Top 5 sports stories of the 2004-05 school year… as voted on by the Northern Star sports staff. With many big events throughout the school year, many notable stories were left off the list.

The biggest story of NIU’s annual intra-squad spring football game took place an hour before the ball was kicked off.

In a tent west of Huskie Stadium, administrators unveiled plans for a new $9.5 million Academic and Athletic Performance Center.

The facility will be built behind the north end zone of Huskie Stadium when the $7 million campaign goal is reached – $5.1 million of which has already been provided by donors. After the $7 million goal, the project will begin with the remaining $2.5 million to be raised by NIU athletics. No state money or student fees will be used, NIU President John Peters said.

Administrators urged private donors to help reach the remaining $1.9 million needed to begin the project, a figure Peters hopes to reach by the Sept. 3 season opener at Michigan. “When that day comes, Joe Novak and I have keys to the steam shovel,” Peters said to a tent full of cheering fans, alumni and athletes Saturday. “We can have that building completed in 12 to 14 months.”

The 60,000 square foot project will include strength and conditioning facilities for all sports, football coaches’ offices, locker rooms and academic assistance centers for athletes, making it what NIU athletic director Jim Phillips hailed as the “jewel among athletic performance centers in the MAC.”

“Over the last 15 years, our competition have added greatly to their facilities,” Novak said. “We have fallen behind.”