Dirt Track Under Memorial Stadium

[Old Nebraska Guy]

Things I know for sure.  Sorry, this got way too long.  My history of the indoor track.

 

The track under the stadium was the training and competition  site for the track team until Devaney was built.  Its surface was crushed  (red) brick, considered to be superior to crushed (black) cinders.  Another surface of the era.

 

I went to a football game in ’93.  The track was still there and the records (outdated) were still painted on the wall. Then used for storage I think

 

Yes, the track was only under the east stadium.  There was a tunnel that lead from the old field house to the track.  Yes it was shaped like a kidney bean because it followed the shape of the stadium.  The two corners were steeply banked.  Yes it was about 7 laps to the mile, either 252 or 254 yards per lap.  The space under the west stadium was the university’s maintenance department under they were moved out for the first really big weight room.

 

All the finish lines were on the home stretch the west side.  The backstretch ran under the bleachers which faced the “infield” and home stretch. For meets the 3 60 yard races and the 4 field events were all held inside the kidney bean “oval”.  The kidney bean shape of the track was actually an advantage for the races that went around. Runner would shift from running the inside curb on the backstretch to running the outside wall on the homestretch and would never  be boxed in for more than about 100 yards.  If you were trying to make move to the finish line runners ahead out you moved out of the way.

 

As poor as it was it was still better than most other conference schools.  At the time I don’t think Iowa St.  and the Oklahoma schools had anything. Colorado and K-St had flat dirt tracks in their field houses that had their basketball courts and seating in the middle of the infield.  KU probably had good stuff but Frank Sevigne, NU’s coach, and Bill Easton, KU’s coach, didn’t get along and therefore didn’t have their teams compete against each other.

 

Also, I doubt Jim Ryan ever ran in Lincoln.  See above.  Ryan’s name on the wall may have been a conference record.  I did see Ryan run 3:58 in Kansas City on a board 12-lap-to-the-mile track as an exhibition race when he was a freshman and not eligible for varsity.  In conference meets Ryan tended to run multiple events to help his team.  His record breaking runs were usually in the summer in national or international meets Besides the mile I believe he briefly held the world’s record in the 880 yard run and he was a 47 second quartermiler too.

 

In all the high school state meets held in Lincoln, all the field events except the shot and discus where held indoors.  On Sayer's big day there was another 24-ft long jumper there too.