Special Episode | The Godfather of Strength and Conditioning Boyd Epley

You can’t talk about strength and conditioning without Coach Boyd Epley. Regarded as the “Godfather of Strength and Conditioning,” Epley laid the groundwork for the profession and later founded the NSCA in 1978. His 10 Husker Power Principles, developed at the University of Nebraska, remain a cornerstone in programming and formed the basis of sport-specific training. Emphasizing strength and power, Epley implemented testing and debunked the prevailing belief that weightlifting hindered speed. He recounts his journey with co-hosts Eric McMahon and Jon Jost, chronicling how a pole vault injury and exposure to bodybuilding led him to become the first collegiate strength and conditioning coach. What began with cement bars and paint cans evolved into a fully equipped weight room and impressive lifelong career. Additionally, Epley’s open-door policy — even with his fiercest competitors — helped drive the profession forward. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in strength and conditioning history.

Explore the University of Nebraska’s Husker Power Principles discussed in this episode.

Reach out to Coach Epley by email at boydepley@mac.com. Get in touch with Jon Jost at jonathan.jost@pepsico.com. Find Eric on Instagram @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn @ericmcmahoncscs.

This special episode is brought to you in part by Gatorade Performance Partner. Learn more and join their community at GatoradePerformancePartner.com.

Want to get involved as an NSCA Volunteer? Discover opportunities to lead and share your expertise at NSCA.com/Volunteer. Applications for many positions open in September and October!

“We always wanted to explain to the athletes what we were trying to do and make sense out of it so that they would buy in and participate at their best effort… Our 10 principles really provided a path for not only our athletes but others across the country.” 4:10

“Over the years, I really focused on strength and power, the squat and the clean. If that's all someone did, I think they'd have a pretty successful chance to gain and improve their performance. But as a result, I got stronger than Nebraska's football players.” 11:10

“I found out real quick, depending on if the coach recruited the kid, how fast they were going to run. The coach would look at it and say 4.6. So, we had to put up with that for a while. That's why I went to the electrical department at the university and asked them to help. And we created electronic timing at the University of Nebraska.” 19:35

“My biggest problem wasn't the program working or the facility, it was raising money to pay my volunteers… But we even had them sell t-shirts on game day to raise money and created a booster club called the Husker Power Club. When I left the program, we left $300,000 in the bank that was supposed to never be used except to support the strength program.” 27:50

[00:00:00.45] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:00:02.71] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, season eight, special episode.
[00:00:07.96] And I found out real quick that-- depending on if the coach recruited the kid, how fast they were going to run. [INAUDIBLE]. And the coach would look at it and say 4.6. And so we had to put up with that for a while. That's why I went to the electrical department at the university and asked them to help, and we created electronic timing at the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:35.03] This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.
[00:00:45.59] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. And I'm Eric McMahon, joined today again with co-host, Jon Jost, Gatorade's team sports manager. Every season of the NSCA Coaching Podcast, we pair up with Gatorade Performance Partner for some special episodes that highlight some of the major themes in strength and conditioning. Coach Jost, welcome back.
[00:01:07.02] Thank you very much, Eric. It's always great to be back with you. I really enjoy these podcasts. And this one is extra special for a lot of reasons. Not only do we have the godfather of strength and conditioning with us, but a mentor and an individual who has become a good friend of mine. So I'm really, really excited to have Boyd with us, and this will be fun.
[00:01:31.59] Yeah, today, NSCA founder Coach Boyd Epley with us. Boyd, thanks for coming on the podcast.
[00:01:37.41] I'm looking forward to it.
[00:01:39.03] Here, it's season eight of the podcast. We've been doing this for eight years now. And it's always great to get someone like yourself, a long coaching career, on here to share a little bit of perspective and just some of the things you're doing today.
[00:01:56.25] Wanted to start with diving into your background a little bit. 1969-- I've heard this story. You tell it so well. You were hired at University of Nebraska, first ever collegiate strength and conditioning coach.
[00:02:10.85] Now, over 50 years later, our profession is established in most colleges and universities, professional sports, in the military. And the NSCA has over 60,000 certified individuals all around the world. Seeing this today, what does this all mean to you?
[00:02:28.07] We've seen a lot of change. I remember, when I was five years old, my dad told me a neighbor down the street lifted weights. He kind of made fun of it. So we have come a long way and there are a lot of people who had part of it.
[00:02:46.84] Yeah, it's been a journey. I think every one of us knows how challenging this field can be. And I feel like we've been fighting for this profession for a long time. And want to get into that.
[00:03:05.08] Jon, you and I were talking about Husker Power a little bit before this episode. That's something that still resonates across our field today-- really how we define sports-specific training.
[00:03:18.81] Yeah, it's incredible. Husker Power. I can remember when I was a little kid watching Nebraska games and heard the cheer "Husker Power" and never understood the depth of what that meant. And then, when I was fortunate enough to become a member of Coach Epley's staff, then you really learn the meaning behind Husker Power and the principles of multi-joint movements, ground-based training, three-dimensional actions, explosive training.
[00:03:54.39] And, Boyd, could you share a little bit of for those listening where these Husker Power principles came from and how they came to be?
[00:04:08.30] Well, we always wanted to explain to the athletes what we were trying to do and make sense out of it so that they would buy in and participate at their best effort. And so Mike Arthur, who was my top assistant and pretty well known in the industry and a really intelligent guy, started writing down the things that we believed in and put them into this 10-principle format.
[00:04:39.32] And I made them up and put them in the weight room on a chart. In fact, I have one of those charts right in front of me right now. But Mike Arthur had the most to do with the wording and making sense out of these different principles. But it is what we did on a daily basis. Our 10 principles really provided a path for not only our athletes but others across the country.
[00:05:09.17] I'd say if you're a strength coach and you don't know the 10 Husker Power principles, hop onto Google and look that up. Those are widely available. We'll make sure to include a link in the show notes for those principles.
[00:05:22.56] One that stands out for me that probably wasn't a common concept at the time is seasonal application and really providing athletes what they need when they need it-- in-season versus offseason training. There were a lot of coaches-- there's still a lot of coaches-- that are like, don't touch my athletes in season. Was this concept of in-season training versus offseason training new at the time? Did you feel like you guys got that started at Nebraska?
[00:05:54.40] Well, not only that but preseason training. So there's really different periods throughout the year where the training that you do can either impact and improve what you're trying to do or actually work as a hindrance. The thing that I fought most at the time were coaches that believed in heavy endurance training.
[00:06:15.34] And for the sport of football, where a player only lasts about five seconds, endurance training really is not a very important part of it at all. So that's why we created these principles, to get people who were believing in cardiovascular improvement to start believing in strength and power.
[00:06:37.89] Yeah, and having, I guess, had the opportunity to see some of these principles come to fruition and become a very important part of the program-- Boyd talks an awful lot about Mike Arthur in that these are all backed by science. These aren't just principles that were, hey, this sounds good, or, this is what we do. He spent an awful lot of time doing research and working with other professionals to make sure that these are our principles that are grounded in science. And no question that that's something that has become really a cornerstone to a lot of programs across the nation and still are used today.
[00:07:48.47] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, these are so relevant. Like you're saying, Jon, that-- I mean, there was a time where it's like-- where you'd hear maybe in an interview, hey, what's your coaching philosophy, or how do you do programming? And I feel like we've gotten back to, hey, I do a lot of different things, but I have principles.
[00:08:08.36] And a lot of those principles go back to these 10 principles, the Husker Power principles. They're really relevant for the majority of strength and conditioning coaches. They're really the basis of sports-specific training. I think it's really impactful, the work that was done at that time. Obviously, that program lives in the history of the NSCA and in getting us started.
[00:08:36.05] If we could shift a little bit to soft skills, Boyd. And you don't have the type of career that you've had without being able to connect and inspire not only athletes but share your vision of what has become our profession today.
[00:08:59.48] When you think about not only the NSCA and what the profession has become, and the way that Husker Power and strength and conditioning grew at the University of Nebraska, and the impact that strength and conditioning had on not only football but the athletic department, and then the individual athletes and how you helped them through your program become the best that they can be and develop into athletes that excelled at the University of Nebraska and then on into professional athletics-- so could you share a little bit about how you have worked to become an effective communicator and motivator and share your vision to help others grow?
[00:09:57.92] Well, I didn't start out thinking that I would be a strength coach. I was a pole vaulter for Nebraska in 1967 and set the school record and was on a path to-- as a junior college transfer, I came in. And then as a senior, I got hurt. I hurt my back. So I spent a lot of time in the weight room, and they actually ended up redshirting me because they were afraid that I would hurt the back worse.
[00:10:26.33] So I had a whole year in the weight room, and the coaches saw me in the weight room and other athletes. And I had a little bit of lifting background, having come from Phoenix, Arizona. And the guy sitting next to me in my English class ended up being the short man's Mr. America, Pat Neve.
[00:10:46.28] And I would go to a health club and train with these bodybuilders. And in there, I saw what worked for bodybuilding. And I was in there to try to find what would help me as an athlete. And in a health club, you don't really see a lot of athletes back in that time. It was mostly people that were bodybuilders wanting to improve their appearance.
[00:11:09.99] And so I picked up on a few things that really worked like the squat. Hardly anyone was doing the clean. But over the years, I really focused on strength and power, the squat and the clean. If that's all someone did, I think they'd have a pretty successful chance to gain and improve their performance. But as a result, I got stronger than Nebraska's football players.
[00:11:39.01] And as they came in, they would kind of follow me around to see what I was doing in that weight room. And the team doctor then for my senior year decided that he wasn't going to take a chance on me being able to pole vault anymore without further injury to the back. So he redshirted me for a year to see if it would get better.
[00:12:04.04] So I had an entire year to lift weights, and I did. And I got stronger. And I thought I could still pole vault. But when what was going to be my new senior year came, the doctor said, no, we're not going to take a chance. You're basically done.
[00:12:23.95] And so right about that time, the football coaches started realizing that I was like a monitor in the weight room. I wasn't paid as a supervisor or anything, but Coach Osborne asked me if I would run one of the stations in winter conditioning. And so my station was-- each station was five minutes long.
[00:12:47.77] And my station was-- for the first time, they lifted weights, but it was a 47-pound bar. It had concrete and paint cans on each end of the bar-- a big old bar with paint cans on the end, so it weighed 47 pounds. And my job was to have them lift for five minutes.
[00:13:09.43] Well, nobody can lift anything for five minutes straight. So I had to come up with different ways to curl it and press it and squat it. And I just invented a little program for five minutes. And they actually got better doing this with a 47-pound bar because they had never lifted before.
[00:13:29.08] And so the next year, the coaches asked me to be in charge of the weight room-- or excuse me, be in charge of the winter conditioning program, oversee all the stations, and oversee the weight room. And that's how I became Nebraska's strength coach.
[00:13:46.07] What a great story. That's awesome.
[00:13:48.42] Something that jumps out to me-- you know, we're coming off of COVID and just some really strange times in college athletics. And there was a bunch of athletes that lost their senior year just due to circumstance and what was going on.
[00:14:05.56] And that's something that I hear-- it's a common theme-- in strength and conditioning when an athlete maybe loses an opportunity on the field, but they're having success in the weight room. And that leads to an opportunity to progress into the field. It's interesting, and I'd never heard you share that, Boyd, that that was how you got started. But I think it's telling. I think a lot of coaches will connect with that path into the profession.
[00:14:36.90] Boyd, I know that testing and evaluation is a big part of the program that you implemented in Nebraska. Could you share a little bit about the importance of why testing is so important and how it helped motivate athletes?
[00:14:56.75] The reason I did testing was to save my [MUTED].
[00:14:59.53] [LAUGHS]
[00:15:01.01] Because if we got slower, I wouldn't be talking to you.
[00:15:05.91] [LAUGHTER]
[00:15:08.15] Well, about the same time I was just referring to, I was spending a lot of time in the weight room, and they wouldn't let me pole vault anymore. Coach Osborne called me over to his office, which here I am, a track athlete.
[00:15:24.92] Going over to the football office, I was a little bit nervous. And he asked me if I was interested in spending more time in the weight room and getting paid to do it. And what would I need? And I said, I can make a list. And he said, can you bring it over tomorrow? I said, OK.
[00:15:43.94] So I went back and made a list of the basic bench presses and squat racks. And I didn't make the list complete. I only focused on the major things, and I saved back some pulleys and some dumbbells and things that would be more supplemental. Only focused on the major things because I didn't know if they had money, what their budget would be, or anything like that. He just wanted a list.
[00:16:12.49] So I brought him the list. He looked at it and handed it to the secretary and said, order this. And when a coach forgot the second page-- and he laughed because he's a pretty sharp cookie. He laughed and he said, OK, bring me the second page tomorrow.
[00:16:30.97] So the next day, I come back. And now I got dumbbells and pulleys, and we're going to have a full weight room. And he looks at it and he says, now this is it, right? And I said, for now. Then he laughed because he's a pretty sharp guy and fun to talk to like that. And he said, all right, now we need to go see Bob. And I said, Bob? He says, yeah, Bob Devaney.
[00:16:57.48] About that time, I started shaking because Bob Devaney was easily the most powerful figure in the state of Nebraska as the head football coach and athletic director. And his office was right around the corner from that secretary. So we go in there, and Tom says, Bob, this is Boyd Epley. He said, oh, I've seen you in the weight room. Yeah. How are you doing?
[00:17:21.69] And Tom says straight up, Boyd thinks we need to have the football team start lifting weights. And Bob looked a little puzzled and goes, why would we want to do that? And then they both looked at me. I really don't know what I said because my legs were shaking so bad that I could hardly stand up.
[00:17:47.21] But I must have said something that made some sense to Coach Devaney. And then he said, well, you know, I don't know of any other coaches out there-- and he named off a couple of head coaches that weren't lifting weights-- and said, I'm afraid that if anyone gets slower, we're going to have a problem and you're going to be fired.
[00:18:11.70] And so that kind of resonated with me, that I had pressure on me to help these guys get faster. It wasn't so much about getting stronger in his eyes. It was about them getting slower if they lifted weights. That was the theory back then. So I left that meeting. I went over to see the department chairman of physical education, which I was a part of. I was a PE major.
[00:18:36.75] And I talked to the department chairman and asked him if he had any stopwatches. And he did. And he said he would loan them to me to test the football players so that I could show Coach Devaney not only how fast they were or how slow they were or whatever. But when they made improvement or even if they got slower, he would be able to tell.
[00:19:03.16] But in that meeting, the director of physical education also suggested a test to do in addition. And it was the vertical jump. Sometimes it was referred to as the Sargent jump test. It had different names. So I took those two tests. And I went back, and we tested the football players. Unfortunately, we had the football coaches doing the timing.
[00:19:35.02] And I found out real quick, depending on if the coach recruited the kid, how fast they were going to run. [INAUDIBLE]. And the coach would look at it and say 4.6. And so we had to put up with that for a while. That's why I went to the electrical department at the university and asked them to help.
[00:19:55.51] And we created electronic timing at the University of Nebraska because our coaches basically couldn't be trusted on the time if a kid had been recruited by that coach. And that's the truth. And so electronic timing was more accurate, and it caught on all across the country.
[00:20:17.92] And we had the players focus then on doing exercises that would improve their speed and power. So throughout my career, those are the two areas that we focused on-- improving speed and power, so strength and power, squats and cleans. And that's how it got started.
[00:20:42.77] Love it. I think some of the leaderboards we have up at the NSCA and throughout weight rooms. And that's just a really cool-- it's a cool story about how testing got started, why it was important. And yeah, I mean, not making athletes slower. It wasn't about making them better. It was more the fear that someone was going to lose their job if they took a chance and did something that other coaches weren't doing.
[00:21:11.30] Well, that was the fear I had, was that my job was on the line. And fortunately, I didn't know that strength training would help the athletes get faster like that. I really didn't, although I had been a pole vaulter. And you think about pole vaulting. You carry a pole about 40 yards.
[00:21:31.43] And so I was used to trying to improve my own speed even though I was carrying a pole. And so I had already learned some of the drills that would improve speed, running drills and so forth. I just hadn't done a lot of work on improving agility. So that was something new for me.
[00:21:53.93] So after working with the football winter conditioning program, running one station, Coach Osborne asked me to oversee all the program. And I was able to take out some of the endurance things they were doing and put in speed and agility drills, and it improved their football ability immediately.
[00:22:18.30] And we had success. In fact, the worst season-- I was the strength coach then for 35 years. The worst year we had was nine wins.
[00:22:30.27] Pretty good success. Most programs would be pretty excited about never having less than nine wins.
[00:22:40.47] Yeah, we ended up with 356 wins in 35 years.
[00:22:45.81] Pretty awesome. Boyd, last year we had Mad Dog, Coach Jeff Madden, on the podcast. And one of the things he mentioned when he was a strength coach was reaching out to you and visiting Nebraska and wanting to go and visit the best of the best-- the best program, the best facilities, the best coaches at that time.
[00:23:11.01] And he talked about you and what an inspiration you were and you sharing and you being open to sharing about your program-- both strength program and conditioning program. And he just talked about the impact that you had on him and what you shared with other coaches that really helped build the profession. So could you share a little bit about that and why you always felt it was so important to share and connect with other coaches?
[00:23:51.17] Well, Jeff and I became very good friends and fierce competitors. And Texas, I'll tell you, is a pretty darn good program. And they had a lot of success. And I think we played each other 10 times, and I think we each won five. So we didn't just dominate them like we did a lot of other programs. We didn't dominate them at all. It was very, very competitive when we played Texas.
[00:24:15.80] And yes, he did visit our facilities. He was really impressed with my office because he not only got a new weight room. He had an office that was above the weight room, kind of like mine was. But I had a conference room as well. And so he saw that conference room. For some reason, he just couldn't believe I had a conference room in my office.
[00:24:42.08] And so when he got back to Texas, he made them build him a conference room next to his office so he could have a similar setup. But I always had an open-door policy for other coaches and would share ideas with anyone who would listen.
[00:24:59.97] I'll tell you one time that Missouri coaches, they were going to play us on Saturday. And they came in on Friday like teams do. And I spent seven hours with them between Friday and Saturday before the game-- seven hours prior to that Missouri game with the head strength coach and his top assistant.
[00:25:21.58] And they could not believe that I would take more than 10 or 20 minutes just to say hi and how are you doing. We went over every single detail what we believed in and shared it with them.
[00:25:37.69] Well, that's fantastic. I don't know how common that is anymore. It definitely helped the profession grow and the principles that have become really important and a big part of programs across the country.
[00:25:58.69] One thing I have to laugh about at Missouri-- one of the games we played against them was at their field. And they have this gigantic M on the north end of their stadium made out of rocks, big, heavy rocks that make up the M. And before the game, our booster club came in and rearranged those rocks to an N. It was an M, and we changed it to an N.
[00:26:26.47] And they didn't have time to change it back before the game started because the fans were coming to sit in the stadium. And they had to play that game with that N on their field. That was one of the funniest things we ever did.
[00:26:42.46] That's awesome. You know, Boyd, you've had a huge impact on the profession. I know every conference I go to, some coach comes up to me and says, hey, is Boyd here? I want to meet him or shake his hand. It's really impressive what you've done.
[00:27:02.36] And a lot of coaches getting into the profession, we have really big goals or aspirations to take this field forward. What advice do you have for coaches today that want to have the kind of impact you've had and build the kind of longevity that you've had in the profession?
[00:27:22.37] That's a tough question. My problems had more to do with paying my staff a decent wage. And they're the ones that did the work. And Mike Arthur had a lot to do with the program philosophy. And my biggest problem wasn't the program working or the facility. It was raising money to pay my volunteers.
[00:27:50.78] And at one time, I had 35 assistants. And they would rotate. Not all of them worked with football all the time, but they rotated around the different weight rooms that we had for the other sports. But we even had them sell t-shirts on game day to raise money and created a booster club called the Husker Power Club.
[00:28:11.49] And when I left the program, we left $300,000 in the bank that was supposed to never be used except to support the strength program. So the money was really a bigger issue for me because of all the things I wanted to accomplish. And we had a great staff, and everybody pulled together. It was just tremendous experience.
[00:28:36.93] I think there's an important point there of fighting for better positions in our departments, continuing to grow our departments, elevate roles for coaches that are doing well, bringing in new positions, whether that's interns, volunteers, whatever it may be, giving people opportunities.
[00:28:53.66] Well, first, I think you have to have a good plan. You have to do things that work and add value. And they will be appreciated. They'll be appreciated.
[00:29:09.02] Before we wrap things up, I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you not only for what you've done for me and having given me an opportunity to be on your staff and to learn from you and work with you but also for strength coaches as a whole and for the profession. Again, you showed a lot of humility today and didn't really elaborate a lot on the impact that you've had.
[00:29:43.83] But it's undeniable what you've done as the founder of the NSCA and how that has grown and really being the first strength coach hired at the collegiate level, really the godfather of strength and conditioning and what you've done for the profession. So just thank you for what you've done for strength coaches because, without you, I'm not sure we would have this profession. Or it would probably look very, very different than what it does.
[00:30:19.75] And so just wanted to say that. And also, for sure, you have a lot of wisdom to share. And I know that there are probably several people listening that would love to be able to reach out to you and learn from you.
[00:30:41.11] Well, my email is my name, boydepley@mac.com-- boydepley@mac.com. And I've tried to help lots of people and a lot of levels for a lot of different reasons, and I will continue to do so.
[00:30:57.90] Yeah, we'll put that in the show notes, Boyd, so people can reach out. Thanks, guys. I mean, this was fun. This was fun to go back a little bit, a few years, before I got into the profession. And it's always impactful for me to hear the history of the profession. And I think it's important that we remember-- that we remember where our profession came from and that, even for coaches today, it wasn't that long ago that strength and conditioning as a profession didn't exist.
[00:31:32.09] And so we have a lot to be thankful for in the jobs we do every day. Sometimes we focus on the hardships, but there's a lot of joy and fun and excitement in this profession. And we get to do something really cool with our lives as strength and conditioning coaches. So yeah, thanks, guys, for being here today. That was Boyd Epley.
[00:31:51.46] Also, thanks, Coach Jost and Gatorade Performance Partner, for joining us on this episode. Gatorade Performance Partner helps to fuel and support important conversations across the strength and conditioning profession. If you'd like to learn more and join Gatorade Performance Partner community, visit gatoradeperformancepartner.com. And thank you to Sorinex Exercise Equipment, a regular sponsor of the NSCA Coaching Podcast.
[00:32:17.39] My name is Autumn Lockwood, and you just listened to an episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. And if you'd like to get involved in any sort of way for a volunteer opportunity, make sure you head to nsca.com, and you'll be able to find a list of them to get involved.
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