The Story Behind…
“the dome crew”
Photographed in grand Island, nebraska, august 1994
Kyle Gilson, Curt Vance, Doug Brunnert, Tim Skrastins and Todd Rundstrom
The Friends Who Have Influenced My Life the Most
The Dome Crew
Before my plans to conquer the photography world were realized, we all had some more growing to do.
It was 1994, and college had come to an end for my close circle of friends.
Two years earlier, in 1992, after two years at Arizona State University, where I spent my week days partying with my fraternity brothers and my weekends photographing bungee jumpers, my grades suffered in direct proportion to the fun I was having and before I knew it I had lost my scholarship.
I returned home to Kearney with my tail between my legs. I was emotionally crushed and went through the first of several stages of depression in my life.
In what felt like a snap of someone’s fingers, I was kicked out of paradise and flung back home to my boring, tiny hometown, surrounded again by corn and cows.
My friend Tim, who had stayed in Kearney and attended the University of Nebraska at Kearney, was excited I was coming home. He had developed a circle of friends from his dorm, Centennial Towers West.
This group included Kyle Gilson, Curt Vance, Doug Brunnert and Collin Nabity. I met this group of guys during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. I was back in Kearney, working at Bob’s Superstore.
(Cassie Boisen) (Pike Parties)
Thankfully, these fellas accepted me into their group. Kyle, in particular, was fascinated by my bungee jumping job. Kyle’s nickname is Ace, derived from his love of the Snoopy cartoon character and his dogfights with the Red Baron. Just like a WWI fighter pilot with no fear, I quickly learned that Kyle was as addicted to adrenaline as I was.
During our sophomore year in college, while I was enrolled at but not going to many classes at Arizona State, this group of friends back home in Kearney were making plans to get out of the dorm and rent a house. While Tim, Kyle, Curt and Doug went on a March spring break ski-trip, Collin found a house, signed a lease, and when the other fellas returned, informed them of the good news – and that they all owed him money for the first month’s rent.
Tim was very excited to tell me this news and have me see the house, and in May when I returned to Kearney after being kicked out of school, mad, sad and depressed, thankfully, Tim and the other fellas welcomed me back into their circle.
I clearly remember walking into the house at 1411 Avenue H, a perfect off-campus party house for five outgoing and charismatic guys.
Although they had their own experiences with Greek Life and being in fraternities (Tim and Kyle were Pi Kappa Alphas and Curt was an Alpha Tau Omega), after two years they were ready to leave the fraternity life and begin a new chapter in their own.
I remember Tim telling me to come to his house as soon as I got back to Kearney. After breaking the news to my parents that I was not going back to ASU, and the reason why, and the blowup that caused between me and my parents, I couldn’t wait to get over to Tim’s house.
I clearly remember walking into 1411 Avenue H, through the living room, down the stairs where a very competitive game of Madden ’94 was being played on a (x-box? Sony playstation?)
Curt looked up at me and said nonchalantly, “Hi Todd, want a beer?”
I did, and he reached in the dorm fridge at the end of the couch and tossed me an ice-cold Miller Genuine Draft (MGD). I smiled at Curt and he smiled back at me, and in that moment we became instant friends.
Over beers and video games, I learned that Curt had applied and been accepted to ASU, but chose to stay in Nebraska. I guess since I had been there, he was interested in me and becoming my friend.
That first night back in Kearney, the last place I wanted to be was in my home with my parents and the tension there. These guys told me I was welcome to crash there, which I did that night, and, over the course of many more days and nights, as I avoided going to my parents house as much as possible, that house became my new home.
The guys had discovered a movie called Ski School, a raunchy flick about a group of party animals competing against the serious ski team for control of the mountain, called The Dome.
The guys immediately identified with the party animals, and, having been on many ski trips together already, quickly adopted the name “The Dome” for the house and “The Dome Crew” for themselves.
Kyle and Curt both worked at the most popular college liquor store, Bill’s Liquor, and it wasn’t long before The Dome became a regular stop on the weekend college party circuit in Kearney.
We held regular keg parties, complete with red solo cups we sold for a couple dollars. Our parties would often grow to over 100 people, standing room only inside and a line outside.
My disappointment from the loss of ASU was quickly replaced with the joy of my new-found friends and our party lifestyle.
The Dome and the Dome Crew quickly developed a reputation as the biggest and rowdiest partiers in town. We grew to know the police officers quite well as they often visited us after getting a noise complaint.
These noise complaints were bullshit, because we didn’t have many neighbors and they were almost always at our parties. The true source of the complaints were the fraternities on campus that were having no one show up to their parties, because everyone was at ours, so they would call the cops on us to break up our parties.
We always went along with the cops requests though, adopting the attitude that it is better to stop now and party again next week, versus facing the consequences of the police returning an hour later and giving us citations for noise or being minors in possession of alcohol.
Another member of the group was Jeremy Aspen, and he had one of the rooms in the house. When he left school and went home, I was able to move into his room. My nights of crashing on a couch or the floor were over, I had a room – with a door - along with a bed and a dresser for my clothes.
During the next two years the friendships between the Dome Crew grew into a brotherhood. During the summer of 1993 we got permission from the landlord to create a sand volleyball court in our back yard. I don’t think the landlord knew exactly what our plans were, and I’m sure that even if he did, he wouldn’t have cared.
Collin directed the operation, renting a small bobcat with a front loader to dig up ten inches of dirt and bringing in loads of sand to make an Olympic sized regulation sand-volleyball court.
A week after breaking ground, we were ready to turn our Friday or Saturday keg parties into full day volleyball parties. Someone came up with the idea that we should have an actual tournament. Kyle and Curt asked Wayne Gappa, the Coors beer distributor they knew from working at Bill’s Liquor, if Coors would sponsor our tournament, and they did!
We designed and printed t-shirts, put the word out, and a few weeks later we were having our first Dome Volleyball two on two tournament.
That would be followed by more informal tournaments, a winter volleyball event affectionately called Blizzard Ball, and another four on four tournament during the spring of 1994, our senior year.
I say senior year because it was the fourth year of college for us, and even though I had enrolled at UNK and was taking classes, I was a long way from graduating. I was more like a fourth year sophomore in my academic journey.