Just hours before Iowa State dismantled Texas Tech, the football team and university took a step toward the future with the groundbreaking of the Indoor Multipurpose Use and Training Facility.

The 92,000 square-foot facility, which is being funded entirely by private gifts, is scheduled for completion in November of 2003.

“I’m sure no engineer, but I’ve been around a long time, and I know this thing is really going to be first-class,” said head football coach Dan McCarney, who entered to a standing ovation. “There will not be a better indoor facility for all of the athletes here at Iowa State than the one we’ll build.”

The new building will house the existing artificial turf and serve as a place for the football team and other programs to practice and train during inclement weather. It will also have the capability to host large gatherings of up to 6,000 people.

Owen Newlin, president of the Iowa Board of Regents, said the new facility will also benefit the citizens of Iowa. He said it will help set Iowa State apart from the rest of the universities across the nation and will serve the people of Iowa in many ways.

“This groundbreaking represents a very significant step in building Iowa State’s athletics program into one of the premier programs in the nation,” Newlin said. “You have a very solid foundation on which to build, and this new facility will enable you to reach even greater heights of success.”

Bruce Van De Velde, ISU athletics director, said the new facility will help host a variety of events, such as Special Olympics, the Iowa Shrine Bowl and the Iowa Games.

For some, the new facility will even help them make the decision to attend Iowa State, Van De Velde said.

“The multipurpose indoor training facility is an investment, as [ISU president] Dr. [Gregory] Geoffroy said, in people,” Van De Velde said.

“It will help attract and retain the very best and the brightest student-athletes and coaches to Iowa State University.”

The lead donors for the $9.3 million project were Steve and Debora Bergstrom of Kingwood, Texas. Steve is president and chief operating officer of Dynegy, an energy company. He said he talked with McCarney about five years ago and asked him what he needed to take the program to the next level. McCarney said he was having a tough time convincing athletes from the south to come to Iowa State.

“Being from Texas, I know what he’s talking about,” said Steve, a 1979 ISU graduate. “Every time someone comes up here in January to decide whether they’re going to go to school here, and they leave Dallas or Houston and it’s 76 degrees and get here and there’s snow on the ground, I’m sure they ask questions like, ‘Where do I practice?'”

The Bergstrom family has also donated money to the marching band and the new Gerdin Business Building, which is currently under construction on the ISU campus. They have also provided money for scholarships in the College of Business and donated funds toward the weight room in the Jacobson Athletic Building.

Geoffroy said the Board of Regents will be asked next week to name the facility the Stephen and Debora Bergstrom Multipurpose Indoor Training Facility.

Steve said he remembers going to Clyde Williams Field to watch ISU football games for a dollar and has always been a Cyclone football backer.

“He’s grown up following the Cyclones and I kind of married into it,” Debora said. “He just thoroughly enjoys Iowa State and the Cyclones. He wants to see his university grow.”