MILLER: How UND's latest Hall of Fame basketball player became an NFL journeyman

May 12—GRAND FORKS — Growing up in Columbus, Neb., in the 1990s, Chad Mustard dreamed of being a football player at the University of Nebraska.

A 6-foot-7, 215-pound senior in high school, Mustard spent time at Nebraska's football camps in high school. Legendary Nebraska coach Tom Osborne knew Mustard.

Eventually, the Huskers called to ask Mustard to walk-on for the football program — a common practice at the time for in-state talent.

"Financially, I knew the best for me long term was to turn to basketball and get school paid," Mustard said.

Mustard then took a call from Fighting Sioux head basketball coach Rich Glas and assistant Ben Jacobson. With some encouragement from then-Wayne State (Neb.) head coach Greg McDermott, a former UND assistant, Mustard gave Grand Forks a chance.

Mustard would go on to a UND basketball career that earned him a spot in UND's Athletics Hall of Fame. He'll be honored this fall as part of the school's 2026 class of inductees.

Mustard's basketball career, though, was just the start of earning his place in the memory banks of Grand Forks sports fans.

As Mustard's college basketball career was nearing an end, he took a billiards class from UND football assistant coach Randy Hedberg, who would later go on to earn legendary status as a developer of quarterbacks at North Dakota State.

Hedberg suggested trying football after his basketball career.

"I was a typical college athlete, and I knew I had some schooling left and wouldn't have my degree after four years of basketball," Mustard said. "It seemed a natural fit to use football to figure that out.

"I had no idea what was going to come of it. I think I lasted so long in football because I had zero expectations. I didn't expect to be great. I just put my head down and found a way to figure it out. If I went in thinking I was hot stuff, I wouldn't have handled the failure of the NFL."

Hedberg didn't offer Mustard any promises. He told him he would have two years to play football, as Division II then had a six-year eligibility clock.

The transition from basketball to football didn't start with much fanfare. The Grand Forks Herald featured a four paragraph clip on March 21, 2000, to announce the move.

"He's going to give spring ball a shot," UND head coach Dale Lennon said in the clip. "That's a very pleasant surprise. He has a football mentality."

"It didn't go great," Mustard said. "I was pretty crappy at first. They were patient and understood I was out of it for a while."

Mustard would spend five years in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, with his most notable stop as a journeyman in Denver. Known as a blocking tight end, Mustard played in 12 games with the Broncos in 2006. He caught two passes for 23 yards. He had five catches for 62 yards in 2007, then played in eight games in 2008.

Mustard credits former UND head coach Chris Mussman, who was offensive coordinator in Mustard's football tenure, for installing the technique to excel with the Broncos.

"The zone run scheme is what got me hired initially," Mustard said. "We were running 40-50 times a game. It was the same footwork. It was like riding a bike. When I was in Cleveland, I was a square peg in a round hole."

En route to UND's Division II national championship, Mustard's most memorable play in Grand Forks came on Nov. 24, 2001, in the playoffs against Pittsburg State at the Alerus Center.

Mustard caught a 62-yard pass from Kelby Klostermann and bullied his way down the sideline for a touchdown.

Had social media been powerful in 2001, Mustard had his viral moment.

The video may appear grainy today, but it's still out there.

"The internet is a powerful thing," Mustard said. "I teach and coach (in Nebraska). I've taught at five schools and kids can find that stuff easily. The more I watch the more it looks like watching an old video of Pete Maravich. It was a play and awesome ... but it doesn't look that athletic. If you get a stopwatch out, I wasn't running very fast."

Still, Mustard's play holds a place in UND football history alongside Mike Mooney's 1993 fumble recovery, Jim Kleinsasser's 77-yard touchdown in the Fargodome in 1998 and Luke Schleusner's 2001 catch against Grand Valley State that led to UND's title-winning touchdown run.

Mustard's listed playing weight was about 270 pounds that season, but he said he was hanging out with offensive linemen at that time and was probably pushing 300 pounds when he scored the touchdown.

"I remember that was as far as I had run in some time," said Mustard, who played in the Indoor Football League and NFL Europe before his NFL break. "Guys were mobbing me, but I've got to breathe."

Mustard now lives in Omaha with his wife and twin 16-year-old daughters.

He was caught off-guard by the call of a Hall of Fame selection.

"It never really crossed my mind," he said. "Just gratitude. It's really a culmination of playing on some really good teams with some really great players. When a guy like me is going into the Hall of Fame, it's really the work of Hunter Reinke and Brady Larson and Marcus Travis and Hunter Berg ... I'm going to forget to say some names but no one guy does it by himself. I just wanted to win. It's a huge honor but I have so much gratitude for Coach Glas taking a chance on me.

"Grand Forks was so good to me. I felt like what I imagined a Husker feels like in Lincoln. People were so good to me and my family and took care of me 500 miles from home. I don't regret a single second of my time at UND."