Donors, their familes and members of Dana’s administration, coaches, faculty and student body officially dedicate the Gardner-Hawks Center on Oct. 11.

Aesthetics were an important aspect in designing the new facility. Details included in the design are meant to be reminiscent of Dana icons like the clock tower on Margre Henningsen Durham Center and the college logo. Both ends of Cooperman Atrium feature glass walls that give spectacular views of the campus and Viking Field.

The Gardner-Hawks Center is much more than a great new gym. Added offices, locker rooms and bathrooms better accommodate Dana’s booming Athletic Department. With 70 percent of the student body involved in intercollegiate athletics, space in Borup Coliseum was a major issue. Last year, softball shared an office with other women’s sports. In the new facility, Head Softball Coach Marcy Roff has a room and a desk to herself.

INTRODUCING… THE GARDNER-HAWKS CENTER

Dana College officially named and dedicated its new athletic facility, the Gardner-Hawks Center, at a special ceremony on Oct. 11 during Homecoming. The ceremony also dedicated and officially named the Cooperman Atrium, the new entry hall and special events space for the facility.

The Gardner-Hawks Center was completed in August, and has added 34,200 square feet to Dana’s existing athletic facility, Borup Coliseum. The center’s focal point is a new competition gym that seats 2,210 with an additional 814 overflow seats. The new gym is a state-of-the-art space with a sophisticated sound system, multiple ethernet connections for Internet use, a walking track and the ability to convert into three practice courts.

The Center includes much more, including the Cooperman Atrium, the main entry point for both the Gardner-Hawks Center and Borup Coliseum. It contains a new event admissions desk, concession stand, restrooms and the Legacy Wall, an artistic remembrance of the hundreds of people who gave to Dana’s Legacy Campaign which helped fund the facility.

The Gardner-Hawks Center has also added 15 offices, a laundry facility, a training room, a conference area, a multimedia classroom and storage rooms. During the construction process, the existing Borup Coliseum was renovated, updating and expanding locker rooms, offices and the wrestling practice room.

In all, the Gardner-Hawks Center construction and Borup Coliseum renovation cost $6 million. The center is named after the two families whose foundations provided the major gifts — the Dan and Jeanne Gardner family of Wakefield, Neb., and the Howard and Myrna Hawks family of Omaha. The Cooperman Atrium is named for Harold and Merriam Cooperman of Omaha, generous supporters of Dana College. A key challenge gift came from the Peter Kiewit Foundation of Omaha. The remaining funds came from hundreds of smaller individual gifts to the Legacy Campaign.

The new facility owes its existence to three main donors and the hundreds of people who have given to the Legacy Campaign.

Dan and Jeanne Gardner, along with their family, started the Gardner Foundation in 1992. Dan, formerly president of the M.G. Waldbaum Company of Wakefield, Neb., passed away in 2001. Howard Hawks co-founded Tenaska, Inc., an international energy company headquartered in Omaha in 1987. Harold Cooperman founded No Frills Supermarket, the first warehouse supermarket in the Omaha metropolitan area and now a chain of nine stores in southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, including a store in Blair.

During the past six years, Dana College has invited its alumni and friends to help extend Dana’s legacy into the new century and beyond. Response has been incredible — with more than $50 million in current and future commitments to the Legacy Campaign.

Last year, the college received $3.4 million in cash gifts and pledges for capital projects, student scholarships and endowment growth. In addition, donors committed $2.6 million in future deferred gifts to assure Dana’s continued growth and development.

These gifts have enabled Dana to complete the renovation of Borup Coliseum and the construction of the Gardner-Hawks Center.
For many in the Dana College Athletic Department, the increased space is the most exciting aspect of the new facility.

“It’s going to be a luxury from the aspect of scheduling and training for student athletes,” said Jim Krueger ’85, athletic director. “The biggest thing for us is being able to have multiple teams training at the same time.”

Space was an issue the original planners of Borup couldn’t have foreseen. In 1960, when plans were being drawn for the new $459,000 facility, Dana had just six athletic teams. Over the next few decades, more women’s teams and less traditional teams were added, bringing the total to 13. Teams also became larger. The 1961 Viking wrestling team consisted of 10 members. The 2003 wrestling roster included 52. The football team has increased by 190 percent in the same time period, numbering 105 at the start of this season.

Before completion of the Gardner-Hawks Center, teams were scheduled for practices in Borup’s gym in 2-hour blocks starting at 4 p.m. and running sometimes until midnight. The addition of the equivalent of three courts in the new facility has ended that system forever.

“Using our new space, the old gym in Borup and the renovated wrestling room, we can now have volleyball, both basketball teams, wrestling and track working out at the same time,” Krueger said. “With the curtain between the gyms down, teams won’t be bumping into each other either.”

Students have already expressed their enthusiasm for the new facility. Student athletes have been using Gardner-Hawks since the beginning of the fall season and have been raving for months.

“It’s so much easier to do what you have to do in practice when you don’t have to worry about running into a volleyball player or finishing fast enough to get out of the basketball teams’ way,” said Ross Jensen ’04, co-captain of the Viking football team. “It also boosts our spirits knowing that the college is keeping up with our needs.”