(Photo courtesy of Ashland Athletics/GoAshlandEagles.com)

The creation of the Niss Athletic Center was a long time coming.

Now that it is on the Ashland University campus, there is a lot of looking ahead to the promise the new indoor facility – one of the best in NCAA Division II – will bring.

On Friday (Jan. 28) afternoon, the Niss Center had its dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony in front of hundreds of campus dignitaries, donors, coaches and student-athletes. First announced in July of 2020 and opened in late fall of 2021, its features are impressive:

– Total of 125,000 square feet
– 80-yard football field with endzones
– 300-meter, six-lane track
– Two NCAA long jump/triple jumps
– NCAA pole vault
– Eight 100-meter sprint lanes
– 310′ x 175′ turf area for soccer and lacrosse
– Two 16-foot x 80-foot batting cages
– One discus and weight cage on the turf area
– High Jump area
– Conference room area
– Concession area

“When I came to Ashland, it wasn’t long before I met some of the folks in the athletics,” said Ashland President Dr. Carlos Campo. “They said, ‘If we are to compete at a national level with other institutions, there’s one piece that’s missing. That piece is an indoor athletic center.”

Ashland Director of Athletics Al King said, “This is a gorgeous facility. There are 310 NCAA Division II schools in the country. How many have something like this? Very few. And why do we have it? Because it matters. It matters to be good. It matters to give student-athletes and students of all walks of life a chance to come here and succeed, send them on their way.”

All of the donors for the facility – Bob & Jan Archer, Jerry Ruyan, Jack & Deb Miller, and Dan & Brenda Niss – had the opportunity to speak on Friday afternoon. Ruyan, a former Eagle football player, gave a short but very heartfelt summary of why he contributed to the project.

“I didn’t just like my experience or enjoy my experience here,” Ruyan said. “I love this university. Love this university. It’s just something that became ingrained as part of my life.”

Donor speeches varied from a “this is awesome” from Jan Archer, to Jack Miller handing out several Louisville Slugger baseball bats to those who “hit it out of the park for Ashland University,” to Brenda Niss stating “we’re proud to be able to help, and Dan Niss simply adding, “I concur.”

Eagle head football coach Lee Owens spoke to the assembled crowd, and, afterward, shared what the Niss Center means to his program.

“It’s a game-changer,” said Owens, who is in his 19^th season at Ashland. “It gives us an opportunity to recruit like we haven’t before, develop our athletes like we haven’t been able to before. The level of our program, it’s taken to a whole new level. This facility makes that possible. It gives your program a feeling of importance, of significance.

“Football matters here. Athletics matter here, and you want to be great because you know you’re important because of the support people provide for you.”

Said senior Travis Moore, a member of the Eagle track and field program, “It’s huge, being able to stay out of the weather…when it’s freezing cold. This helps us moving forward in competitions with a state-of-the-art track.”

Unfortunately, one of the people who would have been one of the speakers at the dedication and ribbon cutting, Jud Logan, wasn’t there. Logan, Ashland’s men’s and women’s track and field head coach, passed away after the first of the year – and his presence was felt on Friday.

“Jud Logan was my friend,” Campo said. “He was a friend to this institution, because he believed every student had purpose, every one of them. He believed that your life had meaning, and that you had meaning. When he sick with cancer, he saw it as an opportunity to show a leader can fight through it.”

King relayed a conversation between him and Logan, where Logan said there is an “Ashland Mystique.”

“He was talking about the wins and losses, and he was right,” King said. “How does a small school like this, with over 2,000 on campus, how do they compete year after year for championships? He won three team championships, so he should know. There’s a mystique there. How do we do it?

“There’s no mystery, though, with that foundation. Why are we successful? Because people care, and they will not be stopped with whatever obstacles they have.”

Said Moore, “We’ve felt Jud being gone, but more importantly, we’ve felt his legacy while he was here. The meet (Jud Logan Light Giver Open on Feb. 4-5) being named after him is huge. He wanted to be here for the first meet. I think it’s going to be a great way to keep him in memory moving forward, and just allowing us to feel his presence here.”

Campo announced that the track in the Niss Athletic Center will be named the Jud Logan Memorial Track. After that, Logan’s son, Nate, also a former Eagle track and field athlete, coined a phrase – starting with of Jud’s signature phrases – that very well could become a rallying cry for track and field program, the entire athletic department and university moving forward.

“Just like tradition never graduates, legacies never die,” Nate Logan said.