LINCOLN — Former Husker Grant Wistrom will be enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame this weekend, festivities that conclude a year-long celebration for the sport's most accomplished stars.
Wistrom, a two-time All-American at Nebraska, was selected to the Hall of Fame last summer and participated in its induction ceremony in December. Now, he and 23 other college football legends are set for the enshrinement in South Bend, Ind.
Starting Friday and continuing through Saturday, there will be a golf outing, a block party, a fireworks show, a parade, a pep rally, an autograph session and a youth football clinic. The enshrinement dinner and show Saturday evening will cap the weekend's events.
Wistrom, from Webb City, Mo., played on all three of Nebraska's national championship teams during the mid-1990s and won the Lombardi Award as a senior. In the NFL, he played nine seasons for St. Louis and Seattle.
Nebraska will have 14 former players and six former coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Big 12 media days
Nebraska seniors Niles Paul, Pierre Allen and Prince Amukamara are set to join coach Bo Pelini at Big 12 media days July 26 in Dallas.
Nebraska, Baylor, Iowa State and Texas A&M will address the media on the first day of the three-day event. Missouri, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Texas Tech will be there July 27 while Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas will appear July 28.
This tub's from Suh
The Husker football players will have an additional cold tub to use after demanding practices next month, courtesy of money donated by Ndamukong Suh.
The former NU defensive tackle gave $2 million to the Nebraska strength and conditioning program last spring. One of Suh's requests, according to Associate Athletic Director John Ingram, was to add the specialized tub, which can keep water temperature steady at 55 degrees and help athletes' muscles recover more quickly.
There's already one similar tank in the athletic medicine center. By early August, there will be another inside the football locker room, next to the team shower.
Ingram said players will also get computers installed in their lockers, thanks to Suh. Other Suh-inspired additions are planned for a later date, he said.
Suh also donated $600,000 to Nebraska's College of Engineering last spring.
Devaney upgrades
By the end of the month, construction is scheduled to begin on the south side of the Devaney Center, an expansion project that will upgrade the home for three winter sports teams next year.
The Hendricks Training Complex, set to be completed in September 2011, will feature new basketball courts, locker rooms and offices for the NU wresting team and its men's and women's hoops teams.
As part of the project, the Devaney Center's athletic medicine center will be remodeled and its weight room will be expanded, according to Ingram.
Athletic Director Tom Osborne said this summer that construction bids on the new facility will drop the final expense tab to somewhere between $16 million instead of the projected $18 million.
Odds and ends
Nebraska is in the process of replacing one of its grass football practice fields next to the Hawks Center with FieldTurf. The installation will be finished by the time preseason camp begins Aug. 7. … The west lobby in Memorial Stadium is undergoing a facelift that will showcase the athletic department's academic achievements. “It's going to look pretty amazing,” Ingram said. … The new Student Life Complex, located under the stadium's west stands, is set to be completed Aug. 20.
— Jon Nyatawa
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