Read from the new introduction to More Than Winning by Tom Osborne with John E. Roberts:

"Following the 1983 football season I was approached by a publisher to write a book. I was asked to write about my life experiences, starting with my formative years on through coaching the Nebraska Cornhusker football team. Special emphasis was placed on my years as head coach at the university from 1973-83. Jack Roberts, who at that time was working with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Kansas City, Missouri, agreed to help write the book. Jack and I had a series of interviews, and he drafted much of the book; however, I ended up writing a good deal of it myself.

More Than Winning chronicles my years growing up in Hastings and St. Paul, Nebraska, and some of my experiences during World War II, when my father was fighting in Europe for four years. After WWII and my father's return, my interest in athletics was kindled. I played every sport that was in season–football, basketball, track, and baseball. From ages ten through twenty-five athletics occupied most of my time and energy.

I was fortunate enough to arrive on the University of Nebraska campus in January of 1962 at the same time that Bob Devaney was hired to coach the school's football team after a successful stint as the University of Wyoming coach. After three years in the National Football League and a serious hamstring injury, I had enrolled at the University of Nebraska to do graduate work in educational psychology. There was no desire to become a football coach, yet athletics still had a hold on me. I secured a graduate assistant position with the football team, and this proved to be fortuitous.

I was able to observe a dramatic turnaround in the University of Nebraska football program. The years from 1941 to 1961 had not been kind to Nebraska football. During that period, the school had no football championships of any kind and went to only one bowl game–and that was because the University of Oklahoma had not been eligible to go to the Orange Bowl that year and Nebraska went as a runner-up. Bob turned the program around instantly, going 9-2 and winning the Gotham Bowl in his first year. That turnaround was followed by four consecutive conference championships and trips to the Orange, Sugar, and Cotton bowls. I was able to observe and reflect on some of the unique qualities that Bob Devaney and his staff brought to the University of Nebraska, qualities that seemed to make such an impact in a very short period of time. Had Bob and his staff not come to Nebraska, and had they not been successful, I am sure that my life, my story as a coach, would have been dramatically different."