Indiana University Athletics
Transcript From Groundbreaking Ceremony
6/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Varsity Club
June 19, 2007
University President Adam W. Herbert
"This is a very sad day for the Indiana University family. With Coach Hoeppner's passing this morning, we lost a strong, courageous, dedicated and visionary leader. He inspired us with his enthusiasm and optimism, and also his passion for IU football. He gave us `The Walk' and `The Rock.' He galvanized IU fans around the belief that we can win. He instilled in us the spirit that inspires champions to surmount any obstacle in pursuit of their goals. We are united today in our grief over our coach's death. We also are united in our gratitude that we have had the opportunity to know this very remarkable man. Like all who knew him personally, I will personally miss his warmth and, above all, his friendship. Our hearts go out to his family, especially to Jane and their children. And we are delighted that his mother and sister can also be with us today. We will keep all of you in our thoughts and prayers.
"Our initial reaction this morning when we heard of Coach Hep's passing was to cancel this ceremony. However, his family would not hear of it. In the spirit that motivated this wonderful man to pursue and achieve his dreams, they urged us to proceed. That spirit is expressed in a poem that Coach Hep had hanging in his office which captures the motto by which he lived. I would like to share it with you as he did with me and members of his teams.
"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
"Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
"Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!
"That spirit has characterized Indiana University athletic competition since IU formed its first team in 1867. Since then, the single baseball team that launched IU's proud athletic tradition has grown to 24 varsity teams with more than 600 male and female athletes. As you know, over the last 140 years, IU's varsity sports have achieved some of the nation's best overall records of success throughout the nation. Our student-athletes have won 132 NCAA individual titles and 24 national team titles, including a record-setting six straight men's swimming and diving titles, seven men's soccer crowns, and five national titles in men's basketball.
"Although our history of athletic success is impressive, we cannot, we must not and we will not rest on our laurels. As Hoosiers, we all share the viewpoint of former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who once said that he preferred the promise of the future over the glories of the past. Our goal is to be the best in the country in all that we do. Reflective of that goal, we have hired one of the finest athletic directors in the nation. He is doing an exceptional job of leading the department of athletics and positioning it for even greater future accomplishments. We have added to our coaching staff very inspiring and talented individuals such as Coach Hep who are national leaders in their respective sports. The quality of our student-athletes is improving every year. These exceptional young men and women are demonstrating a strong commitment to excellence both on the field of play and in the classroom. Our donors have stepped up to expand their levels of support. In addition to major capital projects commitments, our athletic scholarship endowment is by far the biggest in the Big Ten. We also can say with pride with after years of deficit spending, the Indiana University Athletics Department has been in the black for the last two years.
"There is, however, one very important component that has been missing in our quest for greater athletics excellence. For many of our sports, that missing ingredient has been high quality facilities. We are going to remedy that, and we begin doing so today. It is significant that of the five athletics projects in which we will break ground today, included are two that were a major part of Hep's dream for the further advancement of the IU football program. These facilities will also remind us of his spirit and the vision for what we can do and become.
"The north end zone facility, for which Coach Hep was a tireless champion, will connect the east and west sides of Memorial Stadium. It will create a community atmosphere where in one modern and inviting setting, our student athletes can participate in training tables, work out in the strength and conditioning center, and also hone their academic skills. The new academic resource center will facilitate our student-athletes and provide them with classroom and tutoring space, computer labs, group and quiet study areas comparable to those of out Big Ten peers. It will significantly enhance our ability to provide the full range of academic support services for our student-athletes. We want more of them to be Academic All-Americans.
"The basketball development center will house coaches' offices, locker rooms, meeting and video rooms, a strength development area, training rooms, and practice courts for the men's and women's basketball programs. It will enhance our recruiting efforts by demonstrating a commitment to the future of championships of Indiana University Basketball.
"Our new lighted baseball stadium will feature an artificial turf playing surface, indoor batting cages, bullpens, coaches' offices, locker rooms and press box. It will provide an entry plaza, picnic area, concession area, stadium seating and ample parking for approximately 2,000 spectators. A complimentary softball stadium will be constructed west of the proposed baseball stadium. The softball stadium will also feature seating for approximately 1,000 spectators, indoor batting cages, bullpens, coach's office, locker rooms and enhanced fan amenities.
"These new facilities will greatly enhance our ability to attract outstanding student-athletes and successfully compete for many more conference and national championships. They will position Indiana University to host Big Ten and NCAA tournaments as well as potential community tournaments and events. They will also demonstrate that Indiana University is laying the foundation for a brighter future in which our teams will be positioned to not just equal but exceed the accomplishments of the past. Thank you for joining us today as we recognize the passing of a great Hoosier and to prepare for the promise of the future he has helped us envision."
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Michael McRobbie
"On behalf of the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, thank you for joining us this afternoon. First, let me join President Herbert in expressing our deepest condolences to the Hoeppner family during this terribly difficult time. Coach Hep has brought to Indiana University Football a strength of spirit that inspired players, coaches and fans across Bloomington and around the state. He truly believed in his players, and he embodied to them the traditions of IU Athletics that would help propel them to victory.
"One of the greatest of these traditions, which is especially prominent today, is persistence even in the face of tremendous odds. Names like Phil Garrett and George Taliaferro provide us with some of the many challenges IU's most outstanding athletes have faced in their struggles towards victory. Their remarkable commitment, determination and discipline demonstrate the very best of Indiana University. Coach Hep put it this way, `never quit.' That is how he lived his life and coached his team in his all too short time with us.
"As President Herbert has noted, these magnificent new facilities are part of Coach Hep's vision for the IU football program and for all of IU Athletics. They focus on athletic and academic excellence. And so they mark the important balance that our student-athletes strike as they pursue on in two different, but mutually reinforcing, arenas. Indiana University is more than classrooms and books, it is about building character, instilling integrity and teaching the whole person. It is also about never giving up. Let us be sure to learn that important lesson, one that Coach Hep taught every day both on and off the field. Persistence encourages us to embrace the rich traditions in history that have brought us to this day even as it leads us toward the future. And let this also be how we remember Terry Hoeppner."
Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan
"Make the plan, work the plan, plan for the unexpected. Earlier today, Coach Hep passed away, and when I asked Jane, Allison and Drew who are here with us today, if they wanted us to cancel the ceremonial groundbreaking. They said, `absolutely not.' This was Terry's dream. This was his dream job. It is ironic that days after Terry's second surgery, he appeared before our Board of Trustees and lent strong support and endorsed the facilities that we are breaking ground for today. And here we are again today, putting a shovel in the ground to make this vision a reality. As I said to Jane earlier this morning, Terry never quit, he just ran out of timeouts.
"We appreciate you joining us today to celebrate this significant occasion for IU Athletics and our 640 student-athletes. As Henry David Thoreau once said, `If you build castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.' We have spent countless hours assessing, evaluating, prioritizing, planning and revising - now we're building. We're putting foundations under our visions and plans. Work, without vision, is fruitless. Vision, without perseverance and commitment, is fantasy. It is a combination of these forces and factors that enables significant growth and progress.
"As a wise man once said, `everyone wants progress, few want change.' Change threatens those who silently root for comfort and mediocrity, change causes many to take a hard look at their personal and professional goals and change happens whether we like it or not. People pass away, and that is change. Records are broken, and that is change. Buildings get tired, outdated and dysfunctional, and that is change. How we manage change is a true test. We must overcome our fear of change and our fear of failure, exploiting the human spirit for positive action.
"For Indiana Athletics, to preserve and build upon our athletic tradition, our student-athletes and coaches must have the resources necessary to compete. These facilities are about change and the recognition of the need to progress to make things better. With the construction of the North End Zone facility, the Academic Resource Center, the Basketball Development Center, the baseball and softball stadiums, the physical landscape of IU Athletics will dramatically change over the course of the next two years. These facilities will address many critical needs - overcrowding, lack of privacy, inadequate space and poor conditions in certain areas.
"Building these facilities requires commitment from our most loyal and supportive fans, particularly since no student fees, state or university dollars will be used as funding sources. The vision and generosity of many will allow us to create facilities of significance and distinction. In our first major campaign for athletics at IU, For the Glory of Old IU, we recognize that the most important ingredient in its simple but challenging formula is the student-athlete.
"Today is a celebration of the student-athlete. These buildings will enable them to develop much more both academically and physically. These young people are the rightful beneficiaries of this commitment. The focus today is on our capital campaign and capital projects. But I would be remiss if I did not point out that our current campaign efforts are comprehensively scoped, including a $50 million goal for student-athlete scholarships.
"Scholarship support is the lifeblood of our department and with rising tuition costs, it is now more critical than ever. We are confident that we will reach this goal through the generosity of our loyal donors and friends. One such friend is Larry Glaubinger. Many of you know Larry and know his good work here at IU. Several years back, he and his wife, Lucy, donated $10 million to the athletic endowment fund. I am pleased and humbled to announce once again that Larry has committed another $10 million for athletic scholarship endowment. This gift will establish the Adam Herbert Scholar-Athlete to be awarded to deserving student-athletes annually and in perpetuity. Larry, we thank you for your friendship, for your belief in what we do, and for this incredible commitment. I echo your acknowledgement in President Herbert's service of IU and particularly to athletics. He has played a critical and vital role in making today possible. The President has been a warrior in our fight for excellence. He has been creative and commanding, and he has been engaged in the trenches.
"I talked to Jane and we decided this morning that this was going to be a celebration and that the rest of this week was going to be a celebration. And we're going to make it a heck of a celebration. I'd also be very remiss if I didn't recognize and thank Bill Lynch and his staff. These guys have done great work and will continue to do great work for us and we will not falter."
Men's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson
"As I was walking around this morning, I noticed that it was raining. It was one of those soaking rains that seems like it's going to last all day. Then all of a sudden, I started thinking that this is apropos, that on a day that we're going to celebrate a new era, if you will, that it was raining. Coach Hoeppner was one of those guys that it never rained a day in his life, every day was pretty sunny.
"When we won the Wisconsin game this year, students were storming the court and we were running off the court and the first person there to give me the biggest bear hug was Terry Hoeppner. I can't tell you how many times during the month of February we sat and talked about recruits and how we do this and how we do that. The day I got the Indiana job, my first calls were from the Oklahoma football coaches, especially Kevin Wilson. The first thing Kevin said was, `You are going to love working with Terry Hoeppner.' And this morning the first phone call I got was from Kevin.
"If you're a coach or a student-athlete here, I'd like you to stand up. That's who we're excited about today, that's who the new facilities will help. Recruiting is an everyday business in our profession. When we bring kids on campus, we want to feel good about taking them to our offices and take them to our locker room and show them where they're going to have a chance to get better every day. Now we can. We can take kids to locker rooms and players' lounges. If I was recruiting the fans at Indiana, I wouldn't need anything. I've got you guys. We have the fans. But understand this about our jobs. Every kid we're recruiting right now was born in 1990. So when we bring a kid on campus, that's a different kid. And that's why these new facilities are going to make a profound impact on our jobs and our ability to bring in the top-level student athletes.
"Terry would talk about the North End Zone facility, but he was just as excited about the academic center. He would talk about academic help, learning specialists, tutors and having a better area so our kids could compete better in the classroom. We're excited about this basketball facility, and I know that Stacey [Phillips], Tracy [Smith], Felisha [Legette-Jack], Bill [Lynch] and the football staff are all excited about what we're going to build. But let's not lose sight of how much that academic center is needed and is really going to help us. So on behalf of the coaches, the student-athletes at Indiana University, thank you so much for the commitment you're making to our program."
Associate Athletics Director for Academics and Compliance and Senior Woman Administrator Dr. M. Grace Calhoun
"Mr. Greenspan and Coach Sampson are right, today is a celebration. What an exciting time to be a Hoosier. Today's groundbreaking represents another big step forward in Indiana University's commitment to excellence and competitiveness in everything it does. IU has a long and proud tradition of academic and personal development support of its student-athletes. Hoosier Athletics has always been about more than competitive success. It has been about scholarship, leadership, character and integrity. Indiana University set the national bar for the holistic development of student-athletes, leading to success on the playing field, in the classroom and in life.
"However, the landscape has changed. IU has added varsity sports, expectations on student-athletes have multiplied and participation is now year-round. Academic success measures, such as the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, have resulted in heightened public scrutiny. Peers in the Big Ten have adjusted to these changes by providing more and better support services for student-athletes in state of the art academic facilities. However, until recently, we have not had a strategy or the resources here at IU to adjust to these changes and keep up with student expectations. In the last three years, under the leadership of President Herbert, Athletics Director Greenspan and Associate Vice President Edwardo Rhodes, Indiana has increased its commitment to student programming, services and effective campus partnerships. The last piece of the puzzle is the new academic resource center.
"The current student-athlete academic resource center is 2,500 square feet. We have approximately 640 student-athletes, and many of them are not small individuals. I often reflect on my first experience leaving my office two years ago, walking over students studying on the floor of the academic center and camped out throughout the hallways in Assembly Hall. Obviously I wasn't around to witness the 1930s and Hoovervilles, but I told Mr. Greenspan that it was probably the closest thing to them that I would experience in my lifetime.
"I'd be remiss if I didn't pause to offer a brief personal reflection on Coach Hoeppner. It was not long after my first academic center experience that Coach Hep had his first-hand account of the overcrowding. And as Coach Hep always did, he partnered with me to find a solution. Coach Hep welcomed the student development staff into his space even though he didn't have enough himself. The meeting rooms and classrooms were used for football during the day and for a satellite academic center at night. Football plays were replaced by calculus equations. Depth charts were overwritten with group projects. Coach Hep was the quintessential Hoosier because he always understood and embraced our proud tradition of holistic development of our student-athletes.
"It seems fitting that we are repurposing the current football classrooms and offices to become our new Academic Resource Center. The new 18,000 square foot academic center will not only address overcrowding, but it will afford our student-athletes the critical and essential spaces that we are lacking: Spaces such as a state-of-the-art computer lab, already funded through a generous $1 million gift, classrooms compete with smart technology and an academic commons area which will expand the campus field to the athletics complex.
"The approved plan for our Academic Resource Center allows us to create a peer competitive facility in a fiscally responsible manner. But more importantly, the center, combined with recent staffing and programming enhancements, will allow IU to support its student-athletes in their academic and personal developments in the manner which we have come to expect as Hoosiers. I want to thank the Board of Trustees, President Herbert and President-elect McRobbie and Athletics Director Greenspan for committing to reinvigorate this hallmark of Hoosier athletics."
Senior football player Josiah Sears
"I feel like today is a special day for Indiana University and especially its football program. We obviously lost a great leader, football coach and, most importantly, a great man. But by breaking ground on the addition to the stadium, we are ensuring that Coach Hep's dreams for this program carry on. The dreams he had for this football team included championships and bowl games, and for sure, at the top of his list, the Rose Bowl. This new facility allows a greater opportunity to achieve his dream and ours as well by giving us more room, better equipment and a great atmosphere to get ready for each season. This new facility also gives Indiana a competitive advantage in a collegiate athletics environment that uses the newest and biggest facilities to recruit the best players.
"Coach Hep always had IU at the forefront of his thoughts and knew this building would be a huge step in the direction of making this school what it can be - the best. I would like to thank President Herbert, the Board of Trustees and Mr. Greenspan for your leadership and commitment to elevating Indiana football and IU Athletics. To those of you who have generously donated, and to those of you who will, thank you for making these facilities a reality for all of us. Most importantly, though, I'd like to thank Coach Hep and his family for loving this state, school and program and each member of our team so much and for dreaming even bigger for us than we can possibly dream for ourselves. And because he said so, we will not quit."
