Former University of Nebraska-Lincoln, HuskerVision Leader Shot Kleen Named 2023 Recipient of SVG College Pioneer Award

Kleen oversaw operations of the pioneering HuskerVision from 1994-2019

The Sports Video Group is proud to announce that Shot Kleen, former Assistant Athletic Director for HuskerVision at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been voted recipient of the 2023 SVG College Pioneer Award.

The SVG College Pioneer Award celebrates those who have innovated in the fields of video production and technology at the university level and have advanced the industry at large. Kleen will be celebrated at the SVG College Summit at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta on June 1.

Kleen oversaw the operations of HuskerVision from 1994-2019 (upon his retirement), the department widely credited as the first in-house video production department in collegiate athletics.

Kleen oversaw the operations of HuskerVision and was also the leader of the technology team, which researched and develops all technology-related projects within the athletic department.

The University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium has been a hotbed of video innovation for three decades, thanks to Kleen’s leadership and the work of the team at HuskerVision. In 2009, the university invested to take Memorial Stadium into the era of high definition. With new videoboards and a control-room overhaul, HuskerVision became home to one of the first fully-HD production facilities of any kind in the Midwest.

“When you trace the history of video production in collegiate athletics, the journey nearly always finds its way back to Lincoln, Nebraska and HuskerVision,” says Brandon Costa, Sports Video Group’s Director, SVG College. “Shot Kleen is the technology mind behind it all where he blazed trails in collegiate athletics. If you have attended a big-time college sporting event and been blown away by the videoboard show, so much of that experience was born from investments and technological and creative risks taken by Kleen and the many people who were fortunate enough to work with Shot for more than two decades.”

Kleen provided engineering support and maintenance to the HuskerVision studio, control room, all athletic department video equipment and the big screens in Memorial Stadium and the Bob Devaney Sports Center. He also administered the budget for all technology related capital expenditures.

Kleen’s “coaching tree” is extensive with numerous alumni of the University of Nebraska and HuskerVision working in leadership positions across the industry, including at other athletic departments. Kleen also worked closely with Jeff Schmahl during the founding of HuskerVision. Schmahl was a posthumous recipient of the SVG College Pioneer Award in 2015.

During his tenure, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s athletic department was also named the recipient of the SVG/NACDA Technology Leadership Award in 2017.

SVG College Pioneer Award Honorees:
2023: Shot Kleen, University of Nebraska
2021-22: Imry Halevi, Harvard University, Northeastern University
2019: Tom Odjakjian, American Athletic Conference, Big East Conference, ESPN
2018: Rick Bagby, Clemson University
2017: Chris Taylor, Ball State University
2016: Jim Nachtman, Pennsylvania State University
2015: John Kvatek, University of Central Florida
2015: Jeff Schmahl, Texas A&M University, University of Nebraska
2014: Rick Church, Michigan State University
2013: Mark Rodin, Florida State University
2012: Ken Norris, University of California, Los Angeles