The 14th Annual Johnny Rodgers Jet Awards Gala was held at Omaha’s Baxter Arena on April 10. It was another sellout, with over 700 people in attendance. This year’s winner was Iowa’s Kaden Wetjen, and the Legacy Award winner was Erroll Tucker, a 1985 first-team All-American at the University of Utah.
Britt Prince of Elkhorn North High School in Omaha won the Jordan Larson Girls Player of the Year Award. She has won the Gatorade and MaxPreps Nebraska Player of the Year awards in consecutive years.
She is continuing her career with the Nebraska women’s basketball team. All of the winners attended with their families, as did several other legacy winners and former players. Mike’l Severe served as the master of ceremonies.
Donna and I have attended 12 of the 14 since its inception, and I look forward to it each year. It is always a pleasure to see and interact with these talented athletes who date back to my college days in the 1970s. Names include Greg Pruitt, Rick Upchurch, Mike Garrett, Rich Glover, Houston Alexander, Damon Benning, Mike Rozier, Eric Crouch, and, of course, Johnny. This year was extra special because Donna and I celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary.
Todd Blackledge, a former Penn State quarterback, NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers, and longtime college football announcer, delivered the keynote address.
He won over the Nebraska fan base by publicly admitting what everyone already knew: Mike McCloskey was out of bounds in that 1982 game. Todd and I met before at a National Football Foundation event in New York City, and he is very personable and has a lot of respect for Nebraska and its fans.
Kaden has another year of eligibility at Iowa and aspires to play in the NFL. In 2024, he led the nation in total kick return yards (1,055), kickoff return yards (727), and punt return yards (328). He concluded his speech with “Go Hawks” and was mocked by emcee Mike’l Severe.
Erroll Tucker, the Legacy Award winner, spoke about the importance of sports in students’ lives and has 35 years of coaching experience.
While at Utah, he led the NCAA in punt returns in 1985 with a 24.3-yard average and scored seven touchdowns – two punts, two kickoffs, and three interceptions – earning first-team All-America recognition. He played for several NFL teams before retiring in 1992, when he helped the Calgary Stampede win the Grey Cup.
A highlight of the evening was the real-time painting of “I-Back High” of Omaha athletes who played that position at Nebraska, with a special emphasis on Calvin Jones, who died in January.
Local artist Ashley Spitsnogle created the painting while the event was taking place, and it was auctioned off at the end, with the proceeds going toward the purchase of a gravestone for Calvin. This is a time-lapse video.
The real winners of this event are the students who have received scholarships to Metropolitan Community College in Omaha as a result of the proceeds generated since the Jet Award Foundation was founded in 2016.
Currently, 125 scholarship recipients are enrolled in the fall and winter quarters of 2024-25. You can learn more about the people who make this event possible at this link, including co-founders Coach William Reed and Denny Drake. Special thanks to Marlon Wright of MAW Photography for providing several of the images.
I look forward to the 15th Annual next year.