Tom Osborne Is Square

Who is Tom Osborne? That's a very valid question. I had never heard of him. I found myself in the middle of Nebraska on Highway 34 southbound after exiting I-80 to get some gas and a rest stop when I was confronted with my lack of historical background as I was greeted to the Tom Osborne Expressway. What exactly the Tom Osborne Expressway is an expressway to, I'm not quite sure. It seems to connect Lincoln, NE and Hastings, NE however I-80 would be a much better way to go for this route.

I looked up Tom Osborne on Wikipediaand as always it provided me with the information I needed. It turns out Tom Osborne was a football coach for the dearly loved Nebraska Cornhuskers football team and later became a member of the US House of Representatives for Nebraska. I know people from Nebraska and I've even seen the place on game day and they really do love their football team. Osborne was an amazing football coach, winning 250 games faster than any coach in Division 1-A history! The compliment of this expressway is enhanced with the addition of a mathematically significant road sign.



Doniphan (spelled in the elegant English) and Hastings mark this homage to math. The sign reflects one of the more popular relationships found in Road Sign Math.

$$\sqrt 16 = 4 $$

While it seems like a compliment to name an expressway that doesn't go anywhere all that relevant and actually is not as good of a route as the nearby interstate after Osborne, I question the back-handed nature of it. After all, it is certainly better than naming a dead end street after you it is a far cry from a ritzy boulevard in a high-tax part of Omaha. To add insult to injury there is the thinly-veiled accusation that Mr. Osborne is a "square". Why else would this road sign be put there?

This wonderfully ironic road sign is found on highway 34 southbound after exiting off I-80 eastbound in Nebraska.