The Nebraska Cornhuskers men's gymnastics team competes as part of

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

, representing the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. NU is one of just twelve Division I universities that sponsors a men's gymnastics program. Nebraska has hosted meets at the

Bob Devaney Sports Center The Bob Devaney Sports Center (commonly referred to as the Devaney Center) is a sports complex on the campus of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska. The facility, opened in 1976 as the NU Sports Complex, was named for footb ...

since 1976. Since being established in 1939, the program has won eight national championships, finished as the national runner-up seven times, and won forty-two NCAA event titles. The bulk of this success came under longtime head coach Francis Allen, a former All-American who led the program for forty seasons. Twelve Cornhuskers have participated in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

and combined to win four gold medals. The team has been coached by Chuck Chmelka since 2010.

Conference affiliations

Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MVIAA) was a college athletic conference and the second college conference formed upon its foundation on January 12, 1907.David A. Campaigne and John R. Thelin, "Big Twelve Conference", ...

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored American football, football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate ...

(1939–1994) *

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...

(1995–2011) *

(2012–present)

Coaches

Coaching history

Coaching staff

Venues

Nebraska played its early years at the NU Coliseum before moving to the NU Sports Complex (now the Bob Devaney Sports Center) upon its completion in 1976. When Nebraska's basketball programs moved to the newly constructed West Haymarket Arena (known as Pinnacle Bank Arena for sponsorship purposes) in 2013, the Devaney Center underwent a $20-million remodel to reconfigure and shrink its main arena. Nebraska opened the Francis Allen Training Complex in 2020 to house its men's and women's gymnastics programs; at 46,000 square feet it is among the largest gymnastics practice facilities in the country.

Championships and awards

National championships

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1994

Team conference championships

* Big Eight: 1964, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994 *

: 1997, 1999

Individual awards

* NCAA Top Ten Award: Tom Schlesinger (1989), Patrick Kirksey (1991), Anton Stephenson (2020) *National coach of the year: Francis Allen (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1994) *Conference gymnast of the year: Marshall Nelson (1998), Jason Hardabura (1999), Derek Leiter (2000), Grant Clinton (2002), Anton Stephenson (2019), Taylor Christopulos (2023, 2025) *Conference freshman of the year: Taylor Christopulos (2021), Chris Hiser (2022) *Conference coach of the year: Francis Allen (1999)

NCAA champions

* Phil Cahoy – 1980 , 1981 *Steve Elliott – 1980 , 1982 *

Jim Hartung James Hartung (born June 7, 1960) is a retired American gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. Early life and education Hartung was born in Omaha, ...

– 1980 , 1981 , 1982 *Scott Johnson – 1983 *Chris Riegel – 1983 , 1984 * Wes Suter – 1985 * Tom Schlesinger – 1987 *Kevin Davis – 1987 , 1988 *Patrick Kirksey – 1989 , 1990 *Che Bowers – 1992 *Richard Grace – 1993 , 1994 *Dennis Harrison – 1994 *Rick Kieffer – 1995 *Richard Grace – 1995 *Marshall Nelson – 1997 , 1998 *Jason Hardabura – 1999

First-team NCAA All-Americans

Seasons

Olympians

Ten Nebraska gymnasts and two coaches have combined to compete in sixteen Summer Olympiads, with nine representing the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and one representing

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Francis Allen, Phil Cahoy, Larry Gerard, and

were a part of the U. S.-led boycott of the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and did not participate in any events. Four years later, Hartung and two other NU gymnasts, Jim Mikus and Scott Johnson, won the team all-around gold medal in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Trent Dimas Trent Dimas (born November 10, 1970; Albuquerque, N.M.) is a Hispanic American gymnast and Olympic champion. Now retired, Dimas was an elite senior-level international artistic gymnast. Early life and education Dimas became a member of the U.S. ...

won Nebraska's only individual gymnastics gold medal on the

horizontal bar The horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal (typically steel) bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a syst ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

; it was the second American gymnastics gold medal in an Olympiad held outside the United States.

Notes

References

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