When Dave Ellis talks about athletic performance and nutrition, people listen. Ellis, who is the groundbreaking director of performance nutrition at the University of Nebraska Department of Athletics, has a resume in collegiate and professional athletics and sports nutrition that is unmatched.

With a career in sports that started at UNL 40 years ago, Ellis was eventually named the first full-time sports registered dietitian in all of collegiate athletics, thanks in part to the vision of legendary Husker coaches like Tom Osborne and strength and conditioning coach Boyd Epley.

“Our ag roots run deep in this state and at UNL,” says Ellis, who was a featured speaker at the recent Nebraska State Dairy Association convention in Columbus. “We should be leaders in the high-performance fueling space at Nebraska athletics. It’s in our blood.”

Ellis does his homework, and that is how dairy became an important part of his nutrition programs. “Each category of protein delivers a unique value story for performance and health,” he says, “but dairy in particular has a special place in the world of high-performance fueling.”

The amino acid profile of dairy is loaded with some of the most potent triggers for anabolic (muscle-building) outcomes, and it is crucial, Ellis says, for sore athletes, growing young athletes and aging adults, as well, who are fighting to hang onto hard-earned muscle mass. “Recent evidence shows that retaining muscle is critical for long-term health, and dairy has a special place in that conversation,” he adds.

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Dairy is just one aspect of a simple three-step high-performance fueling system in sports called “fueling tactics” that Ellis created over the past four decades.

“Fueling tactics is all about making food coachable by grouping foods into three steps that make it easy for athletes and fans to follow when building healthy meals,” Ellis says. “The third step covers the protein needs of hardworking athletes, so that is where I introduce the need to diversify protein sources between animal, dairy and vegetable proteins.”

Dairy producer support

“The dairy industry at large has been a tremendous supporter for hardworking athletes with the Fuel Up to Play 60 program, and as a founding sponsorship for a nonprofit I helped start called the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association,” Ellis explains. “It was no surprise when Midwest Dairy checked in to see what they could do to help our athletes at UNL about two years ago.”

FUELING TACTICS: Dave Ellis, pictured here with a Nebraska football player, became the first full-time sports registered dietitian in all of collegiate athletics when he was named to his post in the Nebraska Athletic Department. Ellis uses groundbreaking “fueling tactics” to build the nutritional diets of student-athletes in all sports, and he includes dairy as an important part of that nutrition.

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the progress of their work, but the demands to feed student-athletes during the pandemic meant setting up “bubbles” that included multiple locations for meals.

“We needed coolers and freezers to accommodate the new setting, and Midwest Dairy came to the rescue and along the way came up with the idea of some high-temperature ovens that cook pizzas in a few minutes,” Ellis says. “They have simply been a huge hit with our student-athletes. The pizza ovens along with a self-cook area we have called Life Skills Kitchen are the kind of creative outlets where our student-athletes have an opportunity to develop critical cooking skills that will serve them for life.”

UNL rock stars

To keep Husker athletes at the top of their game, Ellis and his staff research fueling tactics from dozens of journals that include dairy protein-based interventions.

“If dairy is not the focus of the research, it is often someone trying to compare themselves to dairy,” Ellis says. “That kind of ongoing tracking of the literature often leads me to pick up the phone and call over to our food science department on campus, headed up by Terry Howell, executive director of the UNL Food Processing Center.

“The pilot plant at the processing center is full of amazing equipment that can prototype all kinds of unique delivery systems for functional ingredients like dairy proteins that we can incorporate into our athletes’ diets.”

TOP PERFORMANCE: Ellis (right) says that the amino acid profile of dairy products is loaded with some of the most potent triggers for anabolic (muscle-building) outcomes, and it is crucial for sore athletes, growing young athletes and aging adults, as well, who are fighting to hang onto hard-earned muscle mass.

Ellis says that Howell’s crew are amazing innovators. “I’ve sought out collaborative relationships like this, going back starting 20 years ago when we bought all the Omega-3 eggs they could produce on UNL East Campus from the now famous feed fortification program for hens launched by Sheila Scheideler-Purdum,” he says. “We have all kinds of rock stars on this campus we collaborate with, including the ‘father of the flat iron steak,’ professor emeritus in animal science, Chris Calkins.”

Cultivating ag roots

Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts understands the importance of agriculture to Nebraska athletics. “It is important that our student-athletes have a good understanding of the state they live in and the fans they represent,” Alberts says. “So much of this history of this great state is rooted in agriculture and farming, and we hope to continue to cultivate partnerships between our ag community and Nebraska athletics.

“It is a priority of mine that we do a better job in athletics of embracing the agricultural background of our state and having our Cornhusker athletic teams mirror the work ethic of Nebraska farmers.”

Ellis says the work and sacrifice that goes into building a winning team is something hardworking Nebraskans can relate to. “Coach Osborne exemplified that kind of dedicated work ethic,” he notes. “No shortcuts. Just working hard and working smart until we outwork the competition.”

Learn more at huskers.com/sports.