MSU creates a recruiter's dream
$15.5M football facility includes museum, latest technology
Joe Rexrode - Lansing State Journal
EAST LANSING - Mark Dantonio stood in his new staff meeting room Thursday, tinkering with the remote control for the five flat-screen TVs on the wall, with the door to a massive "recruiting patio" to his right and his plush office and full bathroom with marble counters to his left.
Downstairs, gawking onlookers toured a football museum and the Michigan State University football team's high-tech meeting rooms.
Opulent from start to finish, the $15.5 million, 25,000-square-foot Skandalaris Football Center opened Thursday with a formal dedication.
Dantonio and his staff have been there a month. His initial reaction in July was the same as many who saw the facility for the first time Thursday.
"I was pretty taken aback," Dantonio said. "I've not been in a facility like this, and I've been coaching 30 years."
Dantonio echoed that thought moments later at the dedication ceremony. It took place on the Perles Plaza, named for MSU trustee and former coach George Perles and his wife, Sally.
Perles donated $500,000 toward the $1 million cost of the plaza. The entire project was funded by private donations.
Robert Skandalaris, an MSU alum who along with his wife, Julie, gave the $5 million lead gift for the facility, also spoke at the event, along with MSU officials and Justin Kershaw, one of the team's newly elected captains.
NFL a focal point
"Today is indeed a special day for Michigan State University," said President Lou Anna Simon, who then helped long-time MSU supporter John Demmer of Lansing cut the ribbon on the downstairs museum - The Demmer Family Hall of History.
It features four displays of about 13 feet by 12 feet celebrating the program's history and titled Great Teams, Great Players, Great Moments and Great Future.
Plaques hang on the wall honoring the program's six claimed national titles, with banners above them honoring MSU's four retired jerseys - Don Coleman's No. 78, Bubba Smith's No. 95, George Webster's No. 90 and No. 46 for former President John Hannah.
The NFL is a focal point. Helmets of every NFL team rest on a wall with the names of every former Spartan who has played for each team. Video highlights of MSU's current pros loop on a display television.
A giant mural shows former Spartan Plaxico Burress catching the winning touchdown in last year's Super Bowl for the New York Giants.
All of MSU's former coaches, All-Americans and College Football Hall of Fame members are on display as well.
"It does exactly what we've talked about," Dantonio said. "It connects the past to the present."
And it is geared toward recruiting top players.
"The recruiting that this building will allow us to do - it's already started," Dantonio said at the ceremony, mentioning that MSU has 15 players verbally committed for 2009, in a class ranked in the top 10 nationally by analysts.
Latest technology
The meeting rooms are equipped with technology that aids with game preparation. The center houses one of the largest computer servers on campus.
Coaches can access footage from every practice, MSU game video from the past five seasons, opponents' game video and footage of nearly 1,000 recruits.
Out with the old
The Skandalaris Center is an addition to the Duffy Daugherty Football Building, which was built in 1979.
The building became outdated in the high-spending environment of college athletics, and a massive renovation had been discussed for years.
Skandalaris, a college friend of MSU Senior Associate Athletic Director Greg Ianni, initially got involved with the idea in 2002.
In 2006, his $5 million donation got the ball rolling. Ianni, who is in charge of MSU's athletic facilities, directed the project, which took 14 months to complete.
"It's great to see six years later," Skandalaris said, "that the concept is a reality."
