Written by In Nebraska, where I grew up, everyone knows about the 1972 Nebraska-Oklahoma game. It is known as the “Game of the Century.” Lyle Bremser’s call of the classic Johnny Rodgers punt return is legendary. Still today, it is considered the best game in the history of college football. Unfortunately, it was just a little bit before my time.
My name is Greg Steiner, and this is my first column on Culture in Sports. I have been an avid sports fan for nearly all of my life. Growing up, I wanted to be a newspaper sportswriter. I wrote a sports column for three years in my high school newspaper but gave up my dream to pursue a “real job” when I went to college. I have been a student of teamwork and culture during my career. I have built teams, managed complex projects, and mentored others in their careers. Recently, I have started a second career as an executive coach. I am grateful to Jeremy for the opportunity to write again after a 36-year absence. I will write from the perspective of being a fan, a team builder, and a coach here every week.
Sports and culture intersect tremendously, and stories at this intersection provide relevant examples for sports fans and others. Sports connects people. We all can relate to these examples. Those t-shirts that say “(your favorite sport) is Life” are correct. However, a sport is much less complicated than real life. There are a set number of players. You have a set number of games in a season. Once the season is over, you move on to the next season. We can apply lessons we learn watching sports to our lives.
My “game of the century” was the 1978 Nebraska-Oklahoma game. By then, I started to come into my own as a sports fan, and this game was awesome. Nebraska and Oklahoma were Big 8 rivals. Both were consistently in the top ten in those years. On top of that, it was a clash of two strong but different cultures. Both coaches were exceptional leaders, one a charismatic persuader with a dynamic personality and the other a stoic and calm man of character. The latter, Tom Osborne, directed Nebraska to a colossal upset that day. He and Barry Switzer went on to have many massive battles over the next decade, and I watched them all. Barry usually won them, but not on that day. Otherwise, that Sooner team likely would have gone down in history as the best of all time. Thomas Lott led the wishbone with Billy Sims, David Overstreet, and Kenny King behind him. They fumbled nine times and lost six of them, and Nebraska won 17-14. Switzer remembers.
Looking back, I can draw a direct line from the core values of personal growth, transparency, and character that I have lived by and the culture that Tom Osborne built and nurtured while he was at Nebraska. I did my best throughout my career to follow Tom’s lead by developing younger team members, remaining calm through chaos, and having a clear set of values. I had other influences, but I built a strong connection with those Osborne-led teams. Even today, you see how teams, coaches, or star players who exhibit strong cultures have a significant role as an “influencer” to young fans. Weak cultures miss out on this opportunity. And, unfortunately, toxic cultures can have the opposite impact.
There are several components of a great culture. Great cultures are a set of shared values. Their leaders make these values crystal clear to those that follow them and have the courage to nurture and enforce them. They understand that everyone brings their core values to the team, but they do the hard work of meeting each individual where they are and align their values with those of the culture. Expectations are set and understood when representing the team.
Great cultures are inclusive rather than exclusive. They can accommodate anyone willing to put the team ahead of themselves. Both Barry and Tom understood that their players had developed their characters before they came there. They were leading teams from small states and didn’t have the luxury of only taking players who were 100% fits coming in. They built cultures that were open to all but unified around defined roles and shared goals. They both loved people and were willing to do the hard work to get to know their players and include them into their team culture.
Great cultures represent the tribe they support. Tom Osborne was from Nebraska and knew full well what the people of Nebraska expected from their team. Barry Switzer was from nearby Arkansas, but he understood the people of Oklahoma. They were leaders of their tribe. Multiply this by 100 if you want to understand English soccer. Businesses with great cultures know their customers and align their values with their expectations.
Great cultures are neither good nor bad. Everyone has unique values, and nearly all of them are good. Just because your competitor may have different values doesn’t mean they are bad people. They just have had a different life experience. Leaders of great cultures understand this and respect each other. They understood that we all have far more in common than we have differences. Great leaders think “win-win.” It took me years to mature enough to understand this and respect my hated rivals, even Barry Switzer. He and Osborne remain good friends.
Teams with strong cultures endure. Those without them do not. They have no identity to fall back on when challenged. I live near Houston now, and all three of our teams are enduring these types of identity crises caused by not doing the work to have a great culture in place. You can “fake it till you make it” for a while, but sooner or later, it comes up and bites you.
Fate was not kind to my beloved 1978 Cornhuskers. For some reason, the OU game wasn’t the last game of the season that year. They had to play Missouri the next week, who had Kellen Winslow and James Wilder on their team. Nebraska had to scramble to install new goalposts on their field after fans tore both down after the big win. Missouri won 35-31, and then Nebraska had to face OU once again in a rematch in the Orange Bowl. They lost, and Alabama ended up #1 that season.
It took another 16 years for Osborne to win his first national championship. He became a legend long before he was a champion due to his positive influence on many people like me. However, had he not won my game of the century, he may not have survived past the 1978 season. I am forever thankful for those fumbles.