Rose Steps Down From Play-By-Play Job

Nebraska football play-by-play radio announcer and KFAB morning show personality Jim Rose is stepping down from the microphone as the "Voice of the Huskers."

Rose made the announcement on KFAB Tuesday morning at 7:15.

"My decision is to give up the games. I just can't do this anymore," he said. "It's not that I don't love it. I just can't make the sacrifice anymore. It's not fair to me. It's not fair to my family. It's not fair to my friends."

Rose said his absence from the radio booth during Saturday's 76-39 drubbing of the Huskers by Kansas was the result of "some serious soul-searching" over the past couple of weeks.

"I began to have some health problems. Just some fatigue and disorientation," Rose said. "I think it comes from having a lot of demands. It's been that way for six years - long days."

Rose said he was overworked, having focused much of his attention on preparing for the football game, while ignoring his friends and family.

"It just got to the point several weeks ago where I began to get concerned," he said. "I was just going from one place to the next and didn't know where I was even going.

"I began to think long and hard what was going on in my life. It became pretty clear to me that I had become more of a thing than a person. (Being) the voice of the huskers is thrilling and exciting ... the people you meet and places you see. But I had forgotten who I was. I had totally lost touch with really important things in my life. I didn't know who my kids were. I hadn't talked to my wife, my mother or done anything (other than the broadcasts) that I had enjoyed the past six years."

Rose said he approached management at KFAB and Host Communications, the rights holder for Nebraska sports broadcasts, with his concerns last Thursday.

"I told them I wasn't ready to do the broadcast," Rose said. "I simply could not go on the air if I wasn't ready. It would have been a disservice to the listeners."

Rose said he firmly believes that this is a good decision for him and his family. He has been a radio broadcaster for 25 years. He said it had nothing to do with the Huskers' poor performance this season.

"It's nothing more than that. It's all about the people who are important to me," he said.

KFAB Program Director Gary Sadlemyer, who has also previously been part of Nebraska football broadcasts, said the play-by-play job had been a "labor of love" for Rose.

"He grew up in Lincoln and this was really a dream come true for him," Sadlemyer said.

Rose agreed.

"These six years have been the most rewarding six years of my life. I just loved doing it."

Prior to his announcement, Rose kidded with Sadlemyer about the rumors that filled Internet discussion boards after his absence from last Saturday's game.

The two best ones, Rose said, were (fellow KFAB personality) Tom Becka's assertion that Rose was clairvoyant and knew the Huskers would come up way short against the Jayhawks ... and another that Rose was attending the birth of his first grandchild.