Randy York’s N-Sider
Three hours
before Saturday’s Nebraska-Penn State game, an important ceremony drew
Nebraska’s chancellor, NU’s current athletic director as well as its future AD,
the Big Ten Conference commissioner and a University of Nebraska regent. Every college
executive gathered in Memorial Stadium’s West lobby to commemorate a giant nameplate
that touches every student-athlete in the Nebraska program … the Dick and Peg Herman Family Student-Life Complex.
“Dick’s
support for the academic part of athletics has been extraordinary,” UNL Chancellor
Harvey Perlman said before Saturday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. “His support is a part of our tradition of
caring about the academic success of our student-athletes as much as their
athletic success. I don’t think we could have been so successful for as long as
we have without Dick and Peg Herman and their family.”
Nebraska
Athletic Director Tom Osborne
recalled how Nebraska built its first student-life complex almost three decades
ago when he was able to convince then NU Athletic Director Bob Devaney to earmark $500,000 from the Huskers’ first appearance in
the Kickoff Classic against Penn State in East Rutherford, N.J.
“I
approached Bob and asked if we could keep that money for an academic center, so
that’s how it all started,” Osborne said. “Our student-athletes have benefitted
from the generosity of the Herman family for many years, and when Dick informed
us that he wanted to make an additional gift, everyone was in full agreement
that we should name the Student Life Complex in his and his family’s honor.”
The naming
rights have been approved by Chancellor Perlman and President J.B. Milliken, and Regent Tim Clare said Saturday that the Nebraska
Board of Regents will take formal action to approve the naming in January. Shawn Eickhorst, who will succeed
Osborne as Nebraska’s athletic director on Jan. 1, 2013, also attended Saturday’s
ribbon-cutting ceremony and privately shared his admiration for Nebraska's national leadership reputation in academic and life skills support.
Herman Recalls Hardin’s
Confidence in Osborne
A member of the
Board of Regents from 1968-71, Herman recalled Saturday how Devaney asked Osborne
to develop more academic rigor in the athletic department. “Clifford Hardin was our chancellor, and
he wanted Tom to get in an academic position, and he committed to him,” Herman
said. “He (Chancellor Hardin) told Tom: ‘If you will do this, you have the
talent to be president of the University, and I will commit to you.’ Tom is not
only a great coach, but a great educator, and he was right when he took that
$500,000 and started our academic awards program.”
Dennis Leblanc, Nebraska’s senior associate athletic
director for Academics, said he was thrilled when he learned the Student Life
Complex would be named in honor of the Herman Family. “Dick Herman and his late brother Dale
had a vision in 1989 to have our athletic department become a national leader
in academics, and because of their generosity their vision has come true,”
Leblanc said.
“It’s a great honor for me to be able to say: ‘Welcome to the Herman Family Student Life
Complex’ because Dick is a dear friend of mine, and he truly understands that
college athletics is about more than winning," Leblanc said. "He understands that it’s
about giving individuals opportunity. He understands that it’s about
developing leaders. And because of him and his family, thousands of
Nebraska student-athletes have realized their dreams beyond their sport.”
Keith Zimmer, Nebraska’s associate athletic
director for Life Skills, echoes Leblanc’s appreciation for the Herman family’s
generosity. “I’ve long been impressed with Dick and his unwavering commitment
to the best interests of Nebraska student-athletes,” Zimmer said. “Dick and the
entire Herman family had a vision for providing our student-athletes with the
nation’s very best facilities and resources so they could realize their full
academic and career promise. Every time I see Dick, whether it’s at the recognition
banquet or on game day, he’s beaming with pride about the outstanding academic
and community accomplishments of our student-athletes.”
Major Contribution in
Honor of Entire Herman Family
Herman
contributed to the Student Life Complex in honor of his family, including his
late wife Peg and their children – Anne Jensen, Mike Herman, Rick Herman
and wife Sherry, and Catherine McHugh and husband Martin. The Student Life Complex was
completed in 2010 and includes six centers of excellence: 1) the Hewit Academic Center; 2)
the Abbott Life Skills Center; 3)
the D.J .Sokol Enrichment Center; 4)
the Scott Technology Center; 5) the Papik
Compliance Center; and 6) the Lewis
Training Table.
A
Fremont native, Dick and Peg lived in Omaha, California and South Dakota
throughout their 60 years of marriage, but they always called Nebraska home. An
active philanthropist, Dick held major interests in the Herman Oil Company,
D&D Distributing, and Herman Brothers Trucking.
“I’m
so proud to be associated with a university that has had the most Academic
All-Americans in the country,” Herman said before cutting the ribbon with the
new nameplate that was installed in the West Stadium entrance on Friday.
Big
Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said
Nebraska was well ahead of the curve in building an academic center for
student-athletes. “It takes a lot of energy when there are higher expectations
for improved graduations rates,” he said. “The Big Ten and our universities
started investing heavily in that 15 years ago.”
Delany
described Nebraska’s academic facility as state-of-the-art. “It is certainly
one of the nicest in the country from what I’ve seen, and the results on the walls
testify not only to Nebraska’s success in athletics, but in academics as well,”
he said.
Nebraska Commitment Has Midwestern Sensibility
A
commitment to a broad-based program was pivotal in the Big Ten inviting
Nebraska to become member No. 12 in the nation’s oldest intercollegiate
athletic conference. “Nebraska’s commitment to its student-athletes is both on
the field and in the classroom,” Delany said. “It has a Midwestern sensibility that
winning is important, but it is certainly not the only thing that’s important.”
Delany
described Perlman and Osborne as experienced executives and accomplished
administrators. “They know how to get things done,” he said, “and they realize
that we were expanding the Big Ten. We weren’t merging, so they were very open
about Big Ten thought, Big Ten governance and the Big Ten way.”
In
1989, the Herman family established an endowment to fund Nebraska’s first-ever
Student-Athlete Recognition Banquet in 1991. This annual banquet honors all
non-first-year Husker student-athletes who have posted a 3.0 grade-point
average or better. The banquet honors the top male and female Student-Athletes
of the Year, plus the Herman Team GPA Award winners that honor Husker programs with the
highest team GPA.
The
annual banquets not only honor the student-athletes’ academic achievements, but
also might include their favorite teachers, the deans of the colleges they
represent, plus, in many cases, their parents. “Every year," Leblanc said, "I talk to our student-athletes after our banquet, and so many of them have told me
that the recognition banquet that Dick has underwritten all these years is the highlight of their entire career at Nebraska.”
It’s
a highlight, Leblanc said, because Nebraska produces a first-class event, thanks
largely to a generous donor, whose nameplate will now greet every
student-athlete that will walk into the main entrance of the West Stadium on a daily basis ... in his family's honor.
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