Kelli Benson Jeffries – Grand Island
Athlete. Class of 1980. Kelli (Benson) Jeffries was not a stranger to the state tournaments, or state championships. She was the Class A high jump champion and an all-state volleyball player who helped her Grand Island team to a state runner-up finish her junior year. In basketball, she started every game on Grand Island’s state […]
Bob Boozer – Omaha Tech
Athlete. Today in western Omaha is situated an interesting junction of history. The main line of the Union Pacific Railroad’s push west across America intersected Pacific Street. Years later another street crossed Pacific, Bob Boozer Drive, appropriately bearing the name of one of the finest basketball players in our nation’s history. Graduating from Omaha Technical […]
Merle Bauer – Holdrege & North Platte
Coach. Before graduating from Shubert High School in 1943, Merle earned All State honors in basketball and football in both junior and senior years. He took his bachelors degree at Peru State where he was a four letterman in basketball, receiving All Conference recognition three years and selected N.A.I.A. Division II All American. Merle’s first […]
Dan Brand – Bellevue
Athlete. Dan Brand’s path to the 1964 Olympic bronze medal in wrestling followed a round-about path. At Bellevue High School, he participated in football, basketball and track, achieving modest success. At the University of Nebraska, the 6-foot, 5-inch Brand played on the freshman basketball team but was cut from the varsity as a sophomore. He […]
Wayne Binfield – Scottsbluff
Coach–Like the trace of the old Oregon Trail, the impact of this champion coach is still felt across Western Nebraska. For four decades of the twentieth century, his high school athletes left a lasting place in the record books. During the fall of the great crash of 1929, this then young coach inspired his Crawford […]
Harold ‘Hilly’ Beck – Minden
Athlete A three sport athlete at Minden High School, “Hilly” really excelled in football and basketball. In his senior year the Whippets had an undefeated football season and team captain “Hilly” was selected as All State Honorable Mention as a running back. Basketball was probably his big sport, he was picked on the Class B […]
Randy Butts – Grand Island
Class of 1969 Athlete Randy Butts reigned as Nebraska’s premier high school hurdler at the end of the 1960s. The Lincoln Journal-Star’s Athlete of the Year, Butts earned all-state honors in football where, as a running back, he helped the Islanders to a 6-3 record his senior year and a Top Ten ranking. His efforts […]
Ralph Beechner – Lincoln High
Coach. One of a handful of great high school football coaches for Lincoln High School over the years, his success began as a student Red and Black-clad Link himself, lettering in both basketball and football days. During the early 1930s he was both a basketball and football coach for Jackson High School in Lincoln, then […]
Richard Beran – Omaha South
Coach. As Omaha South’s gymnastics coach from 1967 to 1988, Rich Beran coached Olympians Jim Hartung and Phil Cahoy (Hall of Fame inductees, too) among his 64 individual state champions. His boys teams won seven state titles and 12 Metro Conference titles and had a 158-27 dual meet record. His girls teams won two state […]
Joe Blahak – Columbus Scotus Central
Class of 1969 Athlete A defensive stalwart on the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ Team of the Century, Blahak made his mark on the high school scene competing in football, basketball and track. A Class B all-state football player in 1968, he led Scotus in rushing, scoring and interceptions as the Shamrocks claimed a state title. He […]
