Memorial Stadium opened its gates to host the inaugural Huskers Games at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The special event featured everything from women’s flag football to women’s soccer, an exhibition football match between Nebraska and Midland, and even a volleyball clash between the Huskers and Kansas. Now, which of these events did you think former volleyball head coach John Cook participated in?

Well, if you guessed the game between Nebraska and Kansas, you wouldn’t be wrong. Hail Varsity took to their X page to share that John Cook had taken up broadcast duties for the B1G network. “A little different POV for John Cook tonight! He’s on the Big Ten Network broadcast of the spring match,” read the post as the accompanying video showed the legendary coach with a mic and an earpiece instead of a clipboard. In fact, he even got a chance to catch up with former pupil Andi Jackson, who confessed that she missed him. But just because he hung around at the newly-renamed John Cook Arena for a bit, doesn’t mean that he missed out on the other attractions of the Husker Games.

That’s because the 68-year-old coach, who galloped into the first-ever John Cook Roping Classic two weeks ago in Nebraska, literally showed the ropes to former pupil Harper Murray’s boyfriend, Heinrich Haarberg, and his football teammates during the roping challenge at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Yet John Cook isn’t an easy man to impress, and the former volleyball head coach reviewed their rodeo chop like a true mentor. Hurrdat Sports’ Ana Bellinghausen was right there to catch the action at Memorial Stadium and caught up with Coach Cook afterward. The 68-year-old stuck with his sharp wit and sense of humor while summing up the Huskers’ football stars’ performance. “They need to go back and practice. They need to talk less trash and go practice more; that’s what I saw. In the cowboy world, this is what they would have told them,” John Cook joked. “He’s (Heinrich Haarberg) a great guy, and we’ve built a really good relationship over the last couple years, and so we had fun with that, but I think those guys now respect roping a little bit. It’s not as easy as it looks,” he added. It was clearly a humbling experience for Harper Murray’s Beau, and looks like he had a hunch it would turn out this way. 

That’s because Haarberg himself got a glimpse of just how serious Cook gets when he’s throwing the ropes. When Hurrdat Sports gave fans glimpses of the John Cook Team Roping event held on April 12-13, the Nebraska football star took notice. Seeing Cook ride real horses and rope real bulls impressed the college athlete so much that he commented, “Yeah, I’m cooked @harpermurrayy” while tagging his girlfriend. And after today’s humbling session, Haarberg sang his praises once again. “He’s a real deal cowboy,” the quarterback told reporters. But while the Huskers football team didn’t impress Cook much, the volleyball team sure made him proud.

John Cook’s former pupils put on a stellar show

Just a couple of months ago, imagining a Nebraska volleyball game without the four-time national title winner would have been impossible. Yet, just a little over two and a half months later, fans didn’t just imagine it; they saw the Huskers play under new head coach Dani Busboom Kelly. And the former Louisville coach made quite the debut.

Under their new head coach, the Nebraska Huskers blitzed through Kansas with a 4-0 victory. John Cook’s former team won the match 25-20, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22, winning four straight sets against Matt Ulmer’s Kansas. Coincidentally, this was also Matt Ulmer’s debut as KU head coach. It’s safe to say he wasn’t stoked to lose 4-0, despite it only being an exhibition match.

Nebraska also found success in other sporting events at the Husker Games. The Huskers kicked off their 2025 soccer season with a 3-2 win against Wyoming in an exciting clash at Hibner Field. And while the football team may not have impressed John Cook with their novice roping skills, Dylan Raiola made the highlight reel throw a football from the midfield line through a basketball hoop in front of coach Matt Rhule.

All in all, the Huskers’ Game was a success in every sense of the word. After all, Rhule was the one who argued against playing a spring football game saying he didn’t want others to get a glimpse of the talent ahead of the season. “I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world and have people watch our guys and say, ‘He looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him,'” Rhule said in March. Then again, thanks to Coach Rhule, Heinrich Haarberg & Co. got the chance to take part in John Cook’s roping contest at Memorial Stadium.