Lyle Harmon

Lyle Harmon is a native Nebraskan who has been following Cornhusker football for over fifty years. As a boy, after watching the game of the century he took a white tee shirt and using red shoe polish painted the number ‘35’ on it. He spent hours upon hours pretending to be Jeff Kinney while playing football in the front yard with the neighborhood boys. In 1972 he thought his world of Nebraska football was vanishing forever when his family moved to Lamesa, Texas, a town sixty miles south of Lubbock. However, one day as a freshman in high school he went to the cafeteria to find Coach Tom Osborne sitting with his coaches. He quickly realized that Nebraska football could be found even in the state of Texas. Lyle’s own football experience began with playing high school football in West Texas. It was there that he realized the “Friday Night Lights” reality of Texas football.

After moving from defensive tackle to center three games into his senior year, he was named All District and All South Plains Honorable Mention in 1977. He received standard recruiting letters from various schools such as Texas Tech, Texas, Baylor, TCU and SMU. He was recruited by smaller schools such as New Mexico, West Texas State, Abilene Christian, McMurray, and several Junior Colleges. He decided to walk on at West Texas State in the fall of 1978. Despite the advice of his high school coach to play center, he attempted to play defensive tackle which would prove to be a mistake. Disappointed with his performance along with a dislike for classes, he left West Texas after the second game of the season. From there he entered the school of hard knocks. Over the last fifty years he has gone from being a diesel mechanic, an engineering shop technician, an illustrator, a draftsman, and finally a mechanical designer.

He is married to a wonderful woman, has two beautiful daughters, two super stepsons, an incredible daughter-in-law, two Husker loving sons-in-law and ten gorgeous grandchildren. He continues to work at a small manufacturing company, live and breathe Husker football, and enjoy family.

Go Big Red!