challenges Trump faces, he said.is is putting together an effective cabinet team that can help him effectively govern.
"Frankly, his team isn't all that bad. They may think differently than I do, butt they're all quality individuals."
Regarding what Trump's foreign policy looks like, Gouttierre said, "He's somewhat of a blank canvas. We don't know yet. He appears to be an individual who doesn't create policy based on policy study or things of that nature. He hasn't yet shown that. But he has indicated he wants to keep the U.S. strong and there's no way we can keep the U.S. strong and not continue to be concerned with how the events in Afghanistan have an impact on our interests in that region of the world."
For going on two decades American lives and resources have poured into Afghanistan to fight terrorists who've used that country as a staging ground and safe harbor. Every day Afghans want the terrorists out. The average Afghani gladly accepts America's help in restoring the country to normalcy. But they warily watch for any signs American commitment is wavering. It's happened before.
"Ashraf Ghani and President Trump have had a conversation and they both pronounced it as having gone well," Gouttierre said. "We'll see. I think at this stage most Afghans are just hanging loose. Believe me, Afghans at the common citizen level have a keen knowledge and focus about what's going on in the United States than a great number of Americans because they know what happens here has major impact on their lives and their future."
Gouttierre feels America's relationship with Afghanistan has mostly been positive and well-received in each country.
"I think most Americans were very supportive of everything we were doing in Afghanistan after 9/11. They were also supportive before that when the Soviets invaded the country and we gave the Afghans weapons to resist them."
UNO's Afghanistan center took a lead role in educating the nation.
"Our center had funds to teach Afghan refugees, who number in the millions in Pakistan. After 9/11, the same thing – our center helped reopen the Ministry of Education and we prinedt books, supplied schools and trained teachers.
"We had an intimate relationship."
By UNO bringing Afghans here over so many years, he said, a real understanding of that nation and its people developed.
."In Nebraska we probably have a higher percentage per capita knowledge of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan than any other part of our country."
Visiting Afghan teachers, for example. participated in programs in Omaha, Lincoln and host cities across the state.
"Nebraskans knew about them because they were seeing them and meeting them and loved them and developed intense relationships with them, so there were these good feelings."
©PHIL JOHNSON/THE WORLD-HERALD Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a personal friend of Tom Gouttierre's since the 1990s, examines the UNO library's collection of rare Afghan books in 2005.
©THE WORLD-HERALD Tom Gouttierre, at far right, leads Afghans at the Eppley Airfield terminal after their arrival in Omaha in 1988. The Afghans came to the United States to relearn skills they had before the outbreak of war in Afghanistan in 1978. They were preparing for the day when the Soviet Union withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and reconstruction of their country begins.
Relations between the nations changed once the war on terror began.
"Things started to kind of deteriorate after the invasion of Iraq" and the subsequent war in Afghanistan, Gouttierre said. "People say the war in Afghanistan is our longest war. I really resent that. It is not accurate historically. The longest by far and away was the Cold War. It required us to be intense and focused throughout in our competition with the Soviets and the Chinese. Nearly 50 years we had that.
"This is not a war against Afghanistan, it's a war within Afghanistan
that's a part of the greater global war against terrorism. Like the Cold War, it's ideologically-driven and it's going to take a solid long-term commitment to deal with it and put it out. It's not going to just go away.
It's going to require taxes. The biggest mistake George W. Bush made after going into Iraq was that he tried to run that war without taxing. You can't have a war without taxes. And what did it do? It broke our national banks and we wound up with 2008 (recession)."
Afghanistan being a battleground in the war on terror, he said,
"unfortunately has infused a negative opinion about our experiences there." He added, "Quite frankly, most of the enemies we're fighting are in Pakistan. They go back and forth. It's not the Afghan people.
Well, some of them. But that's not the war – the war is against terrorism, Al Qaeda, Isis."
The U.S. wouldn't even be in Afghanistan militarily if Osama Bin Laden hadn't sought refuge and established terror training camps there.
"Now we're in this situation which is unfortunate," he said. "They're our closest allies in that whole region. They really want us there. Think about it. How many of the other countries really want us?"
Gouttierre rues America abandoning Afghanistan after it's remarkable defeat of the Soviets.
"What happened was in '89 we dumped Afghanistan. The Soviets had left and then the USSR collapsed. Then every nefarious group in the world went into a country which had no governmental structure, so it became the dump for all the drugs. When Marylu and I lived there we never saw a field under cultivation with opium poppies. That's all post-Soviet invasion."
Bin Laden was among those who exploited the vacuum of power.
"He went there to fight the Soviets like a great many else did, then he went home to Saudi Arabia, where he was a citizen. although his family was originally Yemeni. They're a very successful family worth billions of dollars. When Saddam (Hussein) invaded Kuwait, Bin Laden went to the Saudi government and said, 'Let me bring my Afghan Arabs,' meaning those who fought against the Soviets, 'and we'll drive Iraqi forces out.' On the other hand, there was the whole United Nations coalition and Saudi Arabia went with that.
"A disgruntled Bin Laden went public about the corruption of the Saudi government and monarchy, calling them the handmaidens of the West.
He was very vocal about this and he got kicked out and his passport taken away. He fled to Sudan. The Saudis put pressure on the Sudanese to kick him out, so he went where he knew – back to Pakistan and then Afghanistan. That was in 1996. He went to Afghanistan because there was no government there. He was allowed and welcomed by the Tallbs.
"He arrived just a few weeks before I did as a member of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan.. I was the senior political affairs advisor for that mission based in both Pakistan and Afghanistan to try to bring the Taliban and the Northern Alliance together. The Pakistanis were constantly trying to undermine it, so it didn't happen. They were supporting the Taliban."
In his advisor role Gouttierre was tasked with building profiles on Bin Laden and the Taliban.
"These were both things about which i didn't know much because they were new dynamics."
He soon learned they posed a dangerous threat with clear intentions on attacking America.
Gouttierre never met Bin Laden but he did see his caravan pass through a Kandihar bazaar.
"I was walking in Kandahar and all of a sudden the bazaar went silent and there was a small convoy of SUVs that went through and everybody chanted, 'Osama, Osama, Osama.' Everybody knew who he was because he was putting money into Afghanistan. He had billions to do that. So I didn't see him eye-to-eye but I saw his presence. That's as close as I got."
Gouttierre feels the U.S. hung Afghanistan out to dry after the Afghans drove out the Soviets,
"We switched administrations – we went from Reagan to Bush I. He and his secretary of state, James Baker, "saw great opportunity with the collapsing of the Soviet Union to ensure Russia would not come back as the Soviet Union again. That's what their focus was. What Afghanistan needed, which I think it deserved, was some type of Marshall Plan. They were our allies fighting against the Soviet Union.
We owed them. They're the ones that died."
He said America's failure to have a cohesive policy concerning Afghanistan and its fate proved costly.
"We didn't understand how this would come back and bite us. We owed the Afghans something. That country was left in total destruction.
We talk about the tremendous refugee crisis now in Syria Why?
Because they're going to Europe and they're coming back to us.
Afghanistan had 7 million of its citizens outside of the country. There were 5 million in Pakistan, another 2.5 million in Iran. They lost over a million people in the war with the Soviets. We've forgotten that. Our memories are very short.
"So what happened? It came back and bit us in the butt. We dumped them and 12 years later we had 9/11."
He suggests much of the chaos could have been prevented.
"We didn't help the Afghans reconstruct their infrastructure. There were a lot of refugees in Pakistan and Iran who could have come back and helped to put something together. When we did start to help after 9/11, we blew it. We spend a lot of money and want immediate results. What does that bring? It brings mistakes, corruption, lost money.
The U.S. had $20 billion unaccounted for. Nobody knows where it is.
"The whole Muslim world was watching how we did it and we really messed it up. Now were trying to help the Afghans build out from under the mess our chaotic approach of throwing money and demanding quick results produced."
Parween Arghandaywal pronounces words during English class at the University of Nebraska Omaha for visiting Afghan teachers in 2002. (©Omaha World-Herald Photo by Bill Batson)
Afghan women arrived in Omaha under the sponsorship of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Saleemah, a teacher from Kabul and wearing a scarf is hugged by Masuma Basheer, an employee of America West Airlines in Omaha and a formerly from Afghanistan. (©Omaha World-Herald photo by Bill Batson)
Tom Gouttierre conferring UNO honorary status on Hamid Karzai during the then-Afghan president's visit to Omaha
Finding an unlikely home for pursuits and passions
Gouttierre made Nebraska a haven for Afghans but he nearly didn't come here himself. He was running the Fulbright Foundation overseas when he and Center for Afghanistan Studies founder Chris Jung, whose father was part of an Indiana University team in Afghanistan, began doing exchange programs. Then Jung died and UNO courted Gouttierre to take the open post. He told UNO officials no three times. He finally went to a trusted mentor, then-U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Theodore Eliot, who told him, 'fI they offered me that job, I'd leave this job and take it." Are you kidding me?" Gouttiere asked.
Eliot laid it out for him: "You love afghanistan, you love international education exchange – this is your way to go back to the United States."
"I thought about it," Gouttierre said, "and on April 1, 1974 I sent a cable to the head of the search committee that read, 'This is no April Fool's joke…I accept. I'll report 1st of August.'"
Upon their arrival, the Gouttierres were struck by the welcome extended them and by the support that helped the center and international studies and programs rapidly grow.
"There was such an interest, such an enthusiasm in Omaha, more than we could have expected. It was really something we could have only dreamed for, hoped for," Gouttierre said.
Under the leadership of chancellors Ronald Roskens and his successor Del Weber UNO caught the nascent wave of globalization. The university went from having a limited international presence to being a national leader in global engagement.
"Our whole experience here from the very beginning was overwhelmingly positive. It never ended and it still hasn't. There was real receptivity and that's what made it so wonderful."
Sister University relationships were formed. The intensive language program, he said, "took UNO's name all around the world. People came to Omaha, Nebraska to study intensive English. When I got here in '74 the challenge was to get people to come to Omaha, Nebraska. We didn't have agriculture. We didn't have dorms. Well, we started an intensive English language program and it became one of the largest, most highly regarded ones in the Midwest. We became a leader."
Former UNO chancellor Del Weber said, "Tom took a fledgling program and built it into an outstanding Center for Afghanistan Studies and International Studies known throughout the country. He combined a deep intellectual knowledge of the MIddle East with an on-site practical understanding of Afghanistan, Forty-one years ago few in Omaha would have known how to spell Afghanistan yet find its place on a map. It was a forgotten county. Countless Nebraskans are now well informed. That is no rare feat."
Introducing his adopted state to the country that adopted him and that captured his heart has been satisfying. Being part of the inner workings to get the Soviets out was stimulating. His last trip to Afghanistan was in 2014 and he hopes to return again.
He's grateful for the support subsequent UNO administrators continued showing the center and international studies and programs. He's appreciative, too, of the strong team around him that made extensive travel to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Washington D.C., for example. possible. UNO's partnerships with Kabul University are particularly close and varied, including a journalism exchange program between faculty and students from each institution.
Weber marvels at what Gouttierre wrought.
"I admire Tom for his grasp of the Middle East and Afghanistan, his sharp focus and his single-minded emphasis on that area. All of his time, effort and knowledge was given to building that program he was brought to build at UNO. He stood up for it, fought for it and succeeded in making a superb program known nationally and internationally."
Weber got to see Gouttierre in action on some overseas trips they made together.
"My many travels with him told me much about his work. He was a man who knew how to play and work hard. On one of our trips to Pakistan we convinced the American consul In Islamabad to permit us to go into Kabul for a short trip to see our school programs in-person. The consul told us if we ran into any problems we were on our own as the U.S. government would not provide any assistance.
"We stayed with the minister of protocol, who insisted I sleep in his bed. As I crawled in, I felt a pistol under the pillow. Since there was no electricity, I gingerly put the pistol on the floor. In the morning I discovered it was loaded. He told me no one in Kabul was without his pistol in bed. We went to the airport to catch a Red Cross airplane back to Islamabad only to discover it had been grounded due to shelling at the airport. Again we stayed with the minister. That night in the city under siege was a long one. I wondered if we would ever get back."
Even as Gouttierre's profile increased and opportunities to go elsewhere emerged, he said, "I never, ever considered leaving Omaha. I love being in Omaha. The luckiest break of my life was to say yes to come to UNO and Omaha in 1974."
His cozy ties to the U.S. State Department aroused suspicions in some quarters he was a CIA operative but he flatly denies it. While he did get push-back from some colleagues, he said most UNO faculty and staff expressed support, as did alums and the Omaha community, for the center's work. No student protests raised objections.
"In all the speeches I've given, and I've given so many, I've never had anybody ask a question or make a comment that was motivated by a sense of meanness. I had people disagree with me, but that's alright –I like that, I like to have discussion and debate."
Tom Gouttierre relaxing at home
Stepping back and moving on
Though he clearly found his calling, Gouttierre said he always looked forward to retirement. He only worked as long as he did because he enjoyed his job. Now he's enjoying that long anticipated retirement.
"My intent was to do more of the things I love to do with family and friends and that's exactly what I'm doing."
He's taking his family to Lakeland, Florida to cheer on the Tigers at spring training. He said a day doesn't go by without he and his sons exchanging texts or emails about the club.
His love of fine dining, cooking, reading, conversation, movies and tinkering around the house keeps him plenty busy.
Wherever he is, whatever he's doing, his joy tinged with sadness affinity for Afghanistan is omnipresent. That place is so very far away, yet reminders of it are everywhere in his life and home. The feelings and memories always near.
"I'll never be able to set aside Afghanistan. That's a passion of a unique nature. I learned so much about life by having the opportunity to live among them, broadening my horizons, enriching my appreciation of other peoples, languages, cultures. I gained greater appreciation of our country by having the chance to live abroad – the best kind of comparative education.
"These opportunities have made me a better informed and more sensitive person and appreciative of the many breaks i have had."
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Categories: Afghanistan, Education, International Relations, Peace Corps, Personalities-Characters, Thomas Gouttierre, University of Nebraska at Omaha, UNO Center for Afghanistan Studies, UNO International Studies and Programs, Writing Tags: Afghanistan, Education, International Relations, Peace Corps, Tom Gouttierre, University of Nebraska at Omaha, UNO, UNO Center for Afghanistan Studies, UNO International Studies and Programs
Marlin Briscoe: The Magician Finally Gets His Due
December 27, 2016 leoadambiga	1 comment
Marlin Briscoe has a story straight out of Hollywood and so it's only right that a major motion picture about his life is in the works. The Omaha native made history on the field by becoming the first black starting quarterback in the National Football League but he achieved an even greater feat off the field by recovering from a serious drug addiction he developed after retiring from the game. The title of the soon to start production film "The Magician" comes from the nickname Briscoe was given during his legend-in-the-making collegiate career at then-University of Omaha when he'd improvise plays in the broken field with his arm, legs and head for big gainers and touchdowns. He played much the same way the one and only year he was given a chance to play quarterback in the NFL. Undeterred when teams denied him the opportunity to play signalcaller again, he made himself into a top-notch wide receiver who won All-Pro honors with the Buffalo Bills and back to back Super Bowls with the Miami Dolphins. All through his NFL caereer he encountered obstacles and he took them all on and won, including an anti-trust lawsuit. But the biggest fight of his life lay ahead and he licked that, too. At the time Briscoe made history and overcame his demons, little was made of it, but in the ensuing years more and more recognition and love have come his way, includng induction in the College Football Hall of Fame. The movie should help cement his case for eventual inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. My new Omaha Magazine (http://omahamagazine.com/) story about Marlin touches on these and other threads of his life.
Link to more Marlin Briscoe stories I've written at–
https://leoadambiga.com/?s=marlin+briscoe+
Link to my Omaha Black Sports Legends series at–
https://leoadambiga.com/out-to-win-the-roots-of-greatness-omahas-black-sports-legends/
Marlin Briscoe
The Magician Finally Gets His Due
©Photography by Contributed
Appearing in the Jan/Feb 2017 issue of Omaha Magazine (http://omahamagazine.com/)
Omaha native Marlin Briscoe made history in 1968 as the NFL's first black starting quarterback. His success as a signal-caller carried huge symbolic and practical weight by disproving the then-popular misconception that blacks lacked the intelligence and leadership to play the position.
The same racist thinking not only applied to quarterbacks but to other so-called thinking-man positions on the field (center, safety, middle linebacker) and on the sidelines (head coach, general manager).
Even in those racially fraught times, Briscoe's myth-busting feat went largely unnoticed. So did the rest of the story. After overcoming resistance from coaches and management to even get the chance to play QB, he performed well at the spot during his rookie professional season, never to be given the opportunity to play it again. That hurt. But just as he overcame obstacles his whole life, he set about winning on his own terms by learning an entirely new position—wide receiver—in the space of a month and going on to a long, accomplished pro career. He made history a second time by being part of a suit that found the NFL guilty of anti-trust violations. The resulting ruling, in favor of players, ushered in the free agency era.
After retiring, Briscoe faced his biggest personal hurdle when a serious crack-cocaine addiction took him to the bottom of a downward spiral before he beat that demon, too.
Now, nearly a half-century since making history and a quarter-century since regaining sobriety, Briscoe's story is finally getting its due. His 2002 autobiography spurred interest in his tale. Major media outlets have featured his story. Modern-day black quarterbacks have credited his pioneering path, and several lauded him in video tributes played at an event titled "An Evening with the Magician," held in his honor in September at Omaha's Baxter Arena. A life-size statue of his likeness was dedicated at the tribute event. Also in the fall of 2016, he received the Tom Osborne Leadership Award. In December he was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Now, he's preparing to watch actor Lyriq Bent portray him in a major motion picture about his life, The Magician, set to film this spring.
If the movie, produced by his old Omaha University teammate-turned-actor John Beasley, is a hit, it will bring Briscoe's role as a civil rights soldier to a much wider audience than ever before. Now in his early 70s, Briscoe fully appreciates all that has led up to this moment. He has no doubt he's ready for whatever may come. Growing up in South Omaha's melting pot, no-nonsense mentors and peers steeled him for life's vagaries. Fierce competition toughened him.
"The training I grew up with was the best training any young man or woman could have," Briscoe says.
On playing fields and courts, in streets and classrooms, he found an inner resolve that served him well through life's ups and downs.
"That's where I learned resilience—from my mom, my sister, and all my mentors, and neighbors. They all had this type of mentality and grit. It rubbed off on me and some of the kids I grew up with. It prepared me for anything. If I had not learned core values from growing up where I did, the things I did, the obstacles I overcame would never have happened."
His cousin Bob Rose and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson's oldest brother Josh Gibson were among a cadre of local coaches who inspired youngsters of Briscoe's generation.
"You had to go through them if you wanted to do something wrong, and you didn't want to go through them," Briscoe says. "Our mentors were down at the Northside Y, at Kellom School, Kountze Park, St. Benedict's. They cared about where we were going in life."
When Briscoe was bullied as boy, Rose gave him a "magic box" filled with the tools of various sports—a baseball, football, basketball, and boxing gloves—with the admonition that if he mastered these, he wouldn't be bothered. He did and wasn't. The magic box became the gateway for the Magician to do his thing.
Briscoe grew up respecting adults, all adults, even winos, hustlers, and prostitutes.
"They told you to do something, you did it, and went on about your business," he says.
He conducted himself in a way that in turn earned him respect as a young leader. Virtually all the athletic teams he played on growing up consisted primarily of white players, which meant his entire athletic life he was advancing diversity. Long before he found immortality with the Broncos, he was the first black quarterback on youth teams, at South High, and then at Omaha University (now known as UNO).
Though he lived in South Omaha, Briscoe made a point of going to the proving grounds of North Omaha, where there were even more great athletes and a particular endurance test and rite of passage.
"Off Bedford [Avenue] by Adams Park, there used to be The Hills. It was like the barrier and motivational place where top ballplayers like Gale Sayers and myself would go and work out. Sometimes, I would be up there early in the morning by myself running those hills. I always tell young people today, 'It is what you do when nobody sees you that defines and determines your work ethic and how you will turn out.'
"There were plenty of guys with more ability than myself—who were bigger, stronger, faster—and while they worked hard when eyes were on them, they slacked off when they were alone. A lot of guys who never made it regretted not putting out the effort to match their ability."
Briscoe might never have made history if not for some good fortune. He started at quarterback for Omaha University his sophomore and junior years, putting up good numbers and earning the nickname "Magician" for an uncanny ability to escape trouble and extend plays with highlight reel throws and runs. Just before what was supposed to be his senior year, 1966, he got undercut in an all-star basketball game at Bryant Center and took a hard spill. He went numb and was rushed to the hospital, where doctors decreed he was injury-free. He started the '66 season football opener versus Idaho State with no ill effects. He had a monster game. Then, late in the contest, he took a hit that caused his neck to swell. When rushed to the ER this time, X-rays revealed a fractured vertebra. He'd competed with a broken neck.
Doctors told him his days playing contact sports were over. He accepted the harsh news and dived into his studies, ready to move on with life sans football. Then during a medical checkup, tests confirmed his bones recalcified, and he was cleared to play again. He got a medical hardship waiver from the NAIA and went on to have a huge senior season in 1967, earning small college All-American honors and getting picked in the 14th round of the NFL draft.
He's convinced he wouldn't have taken snaps in Denver, which drafted him as a defensive back, if he hadn't negotiated his own contract to include a clause he be given a three-day tryout at quarterback. He so dazzled the media and the public during the open practices that once the season began and Denver QBs went down due to injury or were benched for poor play, he got his shot and ran with it.
Briscoe's larger-than-himself magic enabled him to make history in a crucible year for America—a year of riots, anti-war protests, assassinations, and civil rights struggles.
"For some reason, divine intervention maybe, it just seemed the stars were aligned in 1968 for a black man to break the barrier at that position," he says. "It just seems 1968 was the pivotal year for all African-Americans, for all Americans period. For me to do it in '68 is just eerie, the way that happened."
So much of his NFL experience, he says, involved fighting "injustices." Released by Denver and denied playing quarterback again, he excelled at a new position. Blackballed by the league for challenging its power, he won a hard-fought battle for himself and fellow players.
He insists he was not resentful for being shortchanged at quarterback.
"I wasn't bitter, I was disappointed," he says. "When you're bitter, you give up, you take all this stuff personally, and you quit. I tell young people, 'You're going to have disappointments, and you're going to be treated unfairly, but you can't be bitter about it.' Instead, you roll up your sleeves and fight whatever negative things come your way. Plan A doesn't work? You go to Plan B. Life is just that way."
Only after walking away from the game to be a broker in Los Angeles did he meet a foe—crack cocaine—that got the better of him. Before his recovery, he lost everything: his home, his fortune, his family.
"Here I was on a park bench trying to get some sleep in the heart of L.A. after owning homes and property," he says.
What was so maddening about it is that he had done everything right. "It was not like I left the game with nothing," he says. "I left the game correctly, sitting on easy street. I had wise investments. I prepared to leave the game by going to school and getting additional degrees. I was not hurt. I was in perfect physical condition."
But in the vacuum of his post-athletic life, without the daily disciplines of workouts and team dynamics, he slipped into an unhealthy lifestyle.
"I let my guard down. I wasn't really prepared for the L.A. scene because my whole life was always about precision, being responsible," he says. "Then, when I didn't have to meet all these different obligations and being single, I wasn't rooted in one direction—I was just partying. You know, bring it on."
No one who knew Briscoe before could believe he was in the grip of something that controlled him so completely, least of all himself.
"I had been a player rep. I was the one they always came to just as I was when I was a kid. I was the one people always came to for sage advice. And I never did drugs in the NFL," Briscoe says.
But there he was, enslaved to a habit he couldn't kick. Through it all, even losing his Super Bowl rings as collateral for a bank loan, he never forgot who he was inside and what he had done. Though homeless, penniless, and stuck in a jail cell when Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to lead a team to an NFL title, Briscoe felt he shared in that victory, too.
"I felt proud on one hand, and disappointed in myself on the other hand," he says.
He sank lower than he ever thought possible, but he came back to whip that challenge, too: "The thing is, I always knew I would let go of that descent. I always knew and prayed I'd get back to that person all Omaha knew as this accomplished individual who conquered the NFL and enjoyed all these triumphs. The people that knew me are so elated now I've overcome my post-career meltdown because I had been a champion for them, fighting the NFL. I was always fighting for them and fighting for myself. I put myself in positions as a player where my voice could be heard."
Even though it was decades ago, he believes defying and defeating the NFL's monied interests left a blemish on his career that got further stained when he was traded several times as persona non grata.
"I'm not bragging or anything, but if I had been any other player, I guarantee you, I'd have been in the NFL Hall of Fame a long time ago. Nobody had ever done it—making history as the first black starting quarterback. People don't realize I was also the first black holder on extra points. Counting cornerback and wide receiver, I played four different positions in the NFL, and I'm not sure anybody did that before. Then you add in the fact I made All-Pro as a receiver within two years of switching positions and went on to win two Super Bowls."
Efforts are underway to rectify his absence as a Canton inductee via a write-in campaign to the Hall's Veterans Committee.
Just as Briscoe wasn't bitter about being shut out from playing quarterback after his rookie year, he wasn't bitter that other blacks followed him into the league at that position.
"If I had not succeeded in 1968, James Harris would not have gotten drafted by the Bills as a quarterback out of Grambling in 1969. If I would have failed, they would have brought James in as a tight end. But the fact I was a litmus test and succeeded, they could take a chance on a black quarterback, and James was drafted.
"Ironically, he and I ended up being roommates in Buffalo. We knew each other's plight. We would have conversations after practice. I would tell him different things that were going to happen to him and to be prepared for them."
While Briscoe is known as the first black starting QB, another black man, Willie Thrower, briefly got into two games as a QB with the Bears 15 years before Briscoe's experience with the Broncos. High off his rookie year success, Briscoe had a chance meeting with Thrower in Chicago. The two men hit it off.
Briscoe, Harris, Doug Williams, and Warren Moon have formed an organization called The Field General that uses the still-exclusive legacy of the black quarterback to educate and inspire young people. Blacks still comprise but a fraction of the professional QB ranks. The same is true of head coaches, coordinators, and general managers. That fact, combined with the journey each man had to make to get to those rarified places, reveals just how far the nation and league still have to go.
Never in his wildest dreams did Briscoe imagine his story would get so much attention this many years after he played.
"It just goes to show that, if you never give up, a lot of these things will come your way. Sometimes things come late, like this movie project about my life," he says.
Briscoe says he only agreed to let his story be told in a movie if it stayed true to who he is and to what happened.
"It's not for self-gratification," he says. "It's hopefully as an inspiration for others that you can overcome any obstacle if you really want it. I look back on my life and see what it can do for others. It's not just a football movie. If it were, I probably wouldn't be a part of that interpretation of my life. My life is a lot more than just football."
He's sure the movie's message of "if you never give up, you've got a chance" will resonate with diverse audiences. He's proud to be living proof that anything can happen when you keep fighting.
Visit marlinbriscoemovie.com for more information.
Categories: African-American, African-American Culture, Football, History, Marlin Briscoe, Omaha, Omaha Black Sports Legends, Omaha South High School, The Magician, University of Nebraska at Omaha Tags: African-American, Buffalo Bills, Colelge Football Hall of Fame, Football, History, Marlin Briscoe, Miami Dolphins, NFL's First Black Quarterback, Omaha, Omaha South High School. Denver Broncoes, University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO)
Marlin Briscoe: Still making history
Now that he's in the College Football Hall of Fame, will the Pro Football Hall of Fame be next?
Marlin Briscoe was just inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday in New York City and a strong contingent of Omahans made the trek to honor one of their own. Here is a tribute video of Marlin that UNO Athletics created from the two-day ceremony earlier this fall that paid homage to this sports legend who, pound for pound, might have been the greatest athlete to ever come out of Nebraska.
Now that he's in the College Football Hall of Fame, will the Pro Football Hall of Fame be next? I think it will happen sooner rather than later now. Certainly, all the attention that's come his way the last couple decades helps and with the movie of his life in the works, it should be plenty to put him over the top with the Veterans Committee. What he did by making it in the NFL as a defensive back, a quarterback, a wide receiver and a holder, and playing nine productive seasons in the league, is more than enough to get him in. The fact that he was the first black starting QB should seal the deal. But in my opinion, his transitioning from a very good quarterback who nearly won Rookie of the Year honors to being a Pro-Bowl caliber wide receiver is enough all by itself to get him in.
Link here to an appreciatIon I wrote about Marlin on the occasion of that UNO recognition–
https://leoadambiga.com/…/marlin-briscoe-finally-getting-h…/
You can also link to this profile I wrote about Marlin as part of my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win – The Roots of Greatness–
https://leoadambiga.com/…/prodigal-son-marlin-briscoe-take…/
And you can link to the entire Out to Win collection of stories at–
https://leoadambiga.com/out-to-win-the-roots-of-greatness-…/
Look for my coming Omaha Magazine feature on Marlin. And look for updates on the movie to be made about his remarkable life, "The Magician" is due to start shooting in the spring.
And look for a new post making the case for Marlin as the best athlete, pound for pound, that Nebraska's ever produced.
Marlin Briscoe: 2016 CFB Hall of Fame Tribute
Former Omaha University quarterback Marlin Briscoe is among the class of 2016 inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. During…
Some photos courtesy UNO of Marlin and Friends at the College Football Hall of Fame event:
Categories: Athletes, Athletics, Football, Marlin Briscoe, NFL (National Football League), Omaha, Omaha Black Sports Legends, South High, South Omaha, Sports, University of Nebraska at Omaha Tags: Buffalo Bills, College Football Hall of Fame, Denver Broncoes, Marlin Briscoe, Miami Dolphins, NFL's First Black Quarterback, Omaha, Omaha South, The Magician, University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 LECTURE – Leo Adam Biga's Africa travels with Terence "Bud" Crawford and Pipeline Worldwide
October 13, 2016 leoadambiga	Leave a comment
Tuesday, Oct. 18 LECTURE:
My Travels in Rwanda and Uganda, Africa with Terence "Bud" Crawford and Pipeline Worldwide
By author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga
Metro Fort Omaha Campus, Institute for the Culinary Arts Building, Swanson Conference Center, Room 201A
In June 2015, Terence 'Bud' Crawford, two-time world boxing champion and native of North Omaha, traveled with Jamie Nollette, his 4th grade teacher from Skinner Magnet Center, to learn about her work with Pipeline Worldwide, an organization that supports building fresh water wells and dormitories to support youth and families. Biga, funded by an Andy Award grant from UNO, traveled with them to observe and record their eye-opening activities on the two-week trip, which included meeting African, American and European program directors, educators, aid workers and humanitarians. They met survivors and perpetrators of violence, exploring rural and urban culture. Crawford was feted as a visiting prince by sports officials.
Tuesday, Oct. 18 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Fort Omaha Campus, Institute for the Culinary Arts Building
Swanson Conference Center, Room 201A
Terence "Bud" Crawford has captured the hearts and minds of Nebraskans with his move to the front ranks of professional boxing. The Omaha native has traveled a long, hard journey to get to where he is. Boxing is in his blood. The fight game is his life, yet there is much more to him than the tenacious competitor, finely tuned, supremely conditioned, confident, technically sound, unbeaten world title holding prizefighter. He is also a devoted family man who loves kids. Crawford is a sincere advocate for his community and is curious about the wider world outside his hometown and home state, and has made it a point to broaden his horizons. To indulge his hunger to know more and see more, he has twice ventured to Uganda and Rwanda, Africa, and plans to go again in the fall.
The story of why he has gone to those places, whom he went with and what he did there reveals much about The Champ. His travels to Africa are under the auspices of Pipeline Worldwide, an American-based NGO whose executive director and co-founder, Jamie Nollette, was Bud's fourth grade teacher at Skinner Magnet School in North Omaha. Pipeline Worldwide helps support sustainability and self-sufficiency programs in Uganda and Rwanda. The strong bond between the former pupil and instructor seems destined to last a lifetime since they reunited in 2014. That's when Crawford joined her on his first journey to Africa. The experience changed him. In June 2015, Omaha author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga traveled to Uganda and Rwanda, Africa with Crawford and Nollette. His reporting mission was funded by the Andy Award for international journalism from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Biga's talk will highlight various facets of the experience with the aid of a video slideshow.
Biga has chronicled Crawford's rise to boxing prominence and his single-handedly resurrecting the sport in his hometown by fighting title defenses here before huge crowds at the CenturyLink Center. Crawford operates a gym in North Omaha that is a sanctuary for at-risk youth and young adults, providing them structured, positive activities that teach lessons inside and outside the ring. Friends of Crawford have embarked on a major building campaign to renovate and expand the gym so it can serve more people.
Crawford's first trip to Africa, Biga reports, was an awakening for the fighter as he saw everything from people living in want and healing from trauma to people working regular jobs, going to market and living in comfortable housing. He visited villages and organizations that Pipeline Worldwide assists with funding to build fresh water wells and dormitories and to support programming that helps youth, women and families. He met survivors of civil war, abduction, abuse and genocide. He played with and comforted sick and orphaned children. He also visited natural wonders.
During the Africa journey Biga joined, the travel party saw everything described above and more. Biga was there to observe and report on it all. It was the writer's first trip outside the United States, so it was naturally an awakening for him, too.
The visitors met African, American and European program directors, educators, aid workers and humanitarians. They met survivors and perpetrators of violence. Crawford was feted as a visiting prince by sports officials who organized a press conference he handled with aplomb. The travel party divided their time between urban centers and rural areas. They shopped at open air markets and enclosed malls. They were treated to great hospitality wherever they went and they sampled all manner of the local cultures in the food and fashion and in the dance and music they were exposed to. They also did some service work at one stop. They went on safari and a gorilla trek. All in all, the two weeks added up to an eye-opening experience that none will soon forget.
One of the takeaways from it all is that there are many Africans and non-Africans alike working hard to improve conditions and raise quality of life in the countries visited.
And, as expected, traveling two weeks with Crawford gave Biga new insights into him. Biga also developed a deeper appreciation for what Nollette and Pipeline Worldwide does. If anything, the relationship between Crawford and Nollette has grown through their travels together. He helps bring awareness to Pipeline Worldwide and the programs and projects it supports, and she is helping lead the campaign to renovate and expand his B&B Boxing Academy.
Biga's presentation describes in words and pictures the 2015 trip he made with The Champ to those countries. The talk will give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Crawford's world away from boxing and his heart for people. The event is free and open to the general public.
Read Biga's stories about the experience at https://leoadambiga.com/?s=crawford+africa
Categories: Jamie Nollette, Journalism, Leo Adam Biga, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Pipeline Worldwide, Reporting, Rwanda, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Uganda, University of Nebraska at Omaha Tags: Africa, Jamie Nollette, Journalism, Lecture, Leo Adam Biga, Omaha, Pipeline Worldwide, Reporting, Rwanda, Terence "Bud" Crawford, Uganda
The Silo Crusher: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Trev Alberts
August 27, 2016 leoadambiga	3 comments
Full disclosure: When the University of Nebraska at Omaha unceremoniously dropped the school's highly successful football and wrestling programs five years ago, I took out my disappointment and frustration in some posts that might have read like rants. The posts were not written as a journalist trying to be objective but as a UNO grad, former UNO sports information staffer and lifelong Omaha resident who had grown close to both programs through my work as a journalist. My posts were my personal opinion and presented as such. The only time I wrote anything about those events in my role as a journalist was in a New Horizons cover story I did on Mike Denney in the immediate aftermath of it all. My siding with Denney definitely bled over into the story and I make no apologies for that because it was a passionate and honest response to a traumatic severing. My sympathies were entirely with Denney and I let him have his say, though he was actually quite tame in his comments, even though he was deeply hurt by what happened. I do regret not getting athletic director Trev Alberts and chancellor John Christensen to comment for the story, though I think I tried. If I didn't, well then that's my bad. As fate would have it, I was recently assigned to do a piece on the state of UNO athletics five years after those events and this time around the assignment called for me to tell the story from UNO's point of view, which meant interviewing Alberts and Christensen. I must say that after talking to those two men, particularly Alberts, I have a mcuh better appreciation and understanding of why the deicison to eliminate the two sports was made and just how wrenching it was for them to make. I believe the rationale they lay out today is more telling than what they communicated then, but that may be a function of my not wanting to hear what they said before. I am sharing here the new story that I did for Omaha Magazine (http://omahamagazine.com/). It's featured in the Sept/Oct 2016 issue.
The Silo Crusher
Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Trev Alberts
©Photography by Bill Sitzmann
Illustration by Matt Wieczorek
Appearing in the Sept/Oct 2016 issue of Omaha Magazine (http://omahamagazine.com/)
The story of athletics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha has fluctuated from wild success to heartbreak (and back). All-Americans, post-season runs, and national title traditions collided with mismanagement and sparse spectator attendance.
Then a fresh Maverick joined the fray. Trev Alberts—one of the most decorated defensive players in the history of Huskers football and a former ESPN anchor—took the mantle of UNO's athletic director in April of 2009.
Tensions bubbled behind the scenes. Chronic budget shortfalls clashed with fractious booster relations. Although new to his administrative role, Alberts knew enough about balance sheets and group dynamics to recognize systemic disarray and dysfunction. "We were in trouble and we needed to find some solutions," he says.
The current academic year marks five years since Alberts dismantled UNO's beloved wrestling and football programs. Alberts looks back on his crucial decisions without regrets. But the "solutions" didn't come easily. In 2011, the former football star had to cut the sport that defined his own athletic career.
He saw that the financial equation for UNO's splintered athletic programs no longer worked. A struggling Division I hockey program could not prop up the remaining Division II programs. Even with a hefty university subsidy, low athletic revenue painted a bleak picture amidst rising costs.
UNO's bold response was to transition its entire athletic program to Division I by joining the Summit League in 2011. Because the conference does not accommodate wrestling or football, those two sports had to go.
News broke with awkward timing. Maverick wrestlers had just clinched the Division II national championship for the third straight year. A few hours after their victory, UNO Athletics began reaching out to notify celebratory wrestling coaches of the grim news.
Public rancor ensued. Coaches and student-athletes of the winning programs were left adrift. History, however, has proven the difficult decisions were healthy for the university and its athletics department.
Alberts found a key ally in chancellor John Christensen. The man who had initially recruited Alberts promoted him to vice chancellor in 2014, thus giving athletics a seat at UNO's executive leadership table. "There needs to be absolute integration and now we have internal partnership, collaboration," says Christensen.
Five years have passed. Athletics programs are stable. Sport teams no longer operate in silos. Alberts dismantled the barriers to build a strong overall athletic department: "When I got here, it appeared we had 16 different athletic departments," he says. "There was no leadership. We hated campus. The mindset was the university leadership were out to get us, didn't support us, didn't understand us. The athletic department would blame the university; the university would blame the athletic department.
"Strategically, my job was to get on the same page as part of the university team. I asked John Christensen to define his goals. He said community engagement, academic excellence, and (being) student-centered. I had to explain to staff everything we do is going to try to help the university advance its goals and every decision we make, if it isn't student-centered and doesn't support academic excellence and community engagement, we're going to ask ourselves why are we doing that."
Since then, the athletic department has made major strides. The hockey team made the 2015 Frozen Four, men's basketball contended for the 2016 Summit title and saw a 65 percent attendance increase, and other sports have similarly fared well. With added academic support, the cumulative student-athlete grade point average of 3.4 is among the nation's highest.
Alberts says that cutting the beloved football and wrestling programs meant "a really trying time, but galvanized the department and the university." He continues,"We came together as a university. This was an institutional decision. It wasn't John and I in a corner room deciding. We had a lot of people involved."
Even with unanimous University Board of Regents approval for the athletic department shake-up, emotions ran high among constituents opposed to the cuts. Despite pleas to save wrestling and football, Alberts says, "The data was going to drive the decision-making. We weren't going to manage the outcome of a good process. We moved to Division I because the market had an expectation about what the experience would be like, and we weren't able to meet that expectation." Maintaining the programs, especially football, would have required larger expenditures at the next level and exacerbated the fiscal mess.
Everything was on the table during deliberations: "We looked at trying to stay at Division II and regaining profitability in hockey, we looked at Division III, we looked at having no athletics, and then we looked at Division I. The conclusion was Division I would bring us an opportunity to get at more self-generated revenue through NCAA distributions."
It was all about athletics better reflecting the "premiere urban metropolitan university" that Christensen says defines UNO. As the strategic repositioning set in, academics flourished, new facilities abounded, and enrollment climbed. Christensen says going to D-I was "a value-add" proposition.
"We looked at our peer doctorate-granting institutions and they were all Division I," Alberts says. "The real value an athletics department has to a campus is essentially a brand investment. You have alumni come back, you have student engagement. That's really the role you play. We are the front porch of the university."
What followed was the rebranding of UNO to associate more with Omaha and embrace what Alberts and Christensen call "the Maverick family." The rebrand is encapsulated in the construction of Baxter Arena, a D-I sporting facility adjacent to UNO's midtown campus that also provides a venue for community events.
The past five years were not without tumult. Some longtime donors withdrew financial support in response to UNO cutting wrestling and football. Businessman David Sokol reportedly cut part of his pledged donation in reaction. But donors have since returned in droves.
Van Deeb, another longtime booster and a former UNO football player, was initially an outspoken critic of UNO cutting wrestling and football. "My big disappointment was not that it did happen but the way it happened. Even being on the Maverick athletic board, we had no clue it was coming," says the Omaha-based entrepreneur.
"But that's in the past," says Deeb. "I couldn't be prouder of where UNO is headed as an athletic department and as a university. I'm 100 percent behind the progressive leadership of Trev Alberts and John Christensen. They're all about the student-athlete and the future."
Alberts realizes that some hard feelings linger. "We have people who I don't think will ever be a part of what we're doing, and I understand that," he says.
Regardless, there was enough community buy-in that private donations reached new heights ($45 million) and helped build the showplace Baxter Arena. Alberts cites the construction of Baxter Arena as a tangible result of the move to Division I.
Deeb says Baxter Arena has propelled UNO to another level. "When you're around campus or at a UNO event there's a level of excitement I can't describe," he says. "It's a great time to be a Maverick supporter."
The arena has proven a popular gathering spot for greater Omaha. This past spring, some 100,000 people attended high school graduations there, a realization of the chancellor and Alberts' desire for greater community engagement.
Although few of UNO's current students remember what campus was like before the rebrand, that doesn't mean that Alberts or his team have forgotten. They still recognize the historic importance that the canceled sports provided to the university.
In fact, Alberts joined Van Deeb and several other community leaders on a steering committee seeking to honor one of UNO football's greatest athletes, Marlin Briscoe. "An Evening with The Magician," will celebrate the school's most decorated football player, an Omaha native and civil rights trailblazer, at Baxter Arena on Thursday, Sept. 22.
As a quarterback at UNO (then called Omaha University), the Omaha South High School grad set 22 school records (including 5,114 passing yards and 53 touchdowns during his collegiate career). Briscoe became the first African-American starting quarterback in the NFL during his 1968 season with the Denver Broncos. He played for several franchises during a nine-year NFL career, spending the majority of time in the league as a wide receiver with the Buffalo Bills. He won two Super Bowls with the Miami Dolphins.
On Friday, Sept. 23, UNO will unveil a life-size statue of Briscoe on campus. Alberts says he envisions that the sculpture might be added to "a champions plaza" whenever the south athletics complex gets built-out. "This is not necessarily a UNO thing; it's an Omaha thing," Alberts says. "Marlin is a great person with a great story, and it's been an honor to get to know him."
Under Alberts' leadership, the university does not seek to diminish the importance of those former storied programs. But he has to keep an eye toward the future. "I'm absolutely bullish on where we are today and where we can go," says the optimistic Alberts. "We're only scratching the surface. We are an absolute diamond in the rough."
Visit baxterarena.com for more information.
Categories: Athletics, Business, Education, Omaha, Sports, Trev Alberts, University of Nebraska at Omaha, UNO, Writing Tags: Athletics, Business, Education, John Christensen, Omaha, Sports, Trev Alberts, University of Nebraska at Omaha, University of Nebraska at Omaha Athletics, UNO
Marlin Briscoe – An Appreciation
May 13, 2016 leoadambiga	1 comment
Some thoughts about Marlin Briscoe in the year that he is:
•being inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame
•having a life-size status of his likeness dedicated at UNO
•and seeing a feature film about himself going into production this fall
PHOTO BY KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD
For years, Marlin Briscoe never quite got his due nationally or even locally. Sure, he got props for being a brilliant improviser at Omaha U. but that was small college ball far off most people's radar. Even fewer folks saw him star before college for the Omaha South High Packers. Yes, he got mentioned as being the first black quarterback in the NFL, but it took two or three decades after he retired from the game for that distinction to sink in and to resonate with contemporary players, coaches, fans and journalists. It really wasn't until his autobiography came out that the significance of that achievement was duly noted and appreciated. Helping make the case were then-current NFL black quarterbacks, led by Warren Moon, who credited Briscoe for making their opportunity possible by breaking that barrier and overturning race bias concerning the quarterback position. Of course, the sad irony of it all is that Briscoe only got his chance to make history as a last resort by the Denver Broncos, who succumbed to public pressure after their other quarterbacks failed miserably or got injured. And then even after Briscoe proved he could play the position better than anyone else on the squad, he was never given another chance to play QB with the Broncos or any other team. He was still the victim of old attitudes and perceptions, which have not entirely gone away by the way, that blacks don't have the mental acuity to run a pro-style offensive system or that they are naturally scramblers and not pocket passers or that they are better with their feet and their athleticism than they are with their arms or their head. Briscoe heard it all, and in his case he also heard that he was too small.
After Briscoe swallowed the bitter pill that he would be denied a chance to play QB in The League after that one glorious go of it in 1968, he dedicated himself to learning an entirely new position – wide receiver – as his only way to stay in the NFL. In truth, he could have presumably made it as a defensive back and return specialist. In fact, he was primarily on the Broncos roster as a DB when he finally got the nod to start at QB after only seeing spot duty there. Briscoe threw himself into the transition to receiver with the Buffalo Bills and was good enough to become an All-Pro with them and a contributing wideout with the back to back Super Bowl winning Miami Dolphins. As unfair as it was, Briscoe didn't make a big stink about what happened to him and his QB aspirations, He didn't resist or refuse the transition to receiver. He worked at it and made it work for him and the teams he played on. The successful transition he made from signal caller to received is one of the most remarkable and overlooked feats in American sports history.
About a quarter century after Briscoe's dreams of playing QB were dashed and he reinvented himself as a receiver, another great Omaha athlete, Eric Crouch, faced a similar crossroads. The Heisman Trophy winner was an option quarterback with great athleticism and not well suited to being a pro style pocket passer. He was drafted by the NFL's St. Louis Rams as an athlete first, but ostensibly to play receiver, not quarterback. He insisted on getting a tryout at QB and failed. The Rams really wanted him to embrace being a receiver but his heart wasn't in it and he loudly complained about not being given a shot at QB. He went from franchise to franchise and from league to league chasing a dream that was not only unrealistic but a bad fit that would not, could not, did not fit his skills set at that level of competition. Unlike Briscoe, who lost the opportunity to play QB because he was black, Crouch lost the opportunity because he wasn't good enough. Briscoe handled the discrimination he faced with great integrity and maturity. Crouch responded to being told the truth with petulance and a sense of denial and entitlement. That contrast made a big impression on me. I don't know if Crouch would have made a successful transition to receiver the way Brsicoe did, but he certainly had the skils to do it, as he showed at Nebraska. I always thought NU should have kept him at wingback and Bobby Newcombe at QB, but that's for another post.
But the real point is that when the going got tough for Briscoe, he rose to the occasion. That strong character is what has allowed him to recover from a serious drug addiction and to live a sober, successful life these past two-plus decades. John Beasley is producing a feature film about Briscoe called "The Magician" and its story of personal fortitude will touch many lives.
Link to my profile of Marlin Briscoe at–
Prodigal Son, Marlin Briscoe Takes the Long Road Home (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
Link to my collection of stories on Omaha's Black Sports Legends: Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness at–
Categories: African-American, College Football Hall of Fame, Football, History, Marlin Briscoe, Nebraska Black Sports Hall of Fame, NFL (National Football League), Omaha South High School, Race, South Omaha, Sports, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Writing Tags: Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos, History, Marlin Briscoe, Miami Dolphins, NFL, NFL's First Black Quarterback, Omaha South High, Quaterbacks, Race, South Omaha, UNO
Lourdes Gouveia: Leaving a legacy but keeping a presence
December 18, 2015 leoadambiga	Leave a comment
One of the smartest and kindest people I know, Lourdes Gouveia, has stepped down from directing the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies of the Great Plains or OLLAS, a program she helped found at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. A sociologist by training and practice, she and her program have helped the university, policymakers and other stakeholders in the state better understand the dynamics of the ever growing and more fluid Latino immigrant and Latin American population. OLLAS has become a go-to resource for those wanting a handle on what's happening with that population. She is very passionate about what she's built, the strong foundation laid down for its continued success and the continuing research she's doing. Though no longer the director, she's still very much engaged in the work of OLLAS and related fields of interests. She's still very much a part of the UNO scene.
Appearing in El Perico
When sociology professor and researcher Lourdes Gouveia joined the University of Nebraska at Omaha faculty in 1989 it coincided with the giant Latino immigration wave then impacting rural and urban communities.
Little did she know then she would found the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies of the Great Plains or OLLAS in 2003. She recently stepped down as director of that prestigious center she's closely identified with.
The idea for OLLAS emerged after her field work in Lexington, Neb. documenting challenges and opportunities posed by the influx of new arrivals on communities that hadn't received immigrants in a century. She focused on the labor trend of Latinos recruited into meatpacking. While doing a post-doctorate fellowship at Michigan State University she came to see the global implications of mobile populations.
"It really did become a transformative experience," recalls the Venezuela native and University of Kansas graduate. "It gave me a whole new level of understanding of issues I had been working on. It opened opportunities I had no idea we're going to be so influential and consequential in my life. These were colleagues as motivated as I was to try to understand this tectonic and dramatic shift going on of increased immigration from Latin America accompanied with an economic recession in the United States.
"I learned a tremendous amount. It just opened a lens that gave me confidence to understand this shift in a larger context."
When Gouveia returned from her post doc she accepted an invitation to head what was just a minor in Latino Studies at UNO.
"I said yes but with a condition we explore something larger. Many of us were beginning to realize the minor was just not enough of a space to understand, to educate our students, to work with the community on issues of this magnitude."
She led a committee that conceived and launched OLLAS and along with it a major in Latin American Studies.
"OLLAS was built upon a very clear vision that Neb. and Omaha in particular was seeing profound changes in the makeup of the Latino immigrant and Latino American population. Neither the university nor the community, let alone policymakers. were sufficiently prepared to understand the significance of those changes and their long-term consequences or respond in any informed, data-driven, rationale way. That message resonated with people on the ground and at the top."
Lourdes Gouveia (far right) is the Director of OLLAS at UNO. (Photo Courtesy UNO)
Significant seed money for making OLLAS a reality came from a $1 million U.S. Department of Education grant that then-Sen. Chuck Hagel helped secure.
From the start, Gouveia says OLLAS has existed as a hybrid, interdisciplinary center that not only teaches but conducts research and generates content-rich reports.
"Community agencies, policymakers, students and others tell us they find enormous value in those research reports and fact sheets we produce. That is a mainstay of what we do. It's done with a lot of difficulty because they require enormous work, expert talent and rigor and we don't always have the resources at hand. Yet we have maintained that and hope to expand that."
She says OLLAS is unlike anything else at UNO.
"We're an academic program but we're also a community project. So we're constantly engaging, partnering, discussing, conversing with community organizations, even government representatives from Mexico and Central America, in projects we think enhance that understanding of these demographic changes. We're also looking at the social-economic conditions of the Latino population and what it has to do with U.S. immigration or U.S. involvement in Latin America."
OLLAS also plays an advocacy role.
"We use our voices in public, whether writing op-ed pieces or holding meetings and conferences with political leaders or elected officials. We use our research to make our voices heard and to inform whatever issues policymakers may be debating, such as the refugee crisis."
Gouveia says the way OLLAS is structured "allows us to be very malleable, more like a think tank." adding, "We define ourselves as perennial pioneers always trying to anticipate the questions that need answers or the interests emerging we can fulfill. It's extremely exhausting because we're constantly inventing and innovating but it's extremely rewarding. We're about to put out a report, for example, on the changes of the Latino population across the city. Why? Because we are observing Latinos are not just living in South Omaha but are spread across the city. As we detect trends like this on the ground we try to anticipate and answer questions to give people the tools to use the information in their work. That guarantees we're always going to be relevant to all these constituencies."
OLLAS faculty and staff
OLLAS has grown in facilities and staff, including a project coordinator, a community engagement coordinator and research associates, and in currency. Gouveia says, "I'm very satisfied we did it right. We thoughtfully arrived correctly at the decision we just couldn't be a regular department offering courses and graduating students but we also had to produce knowledge. Our reports are a good vehicle for putting out information in a timely manner about a very dynamic population and set of population changes."
She says OLLAS could only have happened with the help of many colleagues, including Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado and Theresa Barron-McKeagney, "who shared enthusiastically in the mission we were forging." She say OLLAS has also received broad university support and community philanthropic support.
"There was resistance, too," she adds. "It's a very creative space that breaks with all conventions. Like immigrants we create fear that somehow we're shaking the conventional wisdom. But I think our success has converted many who were initially skeptical. I think we've pioneered models that others have come to observe and learn from."
One concern she has is that as Latino students in the program have increased UNO's not kept apace its hiring of Latino faculty.
A national search is underway for her successor.
"I feel very good about stepping out at this time. It surprised a lot of people. As a founding director you cannot stay there forever. Once you have helped institutionalize the organization then it's time to bring in the next generation of leaders with fresh visions and ideas."
Besides, there's research she's dying to get to. And it's not like this professor emeritus is going away. She confirms she'll remain "involved with OLLAS, but in a different way."
Visit http://www.unomaha.edu/ollas/.
Categories: Culture, Education, Latino/Hispanic, Lourdes Gouveia, Nebraska, OLLAS (Office of Latino and Latin American Studies), Omaha, Politcal Science, Social Work, Sociology, South Omaha, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Writing Tags: Latino Studies, Latinos, Lourdes Gouveia, Nebraska, OLLAS (Office of Latino and Latin American Studies, Omaha, Political Science, Sociology, South Omaha, UNO (University of Nebraska at Omaha)
Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film
Check out my brand new Facebook page & Like it–
https://www.facebook.com/AlexanderPayneExpert/
The work-in-progress page is devoted to my acclaimed book about the Oscar-winning filmmaker and his work.
"This is without question the single best study of Alexander Payne's films, as well as the filmmaker himself and his filmmaking process. In charting the first two decades of Payne's remarkable career, Leo Adam Biga pieces together an indelible portrait of an independent American artist, and one that's conveyed largely in the filmmaker's own words. This is an invaluable contribution to film history and criticism – and a sheer pleasure to read as well." –Thomas Schatz, Film scholar and author (The Genius of the System)
The book sells for $25.95.
Available through Barnes & Noble, on Amazon, for Kindle and at other bookstores and gift shops nationwide.
Purchase it at–https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRORX1U?ref_=k4w_oembed_c1Anr6bJdAagnj&tag=kpembed-20&linkCode=kpd
You can also order signed copies by emailing the author at leo32158@cox.net.
Mini-Profile
leoadambiga
Author-journalist-blogger Leo Adam Biga resides in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. He writes newspaper-magazine stories about people, their passions, and their magnificent obsessions. He's the author of the books "Crossing Bridges: A Priest's Uplifting Life Among the Downtrodden," "Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film" (a compilation of his journalism about the acclaimed filmmaker) "Open Wide" a biography of Mark Manhart. Biga co-edited "Memories of the Jewish Midwest: Mom and Pop Grocery Stores." His popular blog, Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories at leoadambiga.com, is an online gallery of his work. The blog feeds into his Facebook page, My Inside Stories, as well as his Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Tumblr, About.Me and other social media platform pages.
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Orsi's: Historic Italian bakery-pizzeria reaches 100
OUT TO WIN – THE ROOTS OF GREATNESS: OMAHA'S BLACK SPORTS LEGENDS
John Knicely: A life in television five decades strong
Having attained personal and professional goals, Alina Lopez now wants to help other Latinas
The Storz Saga: A Family Dynasty – Their Mansion, the Brewery that Built It, the Man Who Loved It, a Legacy of Giving, the Loss of a Dream
Goodwin's Spencer Street Barber Shop: We Cut Heads and Broaden Minds, Too
A Passion for Conservation: Tara Kennedy
Daring actress Yolonda Ross takes it to the limit
Bob Gibson, the Master of the Mound remains his own man years removed from the diamond (from my Omaha Black Sports Legends series, Out to Win: The Roots of Greatness)
Wright On, Adam Wright Has it All Figured Out Both On and Off the Football Field
The fringe of it all: Omaha Fringe Festival fulfills founder Tamar Neumann's dream
Orsi's: Historic Italian bakery-pizzeria reaches 100
Jazz to the Future – The Revitalization of a Scene
On cusp of stardom, Omaha singer-songwriter Jocelyn follows to thine own self be true path
Omaha native Phil Kenny a player among Broadway co-producers and investors
Journeyman jazz artist indulges passions for music, education and all things creative
Free Gospel Concert in the Park Kicks Off North Omaha Summer Arts
Television, the Hamer Way: Father-son tandem of Dave Hamer and Roger Hamer own combined 76 years in the TV news industry
Metro class series features guest filmmakers and their films
Abstract Mindz: Group gives artists a voice and showcase
Maya community asserts indigenous self-identity and roots itself in relationships
Filmmakers and Their Films
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