By TYLER ELLYSON
UNK Communications
OMAHA – Growing up in Sidney, Austin Jacobsen thought his two older brothers were the greatest athletes in the world.
Andrew and Alex competed in a variety of sports – football, wrestling, soccer, baseball, track – and their little brother was usually there to watch.
“I was the younger brother who went to all of their events,” Jacobsen said. “I would go to pretty much everything because I had to.”
What started as a family obligation quickly became something more.
Jacobsen idolized his brothers. He wanted to be just like them, even though his own athletic abilities never quite matched their success.
One moment in particular stands out.
When Alex qualified for the Nebraska state wrestling tournament as a senior at Sidney High School, Jacobsen was in eighth grade. He remembers traveling to Omaha for the competition, held at what was then the Qwest Center, and showing his support by dyeing his hair red and sporting a mohawk.
“I was enamored,” he recalled.
Alex had narrowly missed qualifying for state the previous two seasons. Simply getting there was the culmination of years of hard work, but his younger brother expected even more.
“I was convinced he was going to win state,” Jacobsen said. “He’s like the best wrestler I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Alex lost his first two matches, ending his tournament appearance.
But the experience helped shape one fan’s future.
Jacobsen understood how much the opportunity meant to his brother, how hard he had worked to reach that stage and how much more there was to his journey than the final results.
“I just wanted someone to tell his story,” Jacobsen said.
Today, that’s exactly what he gets to do.
A University of Nebraska at Kearney graduate, Jacobsen has turned his passion for storytelling into a career with Hurrdat Sports, an Omaha-based digital media network covering athletics across Nebraska.
From high school football fields in rural communities to some of the state’s biggest sporting events, he’s the guy with the microphone, asking questions and giving athletes a chance to share their experiences.
Beyond the box score
Jacobsen’s job isn’t easily defined by a single title.
He’s a producer, broadcaster, writer, interviewer and content creator, contributing wherever he’s needed within the Hurrdat Sports network.
Jacobsen co-hosts the morning show “Hurrdat Sports Live” alongside Ravi Lulla, helping deliver the latest Nebraska sports news and analysis with a healthy dose of entertainment. He also creates content for NebPreps, which focuses on high school athletics, and hosts the “Small Town Ball” podcast, highlighting smaller schools and communities across the state.
His coverage has included the Huskers, Creighton Bluejays, Omaha Supernovas, NCAA volleyball tournaments, Outland Trophy award ceremony and numerous high school championship events.
“Wherever they need me, I’ve done it,” said Jacobsen, who also contributes to Huskers Illustrated and continues to work as a freelance radio broadcaster.
The variety is part of what makes the position so appealing.
“Hurrdat has no boundaries. It is not restricted by anything,” he said. “We can kind of cover things and do things how we see fit rather than try to conform to what other people have done.”
That flexibility allows Jacobsen to pursue the stories he finds most meaningful.
Through “Small Town Ball,” he shines a spotlight on athletes and programs that don’t always receive the same attention as larger schools. Those interviews also provide valuable context when teams reach state tournaments and other major events.
Having grown up in western Nebraska, Jacobsen understands what high school athletics mean to smaller communities.
While he enjoys the excitement of competition, it’s the personal side of sports that keeps him coming back.
“I think the reason why I like sports so much and what I’m doing is because I get to know people really well, and I get to know them in a different way than anybody else could,” he said. “It’s more the human element than anything.”
Jacobsen especially enjoys the moments immediately following a game, when emotions are still fresh and athletes are processing what just happened.
Those conversations can reveal far more than a box score.
“I like asking questions about stories that people want to share,” he said.
One of his favorite assignments is the “Big Game Chain,” a feature he took over when he joined Hurrdat’s high school sports coverage. Following a standout performance, Jacobsen presents an athlete with a chain recognizing their achievement and gives them an opportunity to talk about the moment.
It’s a chance to celebrate individual accomplishments while learning more about the people behind them.
In Jacobsen’s mind, that’s what sports journalism should be about.
On the air and everywhere
Jacobsen’s connection to UNK began long before he enrolled as a student.
His family lived in Kearney before moving to Sidney, and his mother Angie has multiple graduate degrees from the university. Both of his older brothers also graduated from UNK, giving him another reason to be a Loper.
Still, Jacobsen wanted to explore his options. During the summer before his senior year of high school, he visited UNK, Hastings College and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Lincoln seemed too big. Hastings felt too small. UNK offered the right balance.
“UNK just felt like home,” he said.
Once he arrived, Jacobsen wasted little time getting involved.
He joined Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, eventually serving in several leadership positions and becoming president of UNK’s Interfraternity Council. He was also a Chancellor’s Ambassador, campus visit assistant, student ambassador for the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Sciences and member of the Mortar Board honor society, among other activities.
In 2020, he was named UNK’s Greek Man of the Year and received the UNK Alumni Association’s Outstanding Senior Award and Nester Student Leadership Award.
His schedule was packed, and he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“I just wanted to do stuff. I just wanted to be around people and hang out with people,” he said.
That enthusiasm extended to broadcasting.
Jacobsen worked at the campus radio station, KLPR 91.1 FM, serving as sports director for two years and calling UNK athletic events. He also contributed to The Antelope student newspaper and gained professional experience with KRVN in Lexington.
Those opportunities helped him develop the skills and confidence needed to pursue a career in sports media.
At KLPR, Jacobsen earned numerous awards from the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System and Nebraska Broadcasters Association. Among the highlights was a national College Media Award for best sports interview in 2020, recognizing his conversations with then-UNK head football coach Josh Lynn on the “UNK Coaches Show.” He was also part of the award-winning “UNK Gameday” production team.
The hands-on experience was invaluable, but Jacobsen believes his greatest lessons came from the people he interacted with.
“It was all the stuff that was outside the classroom. It was the people I met, and it was the relationships that I built,” he said.
As a student studying sports communication and exercise science, Jacobsen often found himself in classes with the same athletes he interviewed for KLPR. Those interactions taught him how to build trust, communicate effectively and see people beyond their roles on the field.
He also learned the importance of listening and choosing his words carefully.
“The conversations and the amount of talking that I’ve done in my lifetime, they teach you a lot of lessons along the way,” he said. “You remember hard conversations and you remember when you wish you would have said something different.”
Those lessons still influence his approach when interviewing everyone from high school athletes to Division I coaches.
“I can credit UNK for the fact that it was the grounds that allowed me to meet all these great people and to just appreciate what they’ve done for me in helping grow me as an individual and how that translates into my work now,” he said.
Jacobsen graduated from UNK in May 2020 with bachelor’s degrees in sports communication and exercise science. He added a master’s degree in higher education student affairs from UNK in 2023.
An unexpected opportunity
After earning his undergraduate degrees, Jacobsen continued working for KRVN as a news reporter and sports broadcaster.
He later worked in the Kearney radio market, building his reputation as a familiar voice in central Nebraska sports.
When his fiancée, fellow UNK graduate Katie Unvert, moved to Omaha for a residency at Children’s Nebraska, Jacobsen began exploring career opportunities in the metro area.
That search led him to Chris Gorman, a senior vice president at Hurrdat Media who shared a familiar connection to Kearney. A North Platte native, Gorman studied organizational communication with an emphasis in marketing at UNK, graduating in 2005.
The two quickly found common ground, exchanging LinkedIn messages about Nick’s Gyros, a popular restaurant near the UNK campus. That conversation led to an interview and a position on Hurrdat’s media production team.
Another familiar face helped him make the move into sports.
Mike Sautter, a prominent Nebraska high school sports reporter, recognized Jacobsen from an event they had both covered in Kearney. That connection eventually opened the door to his current role with Hurrdat Sports.
“From there, they’ve just kind of allowed me to be me, and it’s been awesome,” Jacobsen said.
Looking back, he laughs about the unlikely chain of events that led to the opportunity.
“I’m pretty happy I sent Chris a message about the meat and cheese Monday special from Nick’s Gyros,” he said with a smile.
The story comes full circle
When the opportunity arises, Jacobsen always jumps at the chance to reconnect with his alma mater.
He covered the Lopers during the Volleyball After Dark Showcase in Omaha this spring and returned to the sidelines for a UNK football game earlier this season.
Those assignments are a reminder of where his career began and the people who helped him along the way.
Whether he’s covering the Lopers, a Division I program or a six-man football game in rural Nebraska, his approach remains the same. He wants to learn what makes people tick, understand their experiences and give them an opportunity to share something meaningful.
“I think that’s just so cool that I get to tell stories of people who don’t get those opportunities to tell those stories themselves,” he said. “And I think that’s what’s been so important about what UNK has taught me.”
It’s a perspective that dates back to those childhood trips across Nebraska, when he watched his older brothers compete and wished more people knew how much their accomplishments meant.
Now, with a microphone in his hand and a camera nearby, Jacobsen gets to share those moments with audiences.
“There are so many people who deserve to have their stories told,” he said.
