Cobber Athletics Says Goodbye To A Legend

Article reprinted courtesy of Fargo Forum and reporter Eric Peterson.

MOORHEAD — Bob Nick was a longtime prominent figure for the Concordia Cobbers, the starting quarterback on the college's 1964 national championship football team who was later inducted into the college's athletic Hall of Fame.

Bucky Burgau, another Concordia great, remembers Nick for more than those accolades. Nick was a good friend.

"If he found a $50 bill on the sidewalk, he'd give you half of it," Burgau said. "If you lost your 25, he'd give you half of his 25. He always put everybody in front of himself."

Nick died Monday, Dec. 4, from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was 80 years old.

"An absolute legend," said Cobbers head football coach Terry Horan. "He made a difference for me. I owe him a lot."

Burgau, the head baseball coach at Concordia for 36 years who started at the school in 1977, knew Nick since the mid-1970s and both were colleagues for decades at Concordia.

Nick was part of the Cobbers athletic department as a player, coach and athletic administrator. He was a faculty member at Concordia for more than 40 years and helped coach football, tennis and basketball.

"He was a good friend," said Burgau. "He always had your back."

Horan said he knew Nick for nearly 40 years. Nick was Horan's position coach when Horan was a receiver for the Cobbers in the 1980s. When Horan got the football job at Concordia in 2001, Nick was on his coaching staff as the offensive coordinator.

"I'm not where I'm at today without him," Horan said.

Nick, a 1965 Concordia graduate, was inducted into the school's athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. He also played basketball and baseball for the Cobbers. Nick is also a member of the Hall of Fame at Princeton (Minn.) High School.

In recent years, Nick dealt with Alzheimer's . That hit home with Horan, whose mother Marcia Horan also had the disease. Marcia died in 2014 at 74 years old.

"It was so sad to see him go down this road and it was a road that my mom went down, too," Horan said. "It's an awful disease. … He was amazing to me and he'll be dearly missed."

Horan relished his relationship with Nick. Horan remembers telling Nick he was going to be a Concordia coach one day after Horan finished his football playing career with Cobbers in the fall of 1988.

"You know what coach Nick, I'm going to come back and get your job someday," Horan said, recalling the exchange. "He said, 'Ah, come and get it, kid.' He always called me kid. Even when I was head coach."

Horan remembers Nick repeating that story during media interviews after Horan was named the football program's head coach ahead of the 2001 season. 

"He did say he was going to come back and get my job when he was leaving here," Horan said, paraphrasing Nick's words. "Now he's my boss and I don't know how to take that. And he started laughing."

Nick was also a longtime high school official for basketball and football. Burgau said he officiated games with Nick for more than 20 years.

"When coaches saw Bobby walk on the court, they felt good," Burgau said. "They knew they were going to get a really good job."

Burgau said Nick's compassion was always evident.

"If you crossed Bobby's path in any way shape or form … and you ended up in the hospital for some reason, Bobby was one of the first ones there to visit," Burgau said.

Burgau added Nick was also there for weddings, funerals and other major life events for the many people who considered him a friend.

"We can all learn from that and I think our students learned from that," Burgau said. "I made more of a special attempt to go to weddings, funerals, whatever, because Bobby showed me the way."

Horan said he's thankful he had a chance to visit Nick on Monday to say his final goodbyes to a good friend and also be there for the Nick family, which Horan said means the world to him, including Nick's wife Connie, of 51 years, and their children Ali and Rob.

"Our Concordia family is hurting right now, but he left his mark and we know he's in a better place," Horan said. "No more pain."

A service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Dec. 16 at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Moorhead with a visitation one hour before.