Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne is retiring as of January 1st.

      The 75-year-old Osborne announced his decision Wednesday at a news conference. He says "the perception" that you're getting old "can get in the way." Osborne says he doesn't want to be a distraction.

      Osborne was one of the most successful football coaches in history. Every one of his 25 teams won at least nine games, and three of his last four teams won national championships. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998, the year after he retired.
    
      The 75-year-old Osborne is a national icon in college athletics for the run of success his Cornhuskers teams enjoyed from 1973-1997. After serving in Congress and losing a gubernatorial bid, he returned to the university in 2007 to take over the athletic department and oversee the rebuilding of the football program and shepherd the school's move from the Big 12 to the Big Ten.

     Under Osborne's watch, the athletic department has built a new basketball practice facility and entered into a public-private partnership to build a 16,000-seat basketball arena in downtown Lincoln that will open for the 2013-14 season. He also oversaw an expansion project that will increase Memorial Stadium's capacity to more than 90,000 next year.

    Perlman had asked Osborne to take over the athletic department at a time of turmoil. The football program was struggling under Bill Callahan, and staff morale was low under athletic director Steve Pederson.

      Osborne fired Callahan after the 2007 season and hired Bo Pelini, who made the Huskers competitive again and led them to the Big 12 championship game in 2009 and 2010.

      Among Osborne's other key personnel moves: hiring Tim Miles from Colorado State last March to coach the men's basketball program and hiring former major-leaguer Darin Erstad in 2010 to coach baseball at his alma mater.

     Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman thanked Osborne for more than 40 years of service to the University of Nebraska.  Perlman said he has already hired a consulting firm to help find a new Athletic Director.  Perlman said it will not be an open search for a replacement.