UNI Football Films Digitization Project
Among the endless treasures in the University Archives are over 250 films of UNI’s football games from a memorable era spanning 1958-1975. These films include memories of three Panther nine-win seasons, featuring All-American and UNI Hall of Famers including George Alsleson, Wendell Williams, Randy Shultz, Ray Pederson, and Mike Timmermans. Memories of Latham Stadium come alive in this collection of films. Unfortunately, the films are only available in their original format on magnetic tape, which requires obsolete playback equipment, and are rapidly deteriorating.
Digitization has a two-fold benefit. First, it allows the content to exist in a format that can be viewed. Once the content is available in a viewable format, it can be described and processed and therefore is more accessible to researchers. Second, the content is no longer bound by its fragile original format, so it can be preserved long-term.
Update
September 2018 - The first batch of digitized ISTC, SCI, and UNI game film is now available online! You can view these films for free, anywhere you have internet access, in the UNI institutional repository, ScholarWorks, here. Enjoy these games come to life once more!
We have sent a second batch of films to our vendor, and we look forward to digitizing and sharing them with you soon.
March 2018 - We are happy to announce that a successful crowdfunding campaign, launched through the UNI Foundation’s PAWprint program, has allowed us to begin digitizing these films. In the first phase of digitization, which was just completed in February 2018, we preserved 77 individual reels - about 1/3 of the entire collection - which are now available in digital form for the first time ever. Stay tuned as we work to provide online access to these films.
If you would like periodic updates about the progress of this project, please fill out this short form.
Support the continued progress of the UNI Football Films Digitization Project!
Go to https://www.adv.uni.edu/foundation/pledgeform.aspx and add “Football Films” to the description next to your contribution.
If you have game films or other athletic ephemera from this era, let us know! We may be interested in adding it to our collection in University Archives.