When Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook negotiated a new contract, he said he’d go without annual increases in pay if the school bought him an animal he felt a special bond with.

Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook and No. 415. COURTESY OF JOHN COOK

By Jared Diamond and Robert O’Connell – June 3, 2024 at 10:00 am ET – Wall Street Journal

John Cook, the longtime coach of the University of Nebraska’s vaunted women’s volleyball team, had a peculiar request when he was negotiating his latest contract. 

He wasn’t asking for more money, more vacation time or the use of a private jet. He wanted a horse. 

And not just any horse. Cook had his heart set on what he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime performance horse” called No. 415, named for the number branded on his body as a colt. 

So on a recent telephone call with his boss, Cook laid out his conditions: He would forgo the annual raises that are customary for someone in his position, if the school would facilitate the purchase of the horse he coveted.

Last week, Nebraska agreed. Cook will now remain at the helm of the Cornhuskers for at least the next five seasons—and No. 415 will soon be a part of his family. 

Cook had thought about negotiating a standard pay bump—”you know, what football and basketball coaches do,” he said. But then, scanning the farms and ranches that make up the American West, he considered what he really desired: “What I’d really like to buy is that 415 horse.”

John Cook has led Nebraska to four national championships and won coach of the year honors three times. KENNETH FERRIERA/LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the volleyball world, Cook is a thoroughbred. Since arriving in Lincoln in 2000, he has led Nebraska to four national championships and won coach of the year honors three times. Last August, more than 92,000 fans packed Nebraska’s 100-year-old football stadium to watch a Huskers volleyball match, the highest-attended women’s sporting event in history. 

Over the past few years, Cook has developed a passion for a more niche pursuit: team roping, a rodeo competition in which two cowboys on horseback attempt to rope a steer as quickly as possible. He practices with the family of Mark Wray—the trainer who raised No. 415—and at Pitzer Ranch in Ericson, where the horse was born. Cook also helps with legitimate cowboy work, like moving cattle between plots of grass on the Nebraska farmland.

“I think people are craving the old world, you know, getting dirty,” Cook said. “And that’s something I really enjoy. I love doing the chores, taking care of these animals.”

More than that, though, Cook’s horsemanship has started to inform how he approaches his day job: coaching the volleyball team that has set the standard in the sport for decades. Working with Wray on his own riding and roping technique, Cook says, has put him in the rare position of being coached. It has let him consider what sort of advice resonates, and what falls flat.

John Cook will now remain at the helm of the Cornhuskers for at least the next five seasons—and No. 415 will soon be a part of his family. DANIELLE WRAY

On the other side, riding makes him think about trust, developing a connection that lets you respond in real time to fast-moving challenges. “It’s helped me figure out that yelling at my players isn’t going to get it done,” said Cook, who actually taught his team how to rope at a ranch last May. “You can’t yell at a horse; they don’t understand you. Working with somebody, how can they feel my energy and feel that trust?”

When Cook first rode No. 415 this spring, on Wray’s ranch, the bond between horse and rider was immediate. Even Wray noticed it—to the point that, when bidding rose on No. 415 in a recent auction, he called the sale off, saving the horse for Cook.

The only problem was that the price of No. 415, an American Quarter Horse who is 9 this year, was past Cook’s usual horse budget. That’s when he told Troy Dannen, Nebraska’s athletic director, about his unusual idea. Dannen told him he wasn’t able to directly include a horse in the contract. Instead, the pact includes a $70,000 retention bonus that he will receive on July 1, which Cook will use to buy No. 415 from Wray. (His salary of $825,000 probably doesn’t hurt, either.)

“You will make so many friends in Western Nebraska,” Cook told Dannen. Cook called the idea “just a way to honor and show respect for that way of life.”

Wray, a lifelong cowboy and a fan of Nebraska sports, first learned of Cook’s interest in horses when he saw an advertisement that featured a clip of Cook roping a dummy on the volleyball court. But when they met, Wray discovered that Cook’s passion for horsemanship was genuine.

John Cook wears a cowboy hat that Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen gave him. CHRIS MACHIAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

“What I enjoy most about him is he has an appreciation for our way of life, our cowboy lifestyle, our agricultural lifestyle,” Wray said of Cook. “He gets to take it back to the city with him.”

Nebraska’s volleyball team advanced to the championship game last season, ultimately falling to Texas. The Huskers will begin their pursuit of their first title since 2017 on Aug. 30.

Before then, however, Cook will serve as the grand marshal for the Nebraska’s Big Rodeo in Burwell, a local tradition that stretches back over a century. He will be riding 415. He says his goal is to feel confident enough in his roping skills to compete for the first time next winter—if he can find enough time to practice.

“The problem,” Cook said, “is coaching—it cuts into my roping time.”

Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com and Robert O’Connell at robert.oconnell@wsj.com

Appeared in the June 4, 2024, print edition as ‘This Legendary Volleyball Coach Didn’t Want a Raise. He Wanted a Horse.’.