AI-assisted summary The Breslin Center’s tunnel wall features signatures from over 200 famous visitors.

The tradition began shortly after the Breslin Center opened in 1989.

Plexiglass protects the signatures, and a panel is temporarily removed for new additions.

If only the walls of the Breslin Center tunnel could talk …

Imagine what President Bill Clinton was saying when he left his signature there in 2001, less than two weeks before he left office.

Or the conversation amongst New Kids on the Block when the group members signed the wall in 1991.

Over 200 famous visitors have signed their names on the cinder blocks that make up the hallway near the visitors locker room. It’s a museum of sorts, with Plexiglass affixed over the gray bricks to preserve the history represented by the names of visitors such as Clinton, hip-hop artist Nas, the Dixie Chicks, and Bob Hope.

Breslin Center sales manager Mallory Shenefield and Tara Peplowski, former client and marketing services director at the Breslin, are familiar with the wall’s history, although neither knows exactly how or when the signature tradition started, but they know it was early on.

The Breslin Student Events Center opened in 1989, and there are signatures from country music stars Dolly Parton and Randy Travis from the year 1990.

Shenefield said she calls it the wall of fame. Peplowski said they referred to it as the star wall when she worked at Breslin from 1995-2004. She’s now Wharton Center’s marketing and group sales manager.

Peplowski said generally, the celebrities signed their names before the shows. She would have them sign on the way or coming back from meets and greets, or she would grab them for a quick signature after sound check.

Some celebrities signed only their names; others included a date. The more colorful guests sometimes included an inscription.

“Def Leppard was here 12/2/92 it was cold and we got happy drunk,” reads the rock band’s brick.

“Johnny Cash, with a bullet,” signed the country music icon next to cinder blocks signed by pals Wille Nelson and Waylon Jennings. The three performed with their supergroup The Highwaymen in March 1990.

Peplowski said the plexiglass cover to preserve the signatures was implemented during her time at the Breslin. Before a performance, she’d work with facilities staff to remove a panel where a star would sign. After the signature was in place, staff would re-attach the protective panel.

The wall isn’t only for music stars. Some of the signers visited as MSU commencement speakers or to perform in comedy shows.

President Bill Clinton’s signature is from Jan. 9, 2001. Clinton met with men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo and the national championship team and spoke to a crowd during his farewell tour before leaving office on Jan. 20.

“We have Garth Brooks a couple times because he was here twice.” Peplowski said as she scanned the wall for a moment before finding his signature during a recent visit to Breslin.

“Garth Brooks and I had a conversation here when he signed the wall and I told him that my parents were coming to the concert. ‘They think it’s really cool that I have this job,'” Peplowski said. “I was only six months into the job and he (Brooks) said, ‘Oh, my mom thinks it’s really cool what I do, too!'”

The days of big musical acts stopping in East Lansing have slowed since their ’90s and early 2000s peak. Peplowski cites the simple fact that popular acts’ stage shows have grown in production size, making it hard to fit inside the Breslin Center’s rafter grid system that includes the Spartans’ new center-hung video scoreboard.

Acts still come through the Breslin Center, and each year they host a spring student-organized concert.

Shenefield has overseen signatures from hip-hop artist Waka Flocka Flame, rock band GROUPLOVE and comedian and podcaster Theo Von. The most recent celebrity to sign, Von performed in February on his Return of the Rat tour, fitting since his signature included a black stenciled rat with gold whiskers and crown on its head.