Nebraska announces plans to honor former coach, player Frank Solich

Nebraska is bringing Frank Solich back to Lincoln. Athletic director Trev Alberts announced plans to honor the Cornhuskers legend at the spring game April 22.

Alberts also teased another announcement regarding Solich that will take place at the game.

“We’re going to have a special guest at the spring game, and I’m really excited,” Alberts said on his radio show Wednesday night. “Frank Solich and his family are going to join us, and we’re going to have an opportunity to honor Frank and his family. I’m not going to release this now, [but] we’ll also have another special announcement at the spring game concerning Frank.”

Solich played fullback for Nebraska from 1963-65 and later came back to the program as an assistant coach under Tom Osborne in 1979. He started as coach of the freshman team until 1983 when he became the running backs coach — a position he held until 1997. Then, in 1998, he took over as Nebraska’s head coach and remained in the role until his firing in 2003.

During his time at the helm, Solich went 58-19, including a 33-15 record in Big 12 play. Nebraska played in a bowl game every year of his tenure and never finished below .500 — the closest he came was 7-7 in 2002. All told, he won two Big 12 Coach of the Year awards and led the Cornhuskers to the conference title in 1999.

Solich then went on to become the head coach at Ohio from 2005-20 and amassed a 115-82 overall record in that time. After his retirement, he became a special assistant to the athletic director at the university.

Solich’s 58 wins rank fourth in Nebraska’s all-time history behind Bo Pelini, Bob Devaney and Osborne. Now, Nebraska will honor him for his contributions to the program, and Alberts called on Huskers fans to come out to the game and join in the celebration.

“I’d just really like to encourage Husker fans to help us make it really special,” Alberts said. We’ve been working on this a while. But I think it’s time, and really looking forward to Husker Nation honoring Frank and thanking him for everything he’s done as a player, as a coach and also, honor him for what he did after he left here.

“I mean, Frank is a College Football Hall of Famer in terms of what he accomplished as a coach. An incredible person. So yes, after a lot of work, we’re going to be really excited to honor Frank Solich at the spring game.”