For the last 120 years, the football program has been an integral part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Huskers.com). The Cornhuskers are the winningest college football team over the last 50 years and have become an immense source of pride for the school and the state (Huskers.com). When one thinks of the University of Nebraska, the Husker football team is one of the first things that come to mind.

The team has come to represent the character of the state as a whole. The traditions of hard work, perseverance, consistency, strength, and integrity that define the Nebraskan way of life are attributes that the football team has displayed over the years (Smith). Because there is only one major university in the state, the Huskers have become cherished by the majority of Nebraskans. If not loved because of provincial allegiance, the Huskers are respected for the way they play the game.

The three monuments outside Memorial Stadium, although they are meant more as pieces of art than as monuments, memorialize Brook Berringer, Bob Devaney, and Tom Osborne. They are tangible tokens of the characteristics that the Cornhusker football team manifests; namely, tradition, leadership, and character. The monuments represent not only what those three men accomplished, but how they did it.

Fred Hoppe

Fred Hoppe is an internationally known sculptor who completed both the Husker Legacy Statue and the Tom Osborne/Brook Berringer Statue. Born in Malcolm, NE, he has made major contributions to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, having also created "Archie", the 17-foot high giant imperial mammoth that resides outside of Morrill Hall (Veterans Memorial Museum).

Hoppe has worked in the sculpting field for over 21 years, winning over 100 state, national, and international awards. His work includes commissions for former president George Bush, General Norman Schwarzkopf, the President of India, Nebraska governor Ben Nelson, and other national and international figures (Veterans Memorial Museum). He currently works as the director of the Veterans Memorial Museum in Branson, Missouri (Veterans Memorial Museum).

Monuments as Art

Over the course of researching this project, the authors discovered that the monuments of Memorial Stadium probably exist more as aesthetic compliments to the stadium's aura than as memorials in the truest sense of the word.

There was very little evidence of any kind of a dedication ceremony, banquet, or significant announcement alluding to any of the three pieces and there were no official records of correspondence in the Love Library Special Collections Library. Because there is so little backstory, it is believed that the monuments exist more so as art than as commemorative objects.

However, there is no denying the fact that these pieces do memorialize their subjects. It just so happens that the subjects of commemoration are not as important as the visual image created by the monuments.

Because of this knowledge, the authors go beyond the facts in this exhibit and express their opinions on what exactly the monuments commemorate due to their ambiguous nature.