A Bust at Baxter Arena

The UNO Maverick now stands watch over Baxter Arena.

In August, workers at the arena installed a bronze Maverick bust onto a pedestal that stands north of the arena’s main west side entrance. The bust is an exact head and shoulders replica of the Maverick Monument statue “unleashed” on UNO’s Dodge campus in August 2014.

The full statue, which stands in front of the Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) building, stands 8-foot tall and weighs 1,600 pounds. The UNO Alumni Association presented the monument to campus in commemoration of the association’s 100th anniversary.

The Maverick bust at Baxter Arena weighs 700 pounds. It also is a gift from the Alumni Association.

The first mascot statue in the University of Nebraska system, Maverick Monument has become the most-popular attraction on UNO’s campus. All year, students, new graduates, athletes, parents and visitors from near and far pose next to it for photographs.

The same is expected to happen with the monument bust at Baxter Arena, which hosts its first athletic event, a UNO vs. Air Force hockey game, Oct. 23.

A committee of students, alumni, faculty and staff in June 2013 chose Seattle-area artist Jocelyn Russell to create the monument. Nearly 160 individuals, groups and organizations have contributed to the monument project, their names engraved on a Sioux Quartzite donor recognition wall that’s part of the plaza on the Dodge campus.