Nebraska Cornhuskers watches a legend ride off into the sunset as John Cook retires

Editor's Note: 10 minutes after announcing Cook's departure, the Nebraska Cornhuskers underwent the quickest hiring search in history, announcing Dani Busboom Kelly as the 4th head coach of the program ever.

When the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team opens its 2025 campaign, it will be led by someone other than John Cook for the first time in a quarter of a century. Cook announced on Wednesday evening that he is officially retiring, effective immediately.

The announcement seems to have surprised even those most dialed into the inner workings of the program. Though in hindsight, the writing might have been on the wall when Jordan Larson announced she wouldn't return for the 2025 season earlier this week.

Cook issued a statement about his retirement after 24 seasons at the helm of the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team saying in part that the time he's spent in Lincoln is "a long time to do something."

Nebraska Cornhuskers legend calls it a career

John Cook added that one of the great things he's been able to do during his time with the Nebraska Cornhuskers is watch former players go onto successful careers either as players or coaching their own programs.

"I’ve always said to ‘Dream Big’, and we’ve dreamed bigger than any volleyball program in the history of the world," Cook added in his release.

The retirement is one that has been worried about and worried over the last few seasons as the legendary coach has made it clear he was near the end of his run. However, the timing is suprising if for no other reason than there weren't a ton of indicators that 2024 was his last go-round.

In retiring now, one of the greatest coaches in Volleyball finishes his career with more than 700 wins and back-back-back Final Four runs. Unfortunately, it also means that his Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball career comes to an end with plenty of pain as they were overmatched by the Texas Longhorns in the finals two years ago and had an epic collapse in the semifinals this year against Penn State after taking a 2-set to zero lead over the eventual national champion.

Still, John Cook certainly has nothing to regret as he looks over his long career. He made the Nebraska Cornhusker volleyball program a bully on the national stage and it will be near impossible to ever replicate the success he had in Lincoln.