Ken Hambleton: Dishman finally finishes what he started
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Chris Dishman, a man who looks like he belongs on his 1999 Harley Davison Fat Boy, skipped graduation last weekend at Nebraska.
While his newest classmates were picking up diplomas in Lincoln, the former two-time all-conference football player was busy cleaning up the scrapes on his legs and the bends and scratches on the chrome of his bike in Sturgis, S.D.
"Getting the degree was important and something I had put off a long, long time," Dishman said. "I was happy and celebrating in Sturgis.
"Then, this guy cuts me off in the rain and I put the bike down, cut up my jeans, scraped up the bike and rode home."
After eight years in the NFL, seven with the Arizona Cardinals and last year with the St. Louis Rams, Dishman is ready for his next career.
He hadn't missed a game, and rarely a snap, since 1998, until he injured his knee toward the end of last season. Surgery and a slow recovery later, Dishman decided his playing career was finally over. "If I can't go 100 percent at that level, I'd only be asking for more injuries," he said.
So on to the next step in his life.
"I'm helping coach the offensive line at Lincoln North Star," Dishman said. He volunteered with the Navigators last year and two days before the signing deadline for the NFL, the Rams called with an offer he couldn't refuse.
"Two kids, a house and bills, you know,"said Dishman, who played guard in the NFL and guard and tackle for the Huskers in national championship seasons in 1994 and 1995. He was a second-team All-American in 1996.
He always accepted responsibilities. He put off buying a home for four years into his pro career.
"I didn't want to be like the guys who bought four cars, two houses, played some, got cut and went broke and looking for something to do after football," he said.
The all-stater from Cozad was a member of NU's 1992 recruiting class.
Tommie Frazier, Jeff Ogard, Mike Minter, Damon Benning, Clinton Childs, Jon Hesse, Ryan Terwilliger, Toby Wright and Riley Washington were also recruited that year.
While many went on to become starters for the Huskers and had pro careers, Dishman was the longtime standout.
"He had that great balance, like Will Shields (former NU All-American now in his 11th year with the Kansas City Chiefs)," former NU offensive line coach Milt Tenopir said.
"He was never on the ground. He had that big body to screen one guy and the strength to block another. He was motivated and he was a good lineman."
Tenopir remembered leaving a note for Dishman the night before Cozad played Imperial in the Class B state playoffs in 1991.
"I wrote he better give a better effort if he wanted a scholarship, and he went out and played a whale of a game and we offered based on that game," Tenopir said.
At the time he accepted his scholarship, he promised his parents he would graduate.
"I got busy with a family, actually started in college, and then the pros and I kept meaning to get my degree and finally, I got the last 12 hours, with my last class this summer," Dishman said.
"It's not easy, being 31, sitting in class with a bunch of 18-year-olds and you're a grown man (6-foot-3, 340 pounds) with a family, and classes seem so different than they did 12 years ago," he said.
Now, with a degree in sociology and a job as an assistant coach with Coach Mark Waller at North Star, Dishman is set.
"I love working with kids and I think I can teach and talk to the kids about getting a degree, not putting it off, and try to be what Keith Zimmer and Dennis Leblanc (NU academic advisors) were to me," he said.
"I know that Dennis knew my (phone) number by heart and was always talking with my mom about finishing off the degree. It means a lot and I'd recommend nobody take as long as I did. Unless you're getting a couple of advanced degrees.
"That's probably not in my future. But with people like my folks and Leblanc pushing, who knows."
Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or at khambleton@journalstar.com.
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