Toot Your Horn
Monday Night Big Band lets musi
cians of all ages play classics.
A&E, PAGE 11
Si
The Nebraska swimming
diving team finished well vs.
Iowa State on Saturday.
SPORTS, PAGE 20
.
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NU athletics nurtures
talent with time, money
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
The process of becoming a star
athlete starts young for many.
A father buys his son a football
and begins tossing it around in the
backyard.
A mother enrolls her daughter in
gymnastic lessons and watches her
learn somersaults and pirouettes.
As they grow up, the children
join organized teams. Coaches hand
pick them to ensure a victory for the
sixth-grade community team, the
seventh-grade junior high team, the
tenth-grade junior varsity team and
the twelfth-grade varsity team.
The young athletes spend hours
honing their skills. They practice.
They lift weights. They go to special
summer camps.
The ones who are especially tal
ented and hard-working go on to the
next level. They are scouted by
recruiters to play at the collegiate
level.
Proceeding through the stages of
the world of competitive sports relies
on one crucial element - a certain
Please see SYSTEM on 9
Editor’s Note: The University
of Nebraska athletic system is
mythic in its proportion. It encom
passes athletes, administrators,
coaches,-doctors and trainers who
make the system work.
It captures students and profes
sors at UNL who roam the campus.
It mesmerizes millions of its
fans - and frustrates its foes - from
one side of the globe to the other.
It has also captured the attention
of the Daily Nebraskan.
This series, which begins today,
takes an in-depth look at the system
thatMirrounds NU athletics. For the
next eight days, different aspects of
die program will be explored.
It doesn’t promise to explore
everything. There is no way it could.
About 20 editors, reporters and
photographers worked for four
months to put together a product
that we believe portrays the athletic
system in its truest form.
It is a system that we found to be
both extravagant and conservative,
both amazing and disappointing
and, in a word, unbelievable.
We invite you to read, to think
and ultimately, to decide for your
self.
Mike Warren/DN
NU ATHLETIC Director Bill Byrne (right) and football coach Frank Solich accept the Fiesta Bowl championship tro
phy on Jan. 2. Byrne, an athletic director knowledgeable in the business side of athletics, came to Nebraska on
June 26,1992, to take Bob Devaney’s place and has helped Nebraska continue dominating collegiate athletics.
Campus construction projects underway
Josh Walfe/DN
GREG MEYER and Rill Roetan take measurements
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ByCaraPesek
Staff writer
Last semester, UNL students encountered
chain-link fences, blocked sidewalks and even
cranes throughout campus.
This semester won’t be much different.
Love Library South, the Kauffman
Residential Center, Richards Hall and Seaton
Hall are some of the buildings currently under
construction, said Howard Parker, the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln facilities plan
ning and construction manager.
A three-year construction project to
replace the heating, ventilation and air-condi
tioning systems and make other improvements
at Love Library South began last semester.
Several changes at the library will affect
students.
Periodicals have been moved from the first
floor of the library to the Link, said Andrew
Wertheimer, assistant professor of university
libraries.
One of the biggest changes, though, is yet
to come.
In February, the library entrance will be
moved to Love North.
“That will be a pretty dramatic change,”
Wertheimer said. “Everyone will notice
In addition, the Great Plains Art Collection
will be moved to a new building under con
struction at 12th and Q streets.
The room that currently houses the collec
tion will be converted to a study area,
Wertheimer said.
“We’re trying to move everything as
smoothly as possible,” Wertheimer said.
One project quickly progressing on campus
is the Kauffinan Residential Center.
The new building, which will house the
J.D. Edwards Honors Program, was little more
than a hole in the ground when students began
classes last August.
Now, with the steel work almost complete,
the three-story building is taking shape.
“We’re right on schedule,” said Tracy
Aksamit, project manager.
Brick work is scheduled to begin in late
February or early March, Aksamit said.
“It could go pretty fast, of course, depend
ing on the weather,” Aksamit said.
Aksamit and Parker both said they expect
ed the $15.7 million project to be completed in
February 2001.
Art students can expect to move into the
newly renovated Richards Hall in October.
. The building was gutted and renovated,
Parker said.
Before construction began in April 1999,
the building had no elevator and was only par
tially handicap-accessible.
// We ’re right on
schedule.... It could
go pretty fasti of
course, depending on
the weather.’’
Tracy Aksamit
honors hall project manager
The renovated building will be completely
accessible, Parker said. In addition, it will have
new lighting, air conditioning and more stor
age space.
Many students may have noticed that ply
wood and warning signs cover the first-floor
windows of Seaton Hall. The building faces
Selleck Quadrangle.
A $1.3 million renovation of the first floor,
used by the graduate studies program, is in
progress, Parker said.
Improvements to Seaton Hall are expected
to be complete in September, Parker said.
Amid the construction, there has also been
Please see CONSTRUCTION on 10
