Q & A: Bernie Waxman

Bernie Waxman, the current Associate Athletics Director for Facility Planning, Operations and Event Management who is in his 31st year working at FSU and 14th in the athletics department, oversees event management for most of the 19 sports in which FSU competes at the NCAA division I level. He answered a question regarding Doak Campbell additions.

Q: Are there any additions planned for Doak Campbell such as banners, jerseys, or other markers of Florida State's football history?

Waxman: We are working through how we can tastefully display some of the great tradition of Florida State football in Campbell Stadium. The key for us is how can we do it tastefully. The tradition is rich with the ACC Championships, the National Championships, the All-Americans, and some of the phenomenal coaches we have had. We want our fans that come into our stadium and feel like they are walking into a sacred space. When they walk in there we want them to feel the ghosts of the past and the spirit of the unconquered Seminoles and those guys that played here 40, 30, 20, or 10 years ago. There is just a really fine line about how you do that or it just turns into glitz and glitter. We want to make it that sacred space, a special place for the people that walk in and for the people that don't know the sense of Florida State's past, when they walk in there we want them to have a sense of a the symbol of the Seminoles, the unconquered Seminoles, and we want them to have a sense of the excellence that we have had in the sport and the good people that have played on the field and filled the seats in the stadium. There are so many of those and there are so many student athletes that have done well that have come through the program that we want that feeling to filter through the stadium.

You want to do it right the first time, you don't want to make a mistake. Right now we are continuing to do the appropriate planning. When we are ready to move, we will move the right way.