43. Steve Hokuf
Football, Track & Field, Basketball / Crete / 1910-2000
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Crete High, Nebraska Cornhuskers and Boston Redskins
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Probably another Nebraska Top 100 selection, George Sauer. They were NU football teammates in 1931 and 1932.
Best moment as an athlete: Could have been his final football game as a Husker, when he caught two touchdown passes and on another reception lateraled to Bernie Masterson for the other touchdown in a 21-14 win over Southern Methodist.
Was Steve Hokuf "the greatest all-around Cornhusker of them all,'' as was the view of longtime World-Herald sports editor Frederick Ware? It's hard to dispute the claim.
His resume: Twice All-Nebraska in football and basketball and state pentathlon champion at Crete High. Three-time allconference in football at Nebraska. Two-time All-Big Six in basketball for the Huskers. The 1933 Big Six javelin champion while scoring in three events. Played three years in the NFL with the Boston Redskins.
It was football, though, where his versatility stood out. Among the feats by the 6-0, 190-pounder: catching a touchdown pass in his first varsity game with NU, a 7-7 tie with Missouri; faking a punt and throwing a touchdown pass to Bernie Masterson against Iowa in 1932; punting 13 times for a 44-yard average against Kansas State; leading the Husker defense in a pair of ties against nemesis Pittsburgh; kicking a field goal and throwing a touchdown pass for all of Boston's points in a 9-0 win over the Chicago Cardinals.
Hokuf was a "Peck's Bad Boy,'' former Husker Bob Mehring once said, "with so much natural ability that he knew only one way to play the game; that was to abruptly destroy everyone in his way.''
A good student, Hokuf sat out the 1931-32 school year after he was caught with home brew in a Prohibition-era raid.
He coached college football at Lafayette in the 1950s and built the athletic program at Baltimore City Community College in the 1960s and 1970s.
-- Stu Pospisil
QUICK FACTS:
Played for: Crete High, Nebraska Cornhuskers and Boston Redskins
Best athlete from Nebraska played with or against: Probably another Nebraska Top 100 selection, George Sauer. They were NU football teammates in 1931 and 1932.
Best moment as an athlete: Could have been his final football game as a Husker, when he caught two touchdown passes and on another reception lateraled to Bernie Masterson for the other touchdown in a 21-14 win over Southern Methodist.
