Dirt Track Under Memorial Stadium

BigRedBuster

BigRedBuster

International Man of Mystery
I think this was still there when I went to school but never had a chance to go down and see it. It's long gone now with all the construction. Interesting pic.


 
My dad went to UNL and said he used to run on the track a lot, occasionally even coming across TO. By the time I got to school it was already gone, but wish I could've seen it!

 
I actually went in there one time when I was on campus with the Masonic Marching Band for the Shrine bowl. Another kid and I wandered in there (under east stadium) during a break once. It was a dirt track, nothing really all that special unfortunately. I remember thinking at the time how weird it was to have a dirt track under there.

 
I remember running on the track as a little kid in the '60s. It followed the contours of the stadium so the straight aways were curved out away from the field. It ended up kidney shaped.

 
Remember seeing old vids of my dad working out with coffee cans filled with cement on either end of a steel bar on that track.

The beginnings of Husker Power.

The "calisthenics" they did back then weren't scientific but they made rock from clay. Great old vids! I should go watch now.

 
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I am I said:
Remember seeing old vids of my dad working out with coffee cans filled with cement on either end of a steel bar on that track.

The beginnings of Husker Power.

The "calisthenics" they did back then weren't scientific but they made rock from clay. Great old vids! I should go watch now.
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In the mid 70s I ran track for Wayne State (NE). There was a dirt track under the stadium that we ran on when the weather was too bad. To hold the dirt down they spread oil on the track and it smelled so bad we used to get bad headaches and rashes. Might explain the extra head I have growing out of my shoulder. Old Doc Simpson loved long distance runners. Sprinters like me he had no idea what to do with so we ran distances in practice as well. Have to guess that was not the best training.......

 
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Red Dead Redemption said:
Flood said:
teachercd said:
Is the collective age of the first 3 posters in this thread O/U 152.5 years?
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Higher. Much higher. That track was removed in 1978.
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You sure about that, chief? It's official use was replaced, but the track was still there as late as the 80's. I jogged the mushroom gardens many times before the rec center was built.
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Yeah....I know it was there when I was in school in the 80s. I just never had the chance to go see it.

 
The mushroom garden was only under East stadium. There was a route shaped roughly like a boomerrang, and it wasn't level. I think it might have been about 1/7 of a mile. I think they actually used it to run winter races for the track team. There was an old track records board (still there maybe?) that listed the track records for races run in there. The mile was sub four minutes. Maybe 3:58 or something. I saw that and thought, who it he heck could run a four minute mile in this place?" It was Jim Ryun, a Kansas Jayhalk.

 
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Fun fact.  The 1961 Class A long jump championships were moved to the Mushroom Gardens because of weather.  That is where Gale Sayers jumped 24-10 1/2 to set a Nebraska State Record that remained until 2005 (Robert Rands, Bellevue East, 25-0 1/4).  Here's the interesting thing.  Sayers' jump was actually a mostly-unrecognized NATIONAL high school record for the long jump.  But because it was set during the outdoor season, most folks never made the connection.  He never received recognition for that until many years later, I think.

 
Old Coach said:
Fun fact.  The 1961 Class A long jump championships were moved to the Mushroom Gardens because of weather.  That is where Gale Sayers jumped 24-10 1/2 to set a Nebraska State Record that remained until 2005 (Robert Rands, Bellevue East, 25-0 1/4).  Here's the interesting thing.  Sayers' jump was actually a mostly-unrecognized NATIONAL high school record for the long jump.  But because it was set during the outdoor season, most folks never made the connection.  He never received recognition for that until many years later, I think.
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Was it because technically he jumped indoors?  Helluva an accomplishment regardless, but there are rules.

 
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