Tomlinson To Be Inducted Into 8-Man Football Hall Of Fame

Written by Fred Snowardt with Larry Tomlinson –

So, the first question out of the mouths of those who are not O'Neill natives or noticeably young would be “who the heck is Larry Tomlinson?”

Other than Frank Leahy, he is probably one of the most talented sports figures to come from O'Neill and the St. Mary's Academy.  Here is just a short bio on Larry.  He was born in O'Neill, his family later moved to Boyd County but when his father died, his mother opted to move back to O'Neill.  By a quirk of fate, Larry had relatives & friends who attended St. Mary's Academy so when his mother asked him which school he wanted to attend - because he had no friends at the pub, he chose St. Mary's.  Little did the school realize what a prize they had won!

From 1955 to 1959 Larry attended high school at St. Mary's and managed to letter in football three of those years. St. Mary's defeated Lawrence High School by a whopping 55-0 score walking away with the 8-man championship.  This was during the Don Templemeyer reign at St. Mary's.

Other kudos Larry received while in high school included 1st team in the Niobrara Valley Conference in 1957 and again in 1958, followed by 1st team All Holt County, and 1st team All-State in 1958.  During his tenure at SMA, Larry participated in the very first high school Shrine Bowl game and was nominated for the athlete of the year award in 1959. In addition to his football acclaim, Larry participated in track and set school records in the mile, 120-yard-high hurdles, 180-yard low hurdles, shot put, discus and 880-yard relay. Mixed in with these accomplishments, Larry placed second in five events in the state track meet to help St. Mary's win state Class C track Championship.  He still holds today the school records for the shot put, 880 and mile relay. To finish that off, he finished 2nd in the state pentathlon meet.  Regarding his time playing basketball, Larry started all four years averaging 20 points per game his senior year.

In 2009, Larry was inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame.

The University of Nebraska recruited Larry with a full ride scholarship, and he was part of the Devaney era in which he caught the first touchdown pass which scored the first touchdown for Bob Devaney during his tenure.  Larry was also playing for UNL when the team began the consecutive sellout of the stadium for Nebraska fans which exists yet today. (Currently stands at 396).

While playing for UNL, Larry played with Frank Solich who was running as a fullback at the time.  Tom Osborne was a graduate assistant who helped coach Larry.

While at UNL, Larry lettered three years and played in the infamous Gotham Bowl which had only begun the year before and became notable for the fact that Nebraska had to wait at the airport until the bowl officials scraped up enough money to run the bowl. The bowl was organized to help fund the March of Dimes and unfortunately many investors lost money on it. Nebraska won their first bowl game there against Miami 36-34.  In addition to the Gotham Bowl, Larry played against the University of Auburn and winning the Orange Bowl.

After graduating from college, he went to Canada to play in the Canadian Football League (Montreal Alouettes) for three years and then went into teaching.  Larry has many more credits to his resume and is now living in Canada with his wife Pam.

The induction ceremony is scheduled for June 15 at the Tom Osborne Center in Hastings, NE. There is an all-star football game at six and inductees are introduced at halftime.

Because of Larry's accomplishments, young folks in O'Neill can be reminded that just because they live in a little town in the plains of Nebraska – they can still accomplish huge things at all levels up to and including the national level and beyond.

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