Erstads Give $1 Million Toward Memorial Stadium Improvement ProjectErstads Give $1 Million Toward Memorial Stadium Improvement Project
Baseball

Erstads Give $1 Million Toward Memorial Stadium Improvement Project

The University of Nebraska Athletic Department graciously accepted a $1 million gift for the Memorial Stadium Improvement Project on Thursday.  The gift was given to Athletic Director Steve Pederson from Darin and Jessica Erstad at a press conference held in the N-Club room in Memorial Stadium.

A native of Jamestown, N.D., Darin Erstad was an All-America baseball player and a punter for the national champion 1994 Cornhusker football team. He was the first player picked in the 1995 Major League Baseball Draft and is continuing an outstanding nine-year career for the Anaheim Angels, winning a World Series ring while playing the outfield for the Angels in 2002. A two-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner, Erstad led the Majors with 240 hits in 2000 while batting .355.

Erstad moved from outfield to first base for the 2004 campaign and posted a .996 fielding percentage (third in AL). He collected a game-tying two-run double and scored the winning run in the eighth inning of the Angels’ AL West-clinching game, Oct. 2 at Oakland, helping Anaheim to its first divisional title since 1986.

As a Husker, Erstad earned academic All-Big Eight honors in football in 1994, averaging 42.6 yards per punt to help Nebraska to an undefeated season. On the diamond, he was named a first-team All-American and Big Eight Co-Player of the Year in 1995, batting .410 with 19 homers and 76 RBIs. Erstad compiled a .356 (261-of-733) career batting average with 46 doubles, eight triples, 41 HRs, 182 RBIs, and .608 slugging percentage in 176 collegiate contests. He finished his Husker baseball career with six school marks, including a school-record 261 hits.

Jessica (Bettger) Erstad is a native Nebraskan from Fairmont and graduated from Shickley High School, where she was a member of the Shickley volleyball team that set a state record for consecutive wins.  She worked in the Husker athletic department marketing office for several years before earning her undergraduate degree in journalism-advertising from UNL in 1996.  She was a graduate assistant in the NU marketing office in 1997 and also had an internship with the US Olympic Training Center with USA Triathlon.  She served as the New Orleans Saints Ticket Sales Supervisor from 1997 to 2000 and as the University of Houston’s Director of Marketing before moving to California.  Jessica is actively involved with the Anaheim Angels Community Relations Department raising money for the Angels Baseball Foundation.  She is a member of the USA Gymnastics’ Event Staff for national competitions and is the event chair of the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center women’s golf tournament. 

"This University means so much to both of us," Darin said.  "We care passionately about the athletic department and particularly the football and baseball programs.  Jessica and I see so many great things happening at Nebraska and we wanted to be a part of this project to help future Huskers for years to come.  We had a great experience in our time at Nebraska, it’s our home away from home and we want to be able to help provide those same kind of great memories for future student-athletes."

Athletic Director Steve Pederson said the athletic department appreciates the Erstad’s generous gift.

"We are so appreciative of this generous commitment from Darin and Jessica," Pederson said.  We’ve known about their commitment for some time, and we’re thrilled to make this announcement this week when Darin and Jessica are back home for the 1994 National Championship Celebration.  Great things happen when great people pull together and with assistance from everyone in our Husker Nation family, this project will set the stage for generations of great future Huskers."          

The Memorial Stadium Improvement Project includes a indoor field house, that will house soccer offices and a full-length football field (to be completed by fall, 2005); the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex, that will house the strength complex, athletic medicine, football locker rooms and athletic administration offices (to be completed by fall, 2006) and the North Stadium expansion, which will raise the stadium’s capacity to 80,000 (to be completed by fall, 2006).

Press Conference Quotes

Remarks from Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson
Today is another great day for Nebraska football and we want to thank each of you in the media for attending this press conference and for your genuine interest in Nebraska athletics.

There is No Place like Nebraska. That is our fight song, but it is also the reality of college athletics. I would like to start today by thanking our great Nebraska fans for your terrific support during the transition of our football program. I get to do something very special on recruiting weekends; I get to meet with nearly each and every recruit and family that comes on this campus to visit. Let me tell you what they are saying about Nebraska fans. However great the reputation of Nebraska fans is across the country, our recruits and their families love their experience at Nebraska and the Nebraska fans more than you will ever know. You are making a real difference. The other thing they tell me is how much they love our current players. Do you know that seniors on this team like Benard Thomas are helping us recruit and convincing student-athletes to come to Nebraska? What does that say about the character of our team? The recruits also tell me how much they love the coaching staff and the family atmosphere that they have created. But most importantly, they love the atmosphere that has been created by the people of Nebraska in support of this program. It is also obvious from early indications that the positive energy in our state is having a real effect on recruiting. Thank you Nebraska fans for creating that atmosphere.

We also appreciate how the fans have welcomed and embraced these 15 new wonderful families that have moved to our state. Their children are in Nebraska schools meeting other wonderful kids and their spouses are already immersed in the community finding out why we love Nebraska so much. Thank you for immediately making them a part of the Nebraska family.

We have never been more excited about the future of this program. Never does a day go by where Coach Callahan fails to tell me just how much he loves the kids on this team. They have been so wonderful in their attitude about the transition of the program. They never complain or make excuses, they just keep working harder. I remember hearing Charlie McBride say that the work ethic of our team was learned from the work ethic of Nebraska people. Thank you for establishing a culture where young people can grow and succeed. In any transition, there will be bumps in the road. The difference in Nebraska is that we seem to just cheer louder when things get tougher. Thank you for being so supportive of these great kids and coaches.

When it comes to being supportive and pro-active, the couple that joins us today goes to the top of the list. Darin Erstad is one of the greatest athletes ever to compete at the University of Nebraska. You are all well aware of his tremendous success with the Anaheim Angels after his great career at Nebraska in both baseball and football. Jessica Erstad actually started working at Nebraska as a student and remained with us as an assistant in marketing upon graduation. Together they are a dynamic couple and I do not believe I know a couple that loves Nebraska more than Darin and Jessica. Today we are thrilled to announce that Darin and Jessica Erstad have made a gift to the University of Nebraska for the Memorial Stadium Expansion Project of $1 million dollars. To have a past player make such a generous gift to the future of this program means the world to all of us at the University of Nebraska. We wanted to wait and make this announcement when Darin and Jessica could be here in person. It is also exciting with Darin’s 1994 National Championship team being honored this weekend to have this special event. Thank you Darin and Jessica for your loyalty and support of Nebraska. I would also like to recognize another great Nebraska guy, Paul Meyers who recruited Darin from North Dakota and is now continuing to recruit funding for this project. Darin and Jessica join thousands of Nebraska fans who have made contributions to this excited project that means so much to the future of Nebraska.

Former Husker Darin Erstad
On their decision to donate:
"It was a very easy decision. Nothing went through our minds. We knew we were going to help, we just didn’t know at what time. When the project came about, we just felt like this was the right time, and the chance to get the facilities that you need to get the recruits in here and get the level of the buildings and the facilities the same as the other schools in our conference. The timing was right and it was a no-brainer."

On the need for new facilities:
"I don’t analyze the facilities, I don’t even think about that. It’s a matter of what they’re trying to get accomplished. When the opportunity arose to help with this, like I said, we knew what we wanted to do. We didn’t have a figure that we had set that we were going to (give), it just kind of came about."

On the impact of being a student-athlete at Nebraska:
"Well first off my wife’s from here. She grew up in Fairmont and Shickley and the Huskers have been a big part of her life. For me, outside of my family, without a doubt Nebraska was the single-most important thing as far as developing me as an athlete and as a person. If I had signed out of high school and played minor league baseball, I can’t even imagine what I would have been. I learned so much here and just developed as a person. Not only with the baseball, and learning so much there, and with football, but learning how to deal with people and deal with the media and play in front of big crowds. I just want other kids to have the same opportunities as we had to go in and perform and have a chance to win a national championship, and that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to support the team and watch them win."

On what he’s looking most forward to this weekend:
"The Huskers winning on Saturday. Win, or lose, we’re the Huskers, and we’re going to support them through thick and thin. It just doesn’t matter, it’s in your blood."

On how often he makes it back to Lincoln:
"I come back at least once every year. We’ve made a few road trips. We’ve been back for the Baylor game this year, this game, and we’ll go to the Colorado game. We try to make as many home games as possible, and when the other games work out, we try to make it to as many as those as possible as well. If we’re not here, we’re definitely watching on TV, so it’s definitely a big part of our lives."

On where their donation will go:
"General stadium, the fundraising they’re trying to do. We didn’t set out any specific area, or anything. It’s just going in the ?pot’, to get the project done."

On the widespread Nebraska fan base:
"It’s just amazing how Nebraska follows you. It’s been 10 years since I’ve been back here. We’ll go to Yankee stadium, and when I was playing the outfield, these guys out in right-center are chanting anti-Husker chants. It follows you everywhere you go. I’ve been in Fenway and had ?Go Big Red’ chants start in the outfield. We’re at Comiskey Park and the lady on the organ is playing the fight song when I’m coming to the plate. It follows you wherever you go. All these other guys, they’re from different schools, and it’s just not the same. For whatever reason, that Nebraska-thing just follows you. When Coach Callahan was hired, I almost had a press conference myself with our beat writers about what was going to happen in Nebraska. People recognize the pride that all of us have for the program. I suppose they see it too when I have Husker helmets and hats hanging all over my locker in Anaheim."

On the patience of Husker fans:
"Most of the Husker fans have been through this a lot longer than I have. I’m a pup compared to them as far as watching games. One thing I relate it to is, when you’re hitting .210, it’s a lot easier to be a leader when you’re hitting .300. When you’re hitting .210, it’s tough to be a leader. It’s easy to cheer for a team when they’re winning national champions every year. It’s a little tougher to cheer for a team that’s not doing so well. It’s this time that we all have to stand up and really support the team and believe in what we’re doing through anything. I’m going to be that guy waving my hat around and giving high-fives in the crowd on Saturday. It’s great to see everybody doing that. We’re all in this together."

Jessica Erstad
On Darin being from North Dakota and coming back to Nebraska:
"He was North Dakota, but I made a deal with him. He wanted to live in North Dakota, but I said the kids would have to have my maiden name if we lived there, so that got him out of North Dakota.

"When we have free weekends and (wonder) ?where do we want to go?’, our friends are here, and we love coming back here.