It’s that time of the year again. Yeah, yeah, time for the pool and the beach, trips to the ballpark and ice cream and all of that other summer stuff. But also time for the 2017 Hail Varsity Yearbook, our annual celebration of the football season to come, and we’re excited to unveil the cover for the upcoming issue.
Defensive lineman Mick Stoltenberg is our cover subject this year. The junior from Gretna will occupy a new and pivotal role in the middle of Nebraska’s 3-4 scheme in 2017, a transition Stoltenberg details in the issue’s cover story.
As you can gather from the cover — which features hand-drawn type from Hail Varsity design director Quentin Lueninghoener — there’s plenty more inside to sate football fans’ hunger through the summer months.
- Editor Mike Babcock tells the story of Nebraska’s “Magnificent Eight,” a tight-knit group of black athletes on Bob Devaney’s 1964 team who helped pave the way for the diverse teams of today.
- Staff writer Jacob Padilla takes you inside the cultural transformation behind the Xs-and-Os changes for Nebraska’s defense under new defensive coordinator Bob Diaco.
- Managing editor Brandon Vogel examines the historical record to find out how blue-blood programs fall on hard times, and, more importantly, how they get back to winning. In a separate feature Vogel also explains the one key stat the Huskers have to win in 2017.
- Founder and CEO Aaron Babcock and staff photographer Eric Francis give you the stories behind their best Husker photos of 2016.
And that’s just the first half of the 2017 Hail Varsity Yearbook. You will also find position-by-position breakdowns of Nebraska, detailed previews of the Big Ten schools and the Huskers’ nonconference opponents, an interview with Nebraska’s last great transfer quarterback and a can’t-miss column from Mike Babcock that was 40 years in the making.
All in all, it’s nearly 200 pages of football right when you need it most. The 2017 Hail Varsity Yearbook ships June 20 and is great by the pool or at the beach, during the seventh-inning stretch or while eating ice cream. (To be fair, everything is great while eating ice cream, but we still stand behind the magazine.)
Make sure you don’t miss out by subscribing today.
