In mid-May, Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen couldn’t help but smile.
He had just traveled to Texas for Tony Davis’ enshrinement into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame. The Nebraska softball team was playing in a Super Regional for the first time in over a decade. The Nebraska baseball team was on its way to its second straight Big Ten Tournament title. The men’s and women’s track teams were fresh off top-5 finishes at Big Tens with five conference champions.
“It’s not like this every place,” Dannen said in a wide-ranging two-hour interview while in Knoxville, Tennessee.