Nebraska Wins the Abbott/Big Ten Blood Drive Competition

Husker fans led out of the gate and never trailed during the season-long contest to secure the $1,000,000 donation to Nebraska's health care services.

University of Nebraska President Dr. Jeffrey Gold accepts the $1,000,000 award for winning the Abbott/BIg Ten Blood Drive competition. / Abbott

Dr. Jeffrey Gold, the President of the University of Nebraska and former Chancellor of the UN-Omaha Med Center, accepted the $1,000,000 check from Abbott CEO Robert Ford at the Big Ten Championship game in Indianapolis on Saturday night. "There are many reasons I'm proud to be a Nebraskan, and this is one of them. As a cardiac surgeon, I have seen time and time again how important life-saving blood products can be, and as the president of the University of Nebraska, I've also seen first-hand the generosity of spirit and passion for helping others shared by so many of our students, faculty and staff. It doesn't hurt that Nebraskans also really like to win."

Dr. Gold accepted "The We Give Blood Drive" trophy during the Discover Big Ten Championship Game, as well as a $1 million check from global healthcare company Abbott, which the university will use to advance student and community health.

Here are some recent numbers: Lives saved - 59,143, Donors 19,821, Top Five Donors: Nebraska 3,983, Wisconsin 2,016, Michigan 1,955, UCLA 1,535, Ohio State 1,420.

I have a personal request for Dr. Gold. HuskerMax has promoted this contest on a weekly basis since it started and gave an assist in this win. I graduated from Kearney State in 1973 and was a student athletic trainer for the Lopers. I furthered my education and became a Physician Assistant in 1982. I would like to request that Dr. Gold designate a good portion of that million dollars to the UNK Athletic Training and Rural Health Education programs.

Donna and I made the trip to Indianapolis to meet Shelly and Genevieve Wright of Lincoln. Shelly found out something was wrong with her daughter Genevieve when she was 31 weeks pregnant with her. The doctors told her Genevieve had a 2% chance of survival and had begun to mourn her death. She had severe hydrops fetalis and had to have chest tubes placed both in utero before she was born, as well as after. She was born at 33 weeks – 4 pounds, 12 ounces – and during her first two months of life, she received seven blood transfusions and countless other blood products. Genevieve is 9 now and plays on the basketball team, sings in the choir and enjoys hanging out with her three older siblings, the oldest of whom attends the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nebraska wins the Abbott/Big Ten Blood Drive. / David Max

"Blood donation is imperative for so many, including my little girl who would not be here today without the generosity of countless Nebraskans who donated the blood that saved her life," said Genevieve's mother Shelly Wright who is a nurse in Lincoln. "These donations gave Genevieve the chance to grow, thrive and have a full life – and there isn't a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for that."

"These past few months, we've watched students across the Big Ten step up and commit to donating blood, many of them first-time donors," said Robert Ford, chairman and chief executive officer, Abbott. "Our goal was to have a fun competition between schools to help address the largest blood shortage in a generation and create the next generation of blood donors. Big Ten students, alumni and fans rolled up their sleeves and did just that, saving tens of thousands of lives.

"The We Give Blood Drive" aims to help build the next generation of blood donors during a time when the nation is experiencing one of the biggest blood shortages in a generation and has seen the rate of donors between 19- and 24-years-old drop by nearly a third in recent years. More than half of donors at "The We Give Blood Drive" campus blood drives donated blood for the first time.

The X's and O's

"Thank you to the nearly 20,000 people across the country who showed up to donate blood during this critical time when the nation is experiencing one of the biggest blood shortages in a generation," said Tony Petitti, Big Ten Conference Commissioner. "Congratulations to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on winning the $1 million grant to advance student or community health! Together, tens of thousands of lives will be saved. We are all grateful to Abbott for their important work and for their partnership with the Big Ten Conference."

Participants donated blood on campus and at blood centers around the U.S. and uploaded proof of donation to the campaign website in order to have their donation count for their Big Ten school. Participants were entered into the sweepstakes, which raffled off two tickets to the Discover Big Ten Championship Game – and received a free one-month subscription to B1G+, the Conference’s streaming service.

"The We Give Blood Drive" blood donation competition ran throughout the college football season, from Sept. 26 through Dec. 6, and will be back again next football season. Donation totals were tracked live and final results by school are available at BigTen.Org/Abbott.

HuskerMax has encouraged Husker fans to participate in different contests over the years including getting Kearney native Art Ferguson aka radio personality "Charlie Tuna" into the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008. This is the best contest win by far and I will be promoting it heavily next fall to make Nebraska back to back champions. I would like to thank UNL grad Ellen Wichman of Abbott Public Affairs and her team for publicizing this very important project and facilitating our meeting with Shelly and Genevieve Wright.

Go Big Red and Go Give Blood.

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