Pederson unveils $50 million baby

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By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star

The Memorial Stadium elevator smelled either like day-old Chinese food, Old Spice cologne or wet mulched grass. The fragrance wasn’t quite distinguishable.

It never is when you’re cramped next to a bunch of media brethren. As long as you stare ahead and pretend you’re not the one supplying the stench, you’re fine.

The people on the elevator — mostly sportswriters and broadcasters — were about to relive the third grade. They were about to go on a Tuesday field trip.

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The north side of Memorial Stadium and the Osborne Athletic Complex. (Robert Becker)

The north side of Memorial Stadium and the Osborne Athletic Complex. (Robert Becker)

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Destination: A tour around the renovated Memorial Stadium and a visit to the spanking new Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex, the $50 million Nebraska athletic facility built by the good graces of donors’ checkbooks in an attempt to ward off all things mediocre.

The Osborne complex is what Willy Wonka would have built if he preferred football to chocolate. Don Bryant, former Nebraska sports information director and neverending fountain of Husker knowledge, calls the great building “the Pentagon of the Prairie.”

But before the roughly 60 media members on the tour could cast their first glances on Nebraska’s Pentagon, there was a stop on the football field and a greeting from Husker athletic director Steve Pederson.

“The most visible change for fans will be walking into the stadium,” he said. “We tried to make great additions but also preserve the stadium’s history and in some ways uncover a little history.”

The obvious change inside the stadium is the new video board above the north end zone. It stretches 33½ feet high and 117½ feet wide. 

No doubt Husker fans will dig the picture of a 27-foot tall Zac Taylor when they show up Saturday afternoon for the season opener against Louisiana Tech.

The only beef a few may have is that, at times, not all of the board will be used to show game footage. During those moments, about 40 percent of the big TV will be filled with an electronic scoreboard, electronic updating stats and ads.

Still, that board is enough to  make goosebumps litter the arms of Husker running back Cody Glenn.

He admits he can’t stop thinking about making a big play and seeing himself up there. Peering at it from the pressbox Tuesday, he said: “I just hope I don’t look up sometime and get caught from behind while I’m looking at myself.”

While the new video board comes with the hype, Husker fans will quickly notice other stadium changes. Among them:

* The years of Nebraska’s conference championships are scripted across the West Stadium balcony.

* The names and numbers of the 16 Husker players who have had their jerseys retired are listed under the windows of the new skyboxes in the North Stadium.

* The Huskers will now enter the field from the northwest tunnel, apparently through opening glass doors (the framework of the doors was in place but without the glass on Tuesday). While Pederson and John Ingram, associate AD for facilities, would not confirm a glassed-door tunnel entrance verbally, their smiles pretty much did.

* A red path of field turf, Nebraska’s own little Red Carpet minus Joan Rivers, is what players will walk on from locker room to field.

* A replica of the old clock that used to hang above the Schulte Fieldhouse, where Nebraska practiced under legendary coach Bob Devaney, is now in the north concourse for anyone to view.

Accompanying the clock is a plaque that begins with the words: “Underneath this clock atop the Schulte Fieldhouse, Coach Bob Devaney built the greatest college football program in history.....”

* For the first time since the stadium was built in 1923, patrons can circle the entire stadium once inside. It didn’t used to connect.

And players and coaches can use a skywalk from the stadium to the new Osborne complex.

While some out there might consider the new complex the ultimate example of excessiveness, it’s hard to keep from it when trying to compete with the big athletic buildings constantly going up in the South — eyes are looking your way, Texas.

And if the arms race to build things truly is what wins recruits and, in turn, championships, consider Nebraska at least temporarily stocked to compete with the elite.

“I don’t think there’s any other facility this one takes a backseat to,” Pederson said. “I don’t know if it’s the biggest one. I do know it’s the best.”

The new weight room, complete with cathedral-shaped windows that stretch 22 feet high, is about 40 percent bigger than the old room the roughly 550 Husker athletes used for lifting.

“I think we set the standards in the ‘80s with our strength complex,” Ingram said, “and I think we’re setting the standards with this room you see today.”

Almost as impressive was the hydrotherapy room, which has a small lap pool for injured players to swim in and nearby cold tanks big enough for — according to Husker Jay Moore — eight fat guys to fit in at once.

And there was the daunting Hawks Championship Center — a full-sized field for indoor practices.

And there was a giant hall that could fit 1,000 people — and probably a couple thousand more. In it was a beach volleyball court and soon to be added were batting cages for the baseball and softball teams.

“I don’t think there’s any excess in here,” Pederson said. “I think we did it efficiently and put the money into the right things.”

And then there’s the lobby, perhaps the most eye-catching room in the complex.

On one wall, made of black absolute granite, are the names of donors who made the building possible. Pederson hopes to keep adding names to that wall.

And on another side of the room is a bronzed bust of Tom Osborne — eerie in its exactness.

And then there’s the biggest prize, a 40-foot waterfall that cascades between sheets of glass. Behind the glass is a red wall with a giant white N.

A 40-foot waterfall? Necessary?

Pederson’s answer: “I envisioned something where a recruit walks in and says, ‘Wow, there’s a 40-foot red waterfall.’”

And so, Pederson found a company in Orlando that could actually make a 40-foot red waterfall.

Red waterfalls. Busts of Ozzie. Is there anything missing?

Well, maybe, said Husker offensive lineman Matt Slauson. He loves Chipotle. Wishes he had one close to the locker room.

So, we might end this by asking if any donor out there has a spare million?

We need a Chipotle... pronto.

Reach Brian Christopherson at 473-7438 or bchristopherson@journalstar.com.