"Last Tunnel Walk" Makes Way to Memorial Stadium

Omaha artist Ashley Spitsnogle calls her painting “The Last Tunnel Walk,” and her talents have already raised at least $12,000 for Heartfelt Incorporated, a nondenominational grief support organization for parents who have experience the death of a child.

On Wednesday, two prints of her work, featuring Brook Berringer putting his hand on the back of Sam Foltz as the two beloved Huskers walk into a bright light at the end of Nebraska’s famed Tunnel Walk, arrived at the Nebraska Athletics Department.

One print will hang on the seventh floor of North Stadium, and the other either along the Tunnel Walk or in the glass trophy cases in the North Stadium lobby.

Sam Foltz’s parents, Gerald and Jill Foltz, Nebraska Director of Athletics Bill Moos, Nebraska Associate Athletic Director for Football Matt Davison, Heartfelt president Sharon Dickenson and Nebraska Director of Licensing & Branding Lonna Henrichs joined Spitsnogle and members of her family as the prints made their way to Memorial Stadium.

This isn’t the first Nebraska-related painting for Spitsnogle, who also has one featuring Berringer and former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, a work she did for Osborne’s Teammates organization.

Because she sells prints featuring Nebraska athletics, she became licensed through the university a couple of months ago, Henrichs said, and must pay royalties to Nebraska on everything she sells.

However, there’s a notable exception for “The Last Tunnel Walk.” Henrichs said instead of Nebraska receiving the normal 15 percent share of each sale, that Spitsnogle could give the royalty money as a contribution to Heartfelt. But Spitsnogle still wanted to do something for Nebraska Athletics, so she donated the two prints.

Spitsnogle is known for doing live paintings during fundraising or charity events, with her work normally being the centerpiece of an auction. On Feb. 17, she needed four hours to paint “The Last Tunnel Walk” during the Heartfelt Hearts and Souls Gala, an annual fundraising event in Seward that includes live and silent auctions.

The original painting was auctioned off that day for $10,000, and Spitsnogle has since sold enough prints for another $2,000 in royalties that go to Heartfelt. Part of that money goes to families who’ve lost children so they can purchase a brick with their loved one’s name as part of a memorial on the Concordia College campus in Seward.

Two bricks in the memorial bear the names of Sam Foltz and Mike Sadler, the Nebraska kicker and Michigan State punter who died in an automobile accident on July 23, 2016, in Wisconsin.

Spitsnogle’s live painting was initially going to feature Foltz and Sadler, but Jill Foltz had the idea of instead featuring Foltz and Berringer, the former Nebraska quarterback who died in a plane crash near Raymond on April 18, 1996.

Anyone interested in purchasing a print of “The Last Tunnel Walk” can visit Spitsnogle’s website, www.ashleyspitsnogle.com, or follow “Ashley Spitsnogle’s Art” on Facebook.

Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.