GREELEY — Before Sam Foltz became number 27, a Husker, a Big Ten champion, and a name Nebraska would never forget, he was simply a farm kid from Greeley who treated people right and dreamed bigger than anyone around him could have imagined.
To his father, Gerald, that is still the Sam worth remembering most.
“He was a great athlete and probably one of the better ones I’ve ever seen in the state,” Gerald said. “But more importantly, he was a good person, and he treated everybody the same, whether they were on food stamps or whether they were millionaires.”
Nearly 10 years after Sam’s death, that legacy will once again be honored.
Foltz has been selected for induction into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame as part of its 2026 class, another recognition for a young man whose impact reached far beyond booming punts and football fields.
For the Foltz family, the honor brings pride. It also brings memories of a son, brother, and friend they would give anything to have back.
But Sam’s story was never only about how it ended.
It was about how he lived.
Gerald remembers his son as an ordinary Nebraska kid who possessed something extraordinary inside him.
“Basically, just another kid, just like everybody else out here in nowhere in Nebraska,” Gerald said.
Sam grew up working on the family farm. He competed in sports, challenged himself, and rarely seemed comfortable standing still.
“There was just something, he was just wired a little bit different,” Gerald said. “He was that way from day one.”
As a freshman in high school, Sam could barely touch the rim of a basketball hoop. A year later, after a growth spurt and plenty of work, he was dunking with both hands.
That same determination eventually took him from Greeley to Memorial Stadium.
Sam originally wanted to play free safety. He played receiver and arrived at Nebraska as an all-around athlete rather than a highly recruited punting specialist.
But when an opportunity opened to punt, Sam took it.
Then he attacked the challenge the only way he knew how.
“He took it on, and he worked twice as hard at it then,” Gerald said. “And got pretty good at it.”
That might be an understatement.
Gerald still remembers Sam’s first game as Nebraska’s punter in 2013. The Huskers went three-and-out, leaving Sam to punt from deep in his own territory in front of a packed Memorial Stadium.
The stadium went quiet.
“I’ll never forget how quiet that stadium got, because I think everybody was thinking the same thing,” Gerald said. “‘This ain’t going to be good.’”
Then Sam connected.
“He hit one of his A-balls,” Gerald said.
The punt flipped the field, and Nebraska’s coverage unit was already waiting when the returner caught the ball.
The crowd erupted.
“It got really loud down there,” Gerald said. “My ears hurt for two days.”
The kid from Greeley belonged.
There would be difficult games, injuries, and setbacks along the way. Sam battled through them all, eventually becoming one of the nation’s premier punters and earning Big Ten Punter of the Year honors in 2015.
But statistics alone do not explain why his name still means so much to so many people.
Gerald remembers times when Sam would be back home with friends and suddenly disappear.
They might find him outside, talking with a group of children.
He wanted to know how their summer was going. How was school going. What they wanted to do with their lives.
“He just liked to visit with everybody and put a smile on their face,” Gerald said.
Sam could play football in front of more than 80,000 people at Memorial Stadium, then return home and make one child feel like the most important person in the room.
Gerald believes his son understood something at a young age that many people take decades to learn: Everyone is dealing with something.
“He knew everybody was dealing with something in life,” Gerald said. “And he’s the one that would show up, and he could talk you through it or whatever to make you feel better and make you think that you, you know, had a friend.”
That may be the real reason Sam’s legacy has endured.
Football made him known.
The way he treated people made him unforgettable.
Gerald described his son as an “old-school type kid” who never focused on what Nebraska could do for him.
“He didn’t ask the university what they could do for him,” Gerald said. “It was always about what he could do for the university.”
Sam died at 22 years old in a vehicle crash in Wisconsin on July 23, 2016, along with former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler. They had been attending a kicking camp.
Nearly a decade later, the pain remains.
A family can keep moving forward. Football seasons can come and go. New players can wear the uniform, and new names can fill the record books.
But a father still misses his son.
When Gerald was asked what it would be like to see Sam honored at Memorial Stadium, the emotion was unmistakable.
“You know, quite a deal when you lose a kid,” he said.
Then came a pause.
“It happens, you know, to this day. You just break down and smile.”
Some losses never truly leave. People simply learn how to carry them.
“All you can do is carry on,” Gerald said. “His days on Earth were numbered, and he had a certain goal to get done, and he got it done. And he’s home free now.”
Sam’s name remains part of Nebraska football through the Sam Foltz Memorial Scholarship, the Sam Foltz 27 Hero Leadership Award, and the countless teammates, coaches, fans, and young people who still remember him.
But Gerald hopes the lesson of his son’s life reaches beyond football.
“Dream big, work hard, and stay humble,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of setbacks on the journey through life. If you stay on that path and work hard for it, good things will happen.”
Sam lived those words.
He was a farm kid from Greeley who dreamed big enough to reach Memorial Stadium. He worked hard enough to become the best punter in the Big Ten. And through all the success and recognition, he remained humble enough to sit down with a group of kids and simply ask how they were doing.
When his name is honored again inside Memorial Stadium, the applause will undoubtedly recognize the booming punts, the accolades, and a career worthy of the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame.
But Sam Foltz left Nebraska with something more important than statistics.
He left an example.
Treat people well.
Work hard.
Stay humble.
Make people feel seen.
Nearly 10 years later, Nebraska still remembers number 27.
But those who knew Sam best remember the person who wore it.
And that may be the greatest honor of all.
