Nebraska coaching legend Gary Pepin announces retirement | Huskers

To coach at the college level for more than 50 years — including 42 seasons at Nebraska — you have to love it. 

But, the time to move on has come, as Pepin announced his retirement in a news release Thursday. Pepin’s 42-year tenure at Nebraska is the longest by a head coach in school history. A new coach has not been named.

Pepin had to love it to keep putting in the hours — mornings in the office, then hours each afternoon at the track, then sometimes recruiting calls in the evening. In addition to leading the program, he coached the long and triple jump events, where Husker athletes won at the NCAA Championship meet 10 times.

He isn’t fond of flying, so that meant a lot of time in a car. If the team flew to a meet, he often headed out early in a car.

And then there are all of those people to manage. The combined men’s and women’s team had about 115 athletes — a significant amount of athletes to recruit each season. And with just 18 scholarships for women and 12.6 for men, it’s a balancing act to make it work and field a solid team. There’s also a staff of about 15 people, including assistant coaches, recruiting staff and volunteer coaches.

Pepin liked having a complete track program. While some college teams build their squad around a few events — maybe the sprints or distance — Pepin loved fielding a team that had a chance to score in every running and field event.

Pepin’s tenure at Nebraska spanned five decades, with the Huskers hanging enough championship banners during that time to fill one side of the indoor track at the Devaney Sports Center. And 22 of those titles came when Nebraska was going up against the warm-weather schools in Texas.

In 2008, Pepin was inducted into the sport’s coaching Hall of Fame — and then he coached 14 more years.

“It has been an absolute honor to coach here at Nebraska,” Pepin said in a news release. “I have worked with numerous amazing coaches and world-class student-athletes. I will continue to follow and support the program and look forward to spending more time with my family in retirement. The future is bright here at Nebraska and I am confident that the program will continue to develop and find success.”

Pepin became the head coach of the Husker women in 1981, and then added the men’s program in 1984.

He was hired when Bob Devaney was about midway through his tenure as athletic director, and then Pepin worked for six more ADs.

With each of his bosses, Pepin was a fierce advocate for his program, pushing for the budget needed to hire a strong staff, recruit top athletes, have great facilities and travel to meets that would prepare the athletes for the big meets at the end of the season.

Pepin also worked hard to promote the sport. When a reporter came to his office, Pepin would bring them a cup of coffee, and then answer questions and tell stories as long as they’d like. And he could tell stories. Name a town in the Midwest, and the coach probably has a story about an athlete, coach or track official who calls that place home.

Pepin would also share his home phone number and occasionally follow up with a thank-you card. 

Pepin’s program was consistently one of the best on campus and a bright spot for the department, especially since the Huskers’ move to the Big Ten. Since Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011 Pepin’s teams have won six Big Ten team titles, including a men’s sweep of the indoor and outdoor titles in 2016.

Still, for many years Pepin and track staff worked out of something of an outpost in Husker athletics — a brick building in a parking lot outside of the basketball arena. (They’ve since moved into nicer offices at the Devaney Sports Center).

Two years ago, the outdoor track got ripped up to make room for a new football facility on campus. A new track has been built, but Nebraska wasn’t able to host an outdoor meet the past two seasons.

The numbers on Pepin’s career coaching Nebraska are attention-grabbing:

* Pepin had three women’s national championship teams, each of them early in his career (1982, ’83 and ’84) when Husker legends Merlene Ottey and Rhonda Blanford were on the team. Pepin’s teams combined for 23 top-five NCAA finishes.

* His teams have won 73 conference titles (indoor and outdoor), and Pepin is the winningest all-time coach in both the Big 12 and former Big Eight. Pepin’s teams have dominated the indoor conference championships through the years, winning 24 of the last 42 women’s titles. The Husker men have won 20 of the last 37 meets, including back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016.

* He’s had 59 individual national champions (42 women, 17 men), the last one being in the men’s discus by Nick Percy in 2016. There were nearly 600 individual conference champions, including one of Pepin’s long jumpers, Darby Thomas, this season.

Any year Nebraska didn’t have a top finish at the conference meet Pepin would say this season wasn’t very successful, and the coaches needed to recruit better and the athletes needed to perform to their potential.

Nebraska AD Trev Alberts called Pepin one of the “true legends” in Nebraska athletics.

“Gary Pepin is Nebraska track and field,” Alberts said. “We wish him nothing but the best in retirement and look forward to seeing him at Husker events in the years to come.”

For much of his tenure, Pepin’s coaching staff had continuity similar to what Tom Osborne had in his football staff. Pepin assistants Billy Maxwell, Jay Dirksen, Mark Colligan, Matt Martin, David Harris and others each spent many years with him.

But about one year ago, Pepin was looking for improvement and new energy and made several staff changes. Pepin was able to hire one of the top throws coaches in the nation in Justin St. Clair, and made him associate head coach.

There was progress, especially in the throwing events, and both teams finished in the top five at the Big Ten outdoor meet. The women finished 14th at the NCAA outdoor meet for its best finish since 2006.

Pepin came to Nebraska after 10 years as a coach at Kansas, the final year as women’s head coach. He was also a high school coach in Missouri.

He and his wife Jean have three daughters and five grandchildren.