Former University of Nebraska football player Brook Berringer died 26 years ago today in a plane crash near Raymond.
He was flying a single-engine aircraft when it crashed shortly after takeoff from a private airstrip seven miles northwest of Lincoln. Tobey Lake, 32, of Aurora, Colorado, the brother of Berringer’s girlfriend, was also killed.
Flying was a passion in the Berringer family. Uncle Willie, a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines, took Brook under his wing when Brook lost his father, Warren, at the age of 7. Cousins Todd and Brett Berringer were also pilots. Todd was the flight instructor under whom Brook obtained his pilot’s license. Brook, 22, had logged 125 hours in various cockpits in the year he held his license before the crash. Lake, who had a pilot’s license with a commercial rating, had about 210 flying hours.
Berringer and Lake had flown to the private rural airstrip on April 18, 1996 for a “fun afternoon flight,” according to Harry Barr, the plane’s owner and pilot with Duncan Aviation in Lincoln.
It was a cloudless day. Winds were gusty, reported at 20 mph to 28 mph by the National Weather Service. The plane was a 1946 Piper Cub, a two-seater plane with one seat in the front and one in the back. Barr said he used it for air shows.
“Whenever he was loose and the weather was good, he would go out and ride the Cub for a while,” Barr said.
An eyewitness said the plane had just taken off from the airstrip at around 2:30 p.m. when it stalled, turned and nosedived into a field of alfalfa. Berringer and Lake were pronounced dead at the scene.
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About 4,000 people attended the funeral four days later in Goodland, Kansas. Two caskets were set up in the high school field where Berringer played basketball as a student. On one coffin was a Nebraska football helmet, on the other a pile of red roses.
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne has praised the former Husker quarterback as a man who made a difference.
“I can honestly say that no one I coached had a better character than Brook Berringer,” Osborne said at the double funerals held in Berringer’s hometown of Goodland, Kansas.
Berringer, who had come to Nebraska after playing high school football at Goodland, helped lead the Huskers to two national football championships. He was the second-string quarterback who led Nebraska to eight straight wins in 1994 while first-stringer Tommie Frazier underwent treatment for blood clots.
Berringer graduated in December 1995 with a degree in business administration. He was expected to be selected in the NFL Draft, which was held the weekend after the crash.
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Photos: Remembering Brook Berringer
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Brook Berringer’s helmet on his casket at his funeral.
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Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost, center, at the funeral of teammate Brook Berringer in Goodland, Kansas. Pictured next to Frost on the left is Matt Turman. Frost said Berringer’s death had a lot to do with his recommitment to his faith.
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Quarterback Brook Berringer after Nebraska’s 24-17 win over Miami in the 1995 Orange Bowl. Husker’s athletic staff Bryan Bailey is with him.
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In this 2006 photo, Jan Berringer straightens a Nebraska Cornhusker flag that was left at the grave of his son, former Nebraska quarterback Brook Berringer, in Goodland, Kansas. Berringer doesn’t know who is leaving the flag but says there’s still one there. Berringer was killed in a plane crash northwest of Lincoln on April 18, 1996.
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Brook Berringer is buried next to his father, Warren Berringer, in Goodland Cemetery, Kansas.
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Nebraska’s Brook Berringer seeks daylight during the Huskers’ 32-3 victory over Oklahoma State on October 8, 1994.
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Former Nebraska football coach Ron Brown speaks during the tribute to Brook Berringer April 10, 2006 in Lincoln.
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Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne with Jan Berringer April 10, 2006 in Lincoln. The couple were together for a Brook Berringer celebration.
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Brook Berringer, left, and Tommie Frazier with the Huskers National Championship trophy.
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At his funeral in 1996, Berringer was hailed as a man who made more of a living in his 22 years than many people in their lifetime.
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In this 2010 photo, NU athletic director Tom Osborne and Jan Berringer hug before a Nebraska football game. Berringer, the mother of former quarterback Brook Berringer, was at the game to give Jared Crick a scholarship.
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PHOTO 2013: Nebraska’s Imani Cross accepts the Brook Berringer Scholarship from Brook’s mother, Jan Berringer, before the game as Nebraska hosted UCLA at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb.
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Brook Berringer replaced a hobbled Tommie Frazier, leading No. 2 Nebraska to a 50-10 victory over Michigan State in 1995.
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Nebraska quarterback Brook Berringer carries the ball against Oklahoma.
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Brook in the ill-fated 1946 J-3 Piper Cub plane.
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Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office investigators examine the wreckage of Brook Berringer’s Piper Cub after the April 18, 1996 crash near Raymond, Nebraska that killed Berringer.
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Jan Berringer shows off the jersey his son Brook wore for Nebraska in the 1994 Orange Bowl. Brook Berringer led Nebraska to an undefeated season in 1994 after starting quarterback Tommie Frazier was injured.