Myers Family Gives Gift of $5 Million Toward Memorial Stadium Expansion Project

The largest single gift to the University of Nebraska Athletic Department was received on Wednesday from Charles and Romona Myers. Athletic Director Steve Pederson accepted their $5 million gift toward the Memorial Stadium Expansion Project at a Dec. 8 press conference at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Myers were also honored for their gift with a private dinner attended by Husker student-athlete representatives and also during the Nebraska - Minnesota Men’s Basketball game Wednesday evening.

A native of Davenport Iowa, Charles founded Superior Industries, Inc., in 1964, a company that designed and built refrigerated structures and facilities. In addition, Charles owned and operated Freezer Services, a cold-storage warehouse company with 11 facilities in 10 states. In 1998, when Charles sold Superior Industries, Inc., and Freezer Services, the consolidated company sales hit the $800 million mark while combined employees numbered 5,000. In 1983, Superior Industries, Inc. was listed as one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine.

Married for 52 years, Charles and Romona reside in Omaha and Scottsdale, Ariz. Together they have three children, 12 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. The Myers family has a history of philanthropic endeavors, having gifted $7 million for the library at the University of Dubuque (Iowa), where Charles has an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree. Romona is an honorary alumnus of the University of Dubuque and has a Learning Center named in her honor. The Myers have also committed $8 million to the University of Dubuque for the construction of a Teaching and Administrative Center, which is scheduled for completion in July of 2006.

Charles and Romona support numerous charitable organizations, including Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Nebraska, Inc., Child Saving Institute, Christian Family Care Agency, Nebraska Special Olympics, American Lung Association "Camp Super Kids," and Quality Living. In 2003, Charles successfully received from his granddaughter, a liver transplant.

A longtime season football ticket holder and Directors Club member, Charles and Romona have been attending Husker football games for more than 30 years, and Charles was honored by the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1993 with the presentation of its Clarence E. Swanson Memorial Award.

"Romona and I have always felt fortunate to have received, but we have always felt that it is much more important to give back," Charles said. "Our gift represents many years of great memories from watching Nebraska’s football team. We hope this gift helps continue the great tradition of Nebraska football, while helping to create more memories for Nebraska fans."

Athletic Director Steve Pederson said the athletic department appreciates the Myers’ generous gift and in their honor, will name the performance level (first floor) of the new Osborne Athletic Complex, The Charles and Romona Myers Performance Center for Student-Athletes. The performance level features the main areas where Husker student-athletes of all sports will focus to achieve their championship goals.

The Myers Performance Center will include the strength complex, the athletic medicine facilities and the football team locker room.

"The same way that the Hewit Center has helped our student-athletes achieve legendary success in their academic goals, the Myers Performance Center will provide our student-athletes the opportunity to achieve their goals in their respective sports," Pederson said. "I believe that for years to come, our student-athletes will view the Myers Center as the place where championships are earned."

The Memorial Stadium Expansion Project includes an indoor field house and Championship Wing, that will feature a full-length football field (to be completed in the fall of 2005); the Tom and Nancy Osborne Athletic Complex, that will house The Myers Performance Center for Student-Athletes (to be completed in the fall of 2006) and the North Stadium expansion, which will raise the stadium’s capacity to 80,000 (to be completed in the fall of 2006).

The Athletic Department continues to accept gifts toward the building project. To date, the project has received more than $20 million in private gifts toward the $50 million project.

University of Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson
Opening Statement
Thank you for being here.  We are certainly excited.  This is a great and historic day in the history and life of the Nebraska Athletic Deparment.  We have, tonight two outstanding people with us who have chosen to do something very special to make the <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>University of Nebraska continue to be one of the top programs in the country.  We are thrilled tonight to announce that Charles and Romona Myers of Omaha have made a commitment of $5 million to the University of Nebraska athletic department for the purpose of helping us build the MyersPerformanceCenter for Student Athletes.  This is an integral part of this fabulous Memorial Stadium expansion project that we’re on right now.  This gift, in addition to putting us over the $20 million mark in our fundraising, becomes the largest single gift in the history of the University of Nebraska athletic department.

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When you think about the importance of our student athletes, we said from the beginning that this particular facility was going to be centered on two groups of people, our student-athletes and our fans.  And this is certainly the most visible part of helping our student-athletes succeed.  The MyersPerformanceCenter will house the strength complex, it will house the football lockers rooms, it will house our football equipment room, and it will house all of our athletic medicine facilities, where we will have state of the art facilities for rehabilitation and hydrotherapy and things like that inside this facility.  Certainly, this will become the epicenter for outstanding performances for helping our student athletes realize their athletic degree. 

 

I think back to 1983 when we built the HewittCenter for student-athletes, because we wanted to take our legendary academic programs and athletics to a whole new level.  And certainly, through the work of great student athletes and our great staff over there, we have done that.  The MyersPerformanceCenter will give us the same opportunity for the performance side of our student athletes lives.  And so we are thrilled to be able to announce this gift tonight, we are thrilled to have Charlie and Romona here with us tonight and I would like to call upon our chancellor, Harvey Pealman to make a few remarks.

 

University of Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman

Thank you Steve, as you all know, I am not one of the two outstanding people up here.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank Charles and Romona.  This is a terrific gift.  It demonstrates a confidence in the future of the athletic department and an understanding of another use that is needed to support student-athletes and recruit student-athletes and to do the kinds of things that establish the Nebraska tradition.  So, on behalf of the entire university, I just want to thank both of you for this extraordinary honor.  Thank You.

 

Charles Myers

Charlie why did you decide to give such a large gift and why to this particular part of the university?

Well, I do think its okay to receive, but I think also you have to give something back.  So that’s really what we are doing.  The number just happened to be something that fit. 

 

Why this University?
There are a lot of reasons for that.  Two of them are behind me up here.  The other reason is that we have lived here since 1950 after we came from Davenport, Iowa.  The whole story, we got to the Missouri River, ran out of fuel, didn’t have any money, so we thought we might as well stay. For about 30 years or so, we have been involved in football, mostly on the sidelines watching it.  We’re excited for the university, we’re excited for the state. We feel it’s a real necessity to bring together all the different functions and activities.

 

Do you see this as a confidence booster for the athletic department?

I absolutely believe that.  My wife and I had dinner with a group of students tonight, and its just amazing.  They care.  They want to grow and they need tools to grow with, like facilities. 

 

Do you think the lackluster season has affected the fund raising?

It probably has, but you know something, it is about the 80,000 people coming to games.  Whether they’re angry or not angry, they’re still here. 

 

Do you think your donation might cause others to donate?

We certainly hope so.  That’s as far as I’ll go.

 

Romona, can you talk about your interest in the football program?

I like their colors.

 

How did you decide on $5 million, was there a debate over that?

We met with Steve and got an idea of the numbers.  We wanted a pretty healthy number that would help get this thing kicked off.

 

What does it feel to have the single largest contribution in history?

Truthfully, we never gave that a thought.  I don’t think we were even aware of that at the time.

 

Charlie, for $5 million do you have any plays you might like to share with Bill Callahan?

I think I’m going to leave Bill Callahan alone.  I haven’t met him yet, but I look forward to that.  Personally, I think he is going to do a great job, and I think he has done a great job.  Let him grow a little bit.

 

Steve Pederson

What kind of a jump start does this give you?  How do you see things going now as far as a time table is concerned?
Well we’re excited.  Obviously, when you get a gift of this magnitude it escalates everything.  What I appreciate so much is that Charlie and Romona chose to do this when we weren’t coming off national championships.  They chose to do this at a time where it was very necessary for us to move our program forward.  Its kind of interesting with the discussions, Charlie never talked about the season, or how we were doing.  He just talked about how he could support what was going on here.  So we will be forever grateful for that.  It came at a time when it was the most necessary.  What they’re doing here I hope will create a great Nebraska enthusiasm to keep things going and let us achieve all the things we want to achieve.  These kinds of gifts help make that possible.

 

This is on a five-to-10 year time frame and some people’s patience has already run out.  When would your patience run out?

Well it is interesting, but I think some people’s patience maybe has run out.  I feel bad about that and sorry for them.  But like I’ve said, if you want something to be great, it doesn’t happen overnight.  We tell our athletes all the time that it’s the investments you make away from the game that makes the real difference.  We like to say that this facility will be a place where champions will be made when no one is watching.  It’s kind of like the golfer who goes out and has a lousy round of golf.  But he didn’t practice before that and then he wonders why he had a lousy round.  You have to do all the things that it takes to put yourself in a position to be great and win championships.  And that starts every day.  We have a plan here.  Part of the plan is to get these facilities done.  Some places have chosen to wait and do these facilities once they had a large percentage of the money raised, but we needed to get going on this.  I am so appreciative of Chancellor Perlman and the Board of Regents for allowing us to move forward.  Because what that would have done would have delayed our process of getting our program to where we want to be.  We could have spend two years raising money, then two more years building, then we are four to five recruiting classes away from where you need to be.  We are rolling right now in recruiting.  We’re rolling because Coach Callahan and his staff can say, ?Look what’s going up.  Let’s walk down to the north end and see what’s happening.”  And it will get better as we build it.  It will get better when we can walk into it, and it will get better when it is finished.  So, thank heavens, people have jumped behind to make this headed in the right direction.