Dayton Daily News from Dayton, Ohio • 8

A8 MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2006 I DAYTON DAILY NEWS NUTTER CENTER 15 YEARS OF HISTORY Rowdy Raiders, elegant Elton John, gracious Garth and late, late, late Axl In its 15 years, the Nutter Center has seen some wild and poignant events. Executive director John Siehl and associate director Jim Brown compiled their top 15 moments, with some comments: CANCELED CONCERTS: SEPT. 12, 2001; NOV. 2, 2001 After Sept. 11, 2001, Tool and Aerosmith canceled shows, and Nutter wasn't able to get another for months.

Moving quickly, the Combined Federal Campaign was moved from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to the Nutter Center. i 1 FRANTIC INDOOR FOOTBALL: 2005-06 Hosting the Dayton Warbirds and Dayton Bulldogs was quite an experience, especially when the Warbirds' opener started 3 hours and 48 minutes late, at 11:23 p.m. "The visiting team was still in Houston when we opened the doors." RVS EVERYWHERE: JUNE-JULY 1999 The Wally Byam Caravan Club International annual rally required hosting 2,000 airstream trailers parked at Nutter and the National Museum of the Air Force. "This event was by far the most intricate and logistically involved cooperative effort we have encountered." fpSW IP 1 AXL'S LATE: JAN. 14, 1992 Nutter still holds the distinction of hosting two Guns Roses concerts in one day.

With lead singer Axl Rose very late, the first show started at 12:40 a.m. on Jan. 14, and the second started at 10:40 p.m. that night. 'if I fTZr.

i )) -A -ft IN HIS WORDS: JOHN COX Operations manager makes the show go By Kyle Nagel Staff Writer John Cox, as the operations manager for the Nutter Center, is the man in charge of making things happen. He sees to the needs of patrons, performers, staffers and, sometimes, dead bodies. When you work at a place that hosts everything from Division I basketball to big-time concerts to monster tracks, you have to be flexible. That's the way he's handled the job since he started working at Hara Arena as a 16-year-old. He joined the Hara staff full-time after graduating from Northmont High School in 1986 and moved to the Nutter Center in 1990, two months before the grand opening.

"I take care of the day-to-day operations of the building. Housekeeping, maintenance, anything that physically gets set up in the building." "I started at the bottom. I swept floors. We set up stages. When they used to have Winterland over there (at Hara), we would actually run the public skating on the weekends.

We took money, sharpened skates, did the ice patrol. It taught me how to deal with people." "In my mind, the housekeeping staff are the most important people anywhere. If it doesn't look clean, if it doesn't look right, no one's going to have a good time." "On a show day? For a big show, I'm here at 7 o'clock in the morning to make sure all the staffing is here, making sure the catering is here, making sure when the guys working on the show get here in the morning they have hot coffee and a shower, making sure they have a towel, making sure they have phone lines. It can mean dealing with the fire marshal, on fire aisles and pyrotechnic permits, making sure the stage is in the right place, that there's enough space for the show, that we're not hanging anything in the building that's too heavy, that the heating and air conditioning is desirable. There's plenty to do." "We've done funerals in here where the body stayed here overnight, so I've had to make sure that was in line." "What do you learn about life? Doing a job like this shows me really that there's nothing I can't do.

With enough thought, there's not much of anything you just can't do." Nutter Center by the numbers 15 Years the Nutter Center has been in operation 10,400 Seating capacity for basketball games 11,600 Seating capacity for concerts 180,000 Square footage for the entire building 35,000 Square footage in the main arena 18 Approximate number of concerts per year 750,000 Annual attendees to Nutter Center events Source: John Siehl, Nutter Center executive director MUST'VE BEEN A NASCAR BUS DRIVER: AUG. 15, 2003 The Molly Hatchet band and crew were scheduled to appear at the annual Ribfest at 8 p.m. Their bus broke down in the morning in Florida. A second bus also broke down. Finally, on a third bus, the band made it to the Nutter Center by 10:30 p.m.

INDOOR POOL: NOV. 26, 1993 Early in the morning after a sold-out Neil Diamond concert and 10 hours before an indoor soccer game, a water line broke on the main concourse. An indoor waterfall was created down the south seats and thousands of gallons of water collected on the arena floor. After hours of work, the soccer game started just 35 minutes late. FINALLY, AEROSMITH: APRIL 16, 2004 After having shows postponed due to Sept.

11, 2001, and later by an illness in the band after the show was already set up, Aerosmith finally went on stage at the Nutter Center, 30 months after the band was originally scheduled to play. ELTON AND HIS PIANO: JUNE 9, 1999 Simply put, Elton John put on one of the best shows in Nutter's history. There were no major catastrophes. GARTH AT THE TOP: APRIL 4, 1997 Garth Brooks came to the Nutter Center as one of the top performing acts in the country. He provided the same to a sold-out crowd, and even remembered the names of staff and crew along the way.

FIRE FOR THE LORD: JAN. 30, 2000 Operations manager John Cox noticed smoke coming out of CASH BACK FOR CASH MONEY MILLIONAIRES: DEC. 3, 1999 After the opening act performed, the Cash Money Millionaires and Ruff Riders got into an argument with a promoter. From 9 p.m. until midnight, they fought about the show, and never went on.

Refunds were provided the next day. WAITING FOR PROTESTS: OCT. 2, 2004 As the Dave Matthews Band came to the Nutter Center, Siehl and others expected some backlash for the band's political stance leading up to the presidential election of 2004. In the end, nothing major occurred, except "almost perfect fan and band behavior." the dressing room of Michael Flatley (aka the Lord of the Dance) just moments before the doors opened for that night's show. Michael Flatley Cox grabbed a fire extinguisher, put out a fire and frantically removed the wardrobe.

The doors opened just 15 minutes late. Flatley asked, "Can I still use the dressing room?" WRIGHT STATE SHOCKER: DEC. 30, 1999 Michigan State, ranked No. 8 and that season's eventual national champion, was supposed to have a cupcake game against Wright State as a homecoming for former Trotwood-Madison star Andre Hutson. But the Raiders shocked basketball with a 53-49 victory.

WSU basketball remains the Nutter Center's primary focus. KENNY IS TOPS: MARCH 27, 2003, MARCH 25, 2004, MARCH 23-24, 2006 Kenny Chesney stands as the top earner in the Nutter Center's history. His two 2006 shows alone grossed more than $1.1 million. And, no, it's not only because of the cowboy hat and the smile. The music is involved, too.

Mm THE DOORS OPEN: DEC. 1, 1990 The first night was quite a show, with the 40-member WSU varsity band, pyrotechnics and an 88-86 men's basketball victory against Tennessee State. Two weeks later, the arena had a gala and hosted the Boston Pops. "I am very proud to say the Nutter Center met the test, hosting one of America's finest symphonic orchestras in a manner worthy of the reputation for world-class entertainment that we have been able to build over the first 15 years of the facility's existence." Kyle Nagel Nutter Center set the tone for campus's expansion, area's growth By Kyle Nagel Staff Writer FAIRBORN By the mid-1980s, the Wright State University athletic department had grown too large to remain in the NCAA's Division II. The school's leadership wanted its athletic program to expand along with the rest of the university.

To do that, the Raiders would need a new place to play basketball. The gym in the physical education building, while an entertaining place to see a game, couldn't hold a big-time program. "It was sort of like a big high school gym," said Mike Cusack, Wright State athletic director. In 1986, the university announced plans for a arena that would be the beacon of WSLPs expansion and atmosphere. The Ervin J.

Nutter Center opened in 1990 and has affected both the development of what was a mostly rural area of Greene County and made the Miami Valley a concert destination for large acts, as well as hosting WSU athletic events. John Siehl, the Nutter Center's executive director, remembers that when the Nutter Center was built there was "basically just a hotel or two, and the Bob Evans across the street." There were no huge commerce centers, Fairfield Commons Mall or array of restaurants. Even though its main purpose was, and remains, Wright State athletics, it has changed the face of Fairborn and Beavercreek along Fairfield Road and A year later, in 1970, the Dayton Convention Center was built, which the brothers saw as a "slap in the face from their hometown," said Siehl, who ran Hara Arena for many years. The Nutter Center opened as a state-of-the-art facility that people involved hoped would make Wright State stand out in the minds of high school students and community members alike. "We were enhancing all aspects of the institution," said Paige Mulhollan, Wright State's president from 1985-94.

"We were adding programs, graduate and undergraduate. We were anxious for our commuter students to take pride in having made the choice to come to Wright State University." Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagelDaytonDailvNews.com. The brothers created a place for friends to gather on Saturday nights, and it was an immediate hit. What if, they wondered, people had a large venue to use as a place to host events? In 1964, they opened Hara Arena on the apple orchard property that had been in their family for generations. (It was named for the first two letters in Harold's and Ralph's names).

Soon, Hara became an athletic facility with the Dayton Gems minor-league hockey team and one of the rock 'n' roll centers of the Midwest, hosting the most sought-after acts of the day. Across town, UD Arena opened in 1969, but it was mostly a basketball facility and the Wamplers didn't sense competition there. Colonel Glenn Highway. "It certainly is one of the anchors that helped develop the area," said John Abel, executive director of the Greene County Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Building 1-675 was also very important, but the Nutter Center provided a destination." Restaurants take notice of what events the arena is hosting.

If Jon Casey, the managing partner of LongHorn Steak-house down Fairfield Road from Nutter, sees Kenny Chesney on the schedule, he knows to beef up his work schedule. Hara was the first in the area The idea for a large public assembly facility in this area started with a room over a red barn on Harold and Ralph Wampler's farm property in Trotwood..