ERIN SMITH KEEPS a box of toddler essentials conveniently tucked under her desk, inside the heart of the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln. It’s loaded with everything washable and reuseable that a working mother could want. Toys, wipes, towels, cups and long-forgotten goodies are buried underneath.

She considers herself immensely lucky that her 18-month-old son, Jaylen, gets to join her at work. Her husband, Tanner, works retail hours for Verizon. She works sports hours – long and unconventional. So, Jaylen sometimes gets in the car, walks the winding hallways inside Devaney and joins his mother in a cathedral of sports gear.

Jaylen loves it. He gets a massive space to run and play in. That crate at his mother’s desk is his home base. The rest is a massive room full of athletic apparel. Red lockers filled with dirty and clean clothes cover most of the walls. Jerseys, shorts, shoes, tank tops, socks – even shoestrings for 11 of Nebraska’svarsity sports teams –lie either neatly folded or hang in the lockers.

Smith is one of five equipment managers atthe University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She oversees equipment for the Husker volleyball, women’s basketball, track and cross-country programs. While Nebraska football takes a much larger operation inside the new Osborne Legacy Complex and Memorial Stadium, Smith runs daily equipment checkouts and laundry for the sports she oversees. Athletes come to her for gear and guidance only to light up when they see Jaylen. That’s when the demands of the job dissipate, and she becomes a guardian inside a cozy Husker athletics community.

“Say, if I have staff who need something, if I’ve also got a kid who needs something I will drop (the staff member),” she laughed. “Because this kid is the one that’s out there doing the thing.

“The relationships. That’s the most rewarding part.”

Stars aligned – and realigned – for Smith to work in Lincoln. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas, as a soccer player alongside her twin sister, Abby. They both played at Wichita Northwest High School and even in college at Missouri Western State University. Her roster profile said she’d like to become a director of basketball operations – and have dinner with former Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini.

She started her equipment journey at Missouri Western by helping with laundry for the baseball and football teams. Her mother would say Erin’s path to where she is now started much earlier.

“You’re going to pick a school by what’s in their bookstore,” she’d tease her daughter. “The t-shirts and the sweatshirts.”

Erin always liked gear. She immediately applied to graduate school after getting a degree in recreation sports management from Missouri Western. She dove into one of two equipment positions at Wichita State University, even helping log the school’s first inventory system. Thousands of items – differentiated by articles of clothing and size – logged across all sports.

She arrived in Nebraska after leaving a two-year internship at the University of Connecticut after five months. Someone she knew from Wichita State moved to Nebraska and passed along a job. Smith joined the Husker equipment department in 2015.

In 2018, her husband accepted a new position in Iowa. She resigned and started working in retail for a year. That wasn’t for her. Then she saw the person who replaced her at Nebraska left.

“So, I applied again and (assistant athletic director for equipment operations) Jay (Terry) took me back,” Smith smiled. “The kids were happy to have me back. It’s nice to build those relationships with athletes. They can just come down and sit for a minute. The Ralfzen twins came down and hung out, it was so fun.”

She officially rejoined the staff in July 2019. It’s been hectic ever since.

It is a running joke between equipment managers to ask, “What summer?” when athletes ask how their summers went.  Smith called September her “ramp-up” time. Volleyball has its stranglehold on her schedule with daily practices and home invitationals. In addition to Nebraska, she makes sure visiting volleyball teams are accommodated when at Devaney. She also runs checkouts for track and cross-country teams four days a week.

October, November and December are what she calls her “I don’t know what day it is” time. Women’s basketball and volleyball seasons overlap. Track begins. If the Nebraska volleyball team makes a top four seed, it would host matches on the first and second weekends of the NCAA Tournament. A theoretical week would then involve a basketball game on Wednesday, volleyball on Thursday, track meet on Friday, volleyball again on Saturday and basketball on Sunday.

“You take your moments to sit and breathe but just knowing that we are bouncing between here and Pinnacle Bank Arena and getting everyone ready for travel, practices and making sure all the kids have what we need,” she explained.

An in-season sport gets priority. Smith said she will text athletes to let them know when her schedule has slight openings so they can see her when they can. Hundreds come to her for their game uniforms, practice warmups, coordinated travel gear and anything else they could need for game day. Equipment managers ensure the athletes and coaches are prepared. A mistake would be disastrous.

With the introduction of Name, Image and Likeness, equipment managers help coordinate equipment for photoshoots involving athletes. It is another new wrinkle in the ways equipment managers are essential to Husker sports.

“You’re not the shining star. That’s not ever what we want or need to be,” she said. “But we just kind of navigate all of that and know that we’re here to be the support and we don’t need to be center stage.”

AS SMITH HAS REALIZED, Husker athletes truly are shining stars. She’ll never forget when she dug out a No. 26 jersey for Lauren Strivins to wear for a red-white scrimmage after she had already graduated. Smith was near Strivins after the match when a middle-aged woman shook hands with Strivins. That woman turned to her friends with her hand shaking of excitement and bewilderment.

It's the same look children get when meeting the team during the annual fan day. Husker diehards started lining up for this year’s event at 5 a.m. to get pictures and autographs with the team.

“Coming from not Nebraska, y’all are crazy,” Smith said. “The support, you really don’t get it anywhere else.”

Husker fans have sold out Devaney Sports Center and Memorial Stadium through seating expansions of both venues for over 300 straight games each. But the logistical differences between arranging the two sports are astonishing.

Jay Terry, the man who hired Smith back, has been the head equipment manager since 2002. The Cozad native leads a dedicated team of five full-time equipment managers that maintains the football locker room, ensures communication equipment and transports all football equipment for road games.

Terry and his staff ensure each pad, sock and jersey are perfectly tallied for nearly 150 football players. They maintain apparel and communication equipment among a few dozen coaches. They sort equipment by numbers in the background to ensure every locker inside the 315,000-square-footOsborne Legacy Complex is pristine. Head coach Matt Rhule’s large backroom staff also moved from the north end of Memorial Stadium into the new state-of-the-art complex.

For road games, they load each piece of equipment into a semi that needs to leave at a set time to arrive at the opposing stadium at least a day in advance. Every item is numbered and curated.

“That truck is nuts,” Smith said. “I’ve seen them packing it and the checklist and how they plan is nuts.”

The same detail applies to the work schedule. Their training camp schedule is pinpointed down to the minute from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Each entry in the schedule is meant to ensure a seamless operation come game day. Yet, their hours are unnoticed by the public. The only times Terry makes national television is if the camera captures Rhule handing off his radio equipment to the Cozad native at the end of the game.

That’s fine for Smith. It’s just part of the job. Sure, she has separate monthly and weekly calendars at her desk with entries in eight colors denoting a different sport or personal appointment. If the Huskers want equipment for 2025, she needs to order it this October. Those needs are arranged in binders and folders across her desk – above her son’s crate in the corner.

“You try to be able to take that family time and still balance when you can,” she said. “Even with that you know it’s going to be more job-heavy than life-heavy.”

But they aren’t always exclusive. Nebraska volleyball standout Harper Murray likes to carry Jaylen when he’s courtside, sometimes even after matches. Jaylen came with his mother to Devaney in early September for a tournament. The first match didn’t involve Nebraska. A quiet-to-loud turn from the scattered crowd startled him. But when the Huskers played after, Jaylen stood in the player tunnel unphased by the imposing cheers of Nebraska fans.

He even added his own cheers,pitching in support for the athletic department family he’s raised in.

“He’s already in it,” Smith said. “He’s already that fan. The fans are always so loud and that’sjust normal for him.”