Capturing The Moment: Tom Osborne's Tunnel Walk

Gwyneth Roberts' photo for the Lincoln Journal Star.

Omaha World-Herald sports columnist Tom Shatel might have written the column that memorialized the moment retiring Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne ran onto the field with the Husker football team, but Lincoln Journal Star photographer Gwyneth Roberts shot the photo that captured it best.

Roberts said she didn't actually select the photo herself from the more than 500 images she shot at Saturday's Nebraska-Minnesota game. That job was left to her boss, Journal Star Photo Editor Ted Kirk. He collected the memory card from her moments after she shot the photo from a standing position near the Husker band, just about 15 yards from where Osborne, head coach Bo Pelini and the team made their entrance.

Roberts was one of four still photographers Kirk had positioned around the stadium to capture the moment. One of them was even in the stands directly above the tunnel to get a bird's eye view of the moment that seems to have been more talked about than the game itself (which Nebraska won, 38-14).

"My personal strategy was to pick a position directly down from the tunnel and just hope nobody walked in front of him (Osborne)," Roberts said. "There were good odds, with everybody there, that someone was going to walk in front and block the whole thing."

Dave Weaver shot a similar photo for The Associated Press.

But standing over Associated Press photographer Dave Weaver – who was laying on his stomach to get a similar shot (shown at right) – and next to a Husker marching band member, Roberts got what she was looking for using a 300-millimeter telephoto lens.

"I wasn't sure what I had when I first took it, but I felt like I had good frames – very solid, tight compositions," she said. "I knew I had certainly taken enough frames to capture the moment."

Though not a native Nebraskan, Roberts was familiar with the Huskers before coming to work at the Journal Star six years ago. She grew up in northern Kansas, just south of Holdrege, and was a sophomore in high school when Osborne retired after the 1997 season.

Roberts says her photo reveals a bit of a role reversal for the man who led the team onto the field more than 300 times during his 25 years as the Huskers' head coach.

"I liked the moment when the players patted him on the back. He was almost kind of hesitant for a moment. But the players made him feel like he was welcome there."

Related links:
Purchase the photo from the Lincoln Journal Star.
View the Omaha World-Herald's online gallery.
View photos from Hail Varsity's online gallery.
Comprehensive game recap page from HuskerMax.