(light music) - [Narrator] In Lincoln, Nebraska, the skyline is home to a college football cathedral.

(light music) For 100 years, Memorial Stadium has become a place that has bound the state together.

(light music) The origins of this Nebraska landmark can be traced to a post World War I America (light music) eager to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

(light music) - [Kay] There was a national movement after World War I to build memorial structures.

There were, you know, 20 or 30 schools in the process of building a memorial building.

(light music) It was a movement that kind of swept through academia from coast to coast.

(soft upbeat music) - [Mary] They had really big plans for this building, right?

And it was gonna have the memorial, and that would be a rotunda area, colonnades, (light music) there would be a museum that you could put artifacts from the different war periods.

'cause they'd started to think beyond just World War I.

They were gonna have the, of course, the football field, indoor track.

(light music) So it really became this giant thing.

(light music) - [Narrator] Despite the initial designs and plans, in 1923, work began on just an east and west grandstand that would make up Memorial Stadium.

- It's very labor intensive to build a poured in place concrete building, which is exactly what the original memorial Stadium is.

(soft upbeat music) It's the core of the stadium on the east and the west side.

(soft upbeat music) - [Mike] The construction company had 89 days to complete the project.

They lost 31 days to weather, it was an issue.

So it went up pretty fast.

(soft upbeat music) - [Bob] The design of the building is interesting in that it's very typical of its era.

The late 19th and early 20th century saw architects and architecture in this country, not exclusively but heavily based in what is known today as a neoclassical architecture.

(birds chirping) And here's where the capital and the stadium share some talent.

And the Capitol was started under construction a good year before Memorial Stadium was begun.

And that was enough time to bring in a man from the university, a PhD philosopher, and head of that department at the university in the 1920s by the name of Dr. Hartley Bur Alexander.

(soft upbeat music) He was brought into the team and provided all the inscription, some in painted murals, some carved in stone.

He provided images of what the subject matter was to be in carvings on the outside of the building.

He organized the entire thematic scheme, both on the exterior and the interior of the capitol.

He was asked by the university, "You know, you're doing this for the capitol, how about providing some work for us at the stadium?"

Which he was glad to do.

(soft upbeat music) There are four corner pavilions and the two inscriptions on the east side of the building, that face campus were dedicated as memorial statements to those who'd given their lives in service to the state and nation.

(soft upbeat music) "In commemoration of the men of Nebraska who served and fell in the nation's wars, (soft upbeat music) their lives, they held their country's trust.

(soft upbeat music) They kept its faith, they died it's heroes."

(soft upbeat music) Since this facility was to be about sports as well, there were two inscriptions installed on the corner pavilions on the West stadium.

(soft upbeat music) "Not the victory, but the action, not the goal, but the game, in the deed the glory."

(soft upbeat music) "Courage, generosity, fairness, and honor, and these are the true awards of manly sport."

(soft upbeat music) Anyone can build a stadium.

What you put into it, what you say you stand for, (soft upbeat music) is more a statement of who you are as a people.

I mean, he darn well knew that.

(soft upbeat music) And so, he chose statements on the face of the stadium.

If you take time to read them, (soft upbeat music) talk about the merit of the activities to go on inside the stadium.

Not the win loss record, but how you conduct yourself competing in those sports, representing our state.

(soft upbeat music) The stadium was essentially an east and a west stadium.

The east stadium that which faced campus was to be the main entrance.

(soft music) The real visual appearance of the stadium was oriented to the east as it should be, the campus where the students would enter.

And that's still to this day, the predominant student and faculty side of the stadium, the West stadium, more the general public.

(soft music) And so, the East Stadium and West were both clad with a facade.

(soft music) It had a whole series of arches along the exterior face of the building.

And at the very center of the east side was this semi dome, which was a semi-circular recess into the face of the stadium, with a half dome at the top of it.

(soft music) It had kind of coffers in it and bosses or flowers in the center of that dome.

So it had some real antecedents in Roman architecture.

(soft music) It was meant to be a very impressive, make no mistake about it, where the front entrance is kind of expression on that side of the building.

(soft music) - It was a really quick build, really.

'cause you're talking that, you know, they're groundbreaking in April of 1923, but they're playing games in October of 23.

But again, that's where you had, the field could be made available.

Certain sections of the stand could be available, but the entire stadium was not complete at that time.

(soft music) - [Kay] It still had wood frame holding the concrete.

It looked a little too fresh to be safe.

But I do think they tested it before they let people sit up there in the stands.

- And in fact, I think there's a note where Parsons Construction Company that was responsible for actually building the stadium, they just said, "If you're gonna be having fans in the stands in October or on these games, we're not gonna be responsible for any injuries."

(soft music) - [Kay] The first game happened in October 13th in 1923, and that was against Oklahoma.

(soft music) - Nebraska won that game fairly handily, I think 24 to nothing or something like that.

And the interesting thing about that was, that Nebraska wore blue jerseys that day because Oklahoma had only brought its red ones.

And rather than having both teams looking the same, Nebraska agreed to, "Oh, we'll do the blue jersey thing."

So that's the only time that Nebraska ever didn't wear red in a game.

- And then the next game on October 20th against Kansas and Jayhawks is when it was actually dedicated.

And at that time they said it was 30,000 fans could come into the stadium.

Now sometimes, depending on the archival record that you're looking at, you might see that read as 31,000.

And in fact, at one point I found a citation where there was actually 47,000 possible seats in the stands because the intention was that you could bring in bleachers in an emergency situation.

(soft music) - [Narrator] Nebraska had begun a new chapter on campus, and within the football program, (soft music) even though the stadium wasn't quite finished, the first games played inside, ushered in an era of winning football that only grew from there.

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