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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED OLUME 26, ISSUE 5 23 donations, Purdue says, will be debt funded, with future media rights (i.e. TV) deals funding the debt service. The impetus for the facility came last summer, when Brees hosted a football summit at his home in San Di- ego, gathering Coach Darrell Hazell and other football staff members, with athletic director Morgan Burke, University Board of Trustees chairman Mike Berghoff and former players like Kerrigan, Cliff Avril and others. After those discussions, Purdue began adjustments to its Football Master Plan, moving away from thoughts of more immediate renovations to the south end zone and toward projects that might have a deeper impact on the success of the product on the field. Ross-Ade Stadi- um updates, it says, will come later. Initial plans were born for what would become the 110,000-square- foot performance facility. The three-level, Populous-designed facil- ity, which will sit north of Mollenkopf and cut into the hill adjacent to the Bimel outdoor practice fields, will in- clude locker and weight rooms, film rooms, training rooms, offices and more. Purdue held the ceremonial groundbreaking on a stage on Schle- icher Field inside Mollenkopf, a two- hour event that brought together more than 450 of Purdue's most im- portant people, from its football al- ums and Super Bowl champs to cur- rent players, coaches, administrators and donors. Purdue wants to win again, and it thinks a new facil- ity will be beneficial. "If you're trying to attract the type of talent that can really help you win football games and play at a high lev- el and create that sense of school pride that comes with a successful football program," Brees said, "one of the best ways to do that is to have facilities that kids can walk in to and say, 'These meeting rooms, this perfor- mance center, these weight rooms, this nutrition program, this stadium, all these things are designed to help me be the absolute best I can be, not only here but potentially to prepare me for the next level.' I think that's what kids want to see and that's what they want to feel. In a lot of ways, that's what this is all about. It's de- signed to get the absolute best out of our student-athletes and provide them with every opportunity to do so." The current group of Boilermakers have the support of past players. That much was evident at the ground- breaking when some of the biggest stars of the past were honored for their professional achievements. Purdue has 22 Super Bowl winners, including ones in 13 of the last 17 years, and two game MVPs in Len Dawson and Brees. Four of the former Super Bowl champions — Brees, Rosevelt Colvin, Keena Turner and Bob Griese — spoke to the crowd, remembering their NFL and Purdue ca- reers. "This place is different and special," said Turner, who won four Super Bowls in San Francisco in the 1980s and is a 49ers executive. "It should be looked at and appreci- ated in that way. We shouldn't be trying to be someone VOLUME 26, ISSUE 4 23 Tom Campbell Ike Moore helped give Brees the mon- iker "The Fix-It Man" in October 2000, when Brees rallied Purdue past Ohio State. It was Moore who told Brees on the sideline,"My momma always said, 'You break it, you fix it," following the quarterback's late interception that nearly gave the game to the Buckeyes.