The Stadiums of the Big11Ten: Part 5

ROSS-ADE STADIUM

-Location: West-Lafayette, Indiana
-School: Purdue
-Year Opened: November 22, 1924, with an original seating capacity of 13,500.
-Home Record: 252-147-13.
-Capacity: 62,500
-Largest Crowd: 69,357, in 1970, vs Indiana.
-Big Game(s): 200th win in the stadium vs Michigan in 1996.
-Current/Past Traditions: Boiler Up.

I will never make fun of the "We Are..." chant again.

-Riots: Couldn't find any big football related ones. That's disappointing. Seems there's a lot of tear gas getting thrown around up there, but not many big riots.
-Other Uses: Not much to be found
-Interesting Fact: Concession stands, managed by V/Gladieux Enterprises, Inc., offer a wide selection of food and drinks. Stands outside the stadium open three hours prior to kickoff. In-stadium stands open one and a half hours before kickoff. The End Zone Café, located at the northeast corner of the stadium, provides gourmet coffee and continental breakfast foods, along with stadium fare.
Oh, and some minor three phases renovation that will boost seating significantly.

Purdue, Purdue, Purdue. Every year Purdue is a dark-horse pick to win the Big11Ten, and every year, they're average. Combine the average teams with a relatively small stadium and that doesn't make for a very intimidating scene. By all accounts, Purdue has good crowds at their games, but it's just not a place we would fear going to, but more significantly, no team fears going to. If we were road-tripping to an away game, Purdue would be somewhere between Northwestern and Indiana at the bottom of the depth chart.

OHIO STADIUM

-Location: Columbus, Ohio
-School: Ohio State University
-Year Opened: 1922
-Home Record: 373-104-20
-Capacity: 102,329
-Largest Crowd: 105,708 (Nov. 18, 2006 Ohio State 42, Michigan 39)
-Big Game(s): Any game where the maize and blue is involved.
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: Double-deck horseshoe design. A bunch of seats that can only see half the field.
-Current/Past Traditions: The dotting of the ‘I’ by the OSU Marching Band
-Riots: Most notably following a 2002 defeat of archrival Michigan. Police used tear gas and made 49 off-campus arrests as large groups burned couches, flipped over cars and generally went on a destructive rampage. THE Ohio State University: always a class act.
-Other Uses: Columbus Crew (MLS 1996-99)
-Interesting Fact: When the stadium was built in 1922, many people scoffed at it’s 66,000 seat capacity. How far we’ve come: Going into last season, the stadium had seen 34 staight crowds of 100,000 or more for football.

Ohio Stadium. Home to the hated Buckeyes and the possibly-even-more-hated sweater vest. If your team is traveling to Columbus to play, it’s usually bad times ahead. We’re not going to lie, we wouldn’t mind if the Lions never had to play there again. It’s one of the great home field advantages in the country, but we’re pretty sure SEC teams would still destroy Ohio State even if the national championship game was played there.

It’s an old stadium, rich with tradition, and there’s not a lot bad we can say about it. Except for the fact that it makes us vomit when we think about it and also that Maurice Clarett once called it home. Even so, we would love to make the trip sometime and bravely sit amongst the sea of red.

The Stadiums Of The Big11Ten: Part 4

SPARTAN STADIUM

-Location: East Lansing, Michigan
-School: Michigan State
-Year Opened: 1923
-Capacity: 75,005
-Largest Crowd: 80,401, when the Spartans hosted Notre Dame in 1990.
-Big Game(s): versus Michigan in 2001. TJ Duckett with no time left! Oh and that comeback against PSU in 07. Got them their first bowl game in a while.
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: Tallest building in East Lansing.
-Current/Past Traditions: We were actually able to find a bunch. Zeke the Frisbee catching dog during the halftime shows, the players walk to the stadium from their hotel and the fans line the route, and what team who uses Spartans as their mascot could pass up the opportunity to use 300 videos? Thunderstruck is their big pre-game song...which brings us to the riots section.
-Riots: Couldn't find any football related videos, but they've had more than their fair share of riots up there. They make all of us proud. See the video, it looks like everyone having a good time looking at some boobies, then the fuzz had to come break it up. Of course, they used Thunderstruck.

-Other Uses: Hosted the Cold War! We're huge hockey fans, and the Cold War was one of the coolest things ever. A couple future NHL stars played in the game and 74,000+ people attended. The only thing that could have made it better would be if someone actually won.

Everything we've read about Spartan Stadium has been all good. Mel Kiper thinks it's one of the most scenic stadiums. We think Mel Kiper looks like Dracula, but worse. By all accounts, Michigan State provides a great game atmosphere. It's not a stadium that anyone really fears heading to, and lately it seems the fan base is getting more and more apathetic up there. Maybe that fat guy can do a documentary or something about it, and bring people back to the games.

MICHIGAN STADIUM

-Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
-School: University of Michigan
-Year Opened: 1927
-Home Record: 560-130-21
-Capacity: 107,501
-Largest Crowd: 112,118 (Nov. 25, 2003 Michigan 35, Ohio State 21)
-Big Game(s): Any game where Ohio State is involved. Also, September 1^st, 2007: A day that will live in infamy (for Wolverine fans, anyway).
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: One-level bowl design. Also, the great size of the stadium is not very apparent from the outside, as the stadium was built below grade and only 20 rows are visible from outside in most sections (as you can see in this picture).
-Current/Past Traditions: The team entering the field under the “GO BLUE” sign. Also, winning. Michigan is the winningest program in D1 history with 869 wins all-time. With 560 victories at the Big House, they’re pretty solid at home as well. That is, of course, unless they’re playing Appalachian State.
-Riots: None found.
-Other Uses: U of M graduation ceremonies.
-Interesting Fact: The stadium currently seats 107,501, but after a renovation is complete in 2010, the official capacity will be over 108,000. Of course, none of this means anything because the stadium saw an NCAA all-time record crowd of 112,118 in 2003 against Ohio State, so obviously it can pack in many more fans than the official number. The stadium has also seen over 170 consecutive games with crowds over 100,000.

The Big House. Possibly the most well-known and storied stadium in all of college football. Hail To The Victors. The Maize and Blue. The thousands and thousands of fans. If you don’t get chills thinking about a trip to Michigan Stadium, you’re not a college football fan (or you’re an obnoxious SEC fan who hates the Big11Ten).

We’d love to make a trip to see the Lions battle it out in the Big House, but two things hold us back: 1.) Our RV would almost definitely break down somewhere in Ohio and 2.) the Blue and White would almost definitely lose. The last time Penn State posted a victory in Michigan Stadium was in 1996 – also the last time we’ve posted a victory against Michigan at any locale. What is it with this team that we can’t handle? We’re not sure, but we’re going to beat their asses this year at the Beav, so hopefully next year we can end the Big House losing streak. Maybe we’ll see you there (but probably not).

The Stadiums Of The Big11Ten: Part 3

KINNICK STADIUM

-Location: Iowa City, Iowa
-School: University of Iowa
-Year Opened: 1929
-Home Record:
-Capacity: 70,585
-Largest Crowd: 70,585 (numerous times)
-Big Game(s): They play Wisconsin for the Heartland Trophy, and we're assuming their Iowa State game is pretty big too.
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: Nothing too distinguishing.
-Current/Past Traditions: Herky The Hawk. Click on that link for way too much information on Herky.
-Riots: There were a couple articles about riots at Northern Iowa and Iowa State, but none for the Hawkeyes. What the hell else is there to even do in Iowa?
-Other Uses: None officially listed, but we wouldn’t rule out corn harvesting.
-Interesting Fact: This has become a better-known fact in recent years, but the stadium’s visiting locker rooms are painted pink. Former coach Hayden Fry was a psych major and studied that pink tends to suppress aggression. Perhaps some of our own players should be exposed to pink locker rooms more often.

We’re not going to lie, we know little about Kinnick Stadium. Besides maybe Northwestern, this is probably the last school whose stadium to which we’d enjoy making a trek. This is for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the stadium is in IOWA.

Despite all that, Kinnick always seems to be ranked among the toughest stadiums to play in nationwide, and 70,000-plus screaming Hawkeye fans have a lot to do with that. When you’re looking over your team’s schedule in the preseason, you’d much rather have Iowa visit you than vice versa. (Of course, the last three years, your team very well could have kicked Iowa’s ass. So really, we have no point.) Anyway, we can only imagine that the fans get pretty nuts for a big game at Kinnick. If you thought there was nothing to do in State College, try hanging out in Iowa for a semester.

MEMORIAL STADIUM

Indiana does, in fact, have a football team. They're redoing the turf. John Mellencamp donates a lot of money to them. That's about all we could find. Some schools are just basketball schools.

The Stadiums Of The Big11Ten: Part 2

RYAN FIELD

You cant spell architecture without arch.

Name: Ryan Field
Location: Evanston, IL
School: Northwestern University
Year Opened: 1926, as Northwestern Stadium. Later Dyche Field, before becoming Ryan Field in 1997.
Home Record: 198-234-10 [HTP]
Capacity: 47,130
Largest Crowd: 55,752, versus Notre Dame in 1962. [HTP]
Big Game(s): Someone from NU should email us and fill us in. We're going to venture a guess and say any time they play host to Notre Dame is a big game.
Distinguishing Architectural Feature: Awesome looking concrete towers at each end of the grandstand. McGaw Memorial Hall, which houses the field house, wrestling, volleyball and basketball programs, is built behind the north end zone.
Current/Past Traditions: The students doing the “growl”, making clawing motions and a lot of noise. Probably pretty intimidating.
Riots: None we could find.
Other Uses: Hosted the Chicago Bears season opener in 1970. Parts of the movie The Express were filmed at Ryan Field.
Interesting Fact: Students rushed the field and chanted “we’re the worst!” after setting the record for longest losing streak (34 games, from 1979-1982). I guess every school needs something to hang their hat on.

Ryan field is a nice looking place. Unfortunately, they haven't had a team to play on it in years. Brett Basanez scared the sh*t out of us though.

[HTP] A lot of the information pulled for Northwestern came from Hail To Purple. That's about a solid as a site you will find.

CAMP RANDALL STADIUM

-Location: Madison, Wisconsin
-School: University of Wisconsin
-Year Opened: 1917
-Home Record:
-Capacity: 80,321
-Largest Crowd: 83,069 (Nov. 6, 2004 Wisconsin 38, Minnesota 14)
-Big Game(s): They play Minnesota for Paul Bunyan’s Axe, and Iowa for the Heartland Trophy. We think the Axe is cooler because one of us has a habit of dressing up like a lumberjack for Halloween.
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: Originally a horseshoe, now has seats on old horseshoe end. Second deck on one side of the stadium.
-Current/Past Traditions: The Fifth Quarter, where the band plays a bunch of songs after the game. This came into play in 1969 after a 24-game losing streak, so we’re surprised that people stayed until after the game that many times in a row to listen to a college marching band. Also, “Jump Around” is played before the fourth quarter at every game. The booth didn’t play the song once in 2003 and it nearly caused a riot. Perhaps the students didn’t get their fill of cheese before the game and were angry.
-Riots: October 30, 1993, a.k.a. “The Camp Randall Crush.” 73 students injured, 6 critically, after a win over Michigan. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to us if we ever beat Michigan again.
-Other Uses: Drum Corp International world championships (numerous years), State football championships, concerts (noteable: The Stones and Pink Floyd).
-Interesting Fact: One of the first stadiums in the U.S. to convert to artificial turf, in 1968. No word on number of ACLs torn at Camp Randall in the last 40 years.

There’s a relative lack of information on Camp Randall, since Wisconsin is one of the bigger football programs in the conference. Wisconsin is always an interesting team, one year they can be awesome and destroy you (like in 2006), the next they can be embarrassingly bad (like last year). So if that holds true, we’re not exactly looking forward to seeing Penn State play at Camp Randall this year.

This is another trip we’d enjoy making, if it weren’t about 1,000 miles away. While it is a common fact that there is no better tailgating scene in the conference (or the country, for that matter) than in Happy Valley, we’re willing to bet the food is amazing at Camp Randall. And we like cheese.

The Stadiums of the Big11Ten

This is what was holding up the show. That, and all kinds of personal business. Anyway, we wanted to give people a quick look at all the stadiums in the conference. A lot of them have a lot of history and we think it's worth sharing. Every stadium has it's own unique stories.

So, in installments, the stadiums of the Big 10!
We're starting off with the Illini and the Gophers.

MEMORIAL STADIUM

-Location: Champaign, Illinois
-School: University of Illinois
-Year Opened: 1923
-Home Record:
-Capacity: 69,249
-Largest Crowd: 78,297 (Sept. 8, 1984 Illinois 30, Missouri 24)
-Big Game(s):
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: Old-fashioned brick and columned exterior.
-Current/Past Traditions: The Marching Illini were once called “the world’s greatest college band”… in the 1920s. Coincidentally, that was the last time Illinois football mattered until last season. Apparently the band is great. We think the Blue Band would hand them their asses. But their fight song is called Oskee-Wow-Wow, which is a nice achievement.
-Riots: Who of us can forget the wild Illini riot of 1912?
-Other Uses: Used by the Bears in 2002, Hosted first Farm Aid in 1985
-Interesting Fact: From wikipedia: “Heavy rain during the construction resulted in a bulldozer sinking into the field. It was decided that the expense of removing the bulldozer would have been greater than leaving it buried under the field. It remains there today.”

Memorial Stadium has been good and bad to the Lions as of late. In 2005, the Lions put up the most points ever by a visiting team in Champaign when they hung a 63-spot on the Illini. Of course, last year they went there and lost to an eventual Rose Bowl-bound Illinois squad, despite Illinois having Ron Zook as a coach. Ouch.

Anyway, there’s nothing all that special about Memorial Stadium. It’s not huge, you never hear any stories about it, and it’s been home to a mediocre football team for a long time. So we lost there last year, big deal. Let’s see how well the Illini play this year when they see the 8 p.m. crowd at the Beave.

HUBERT H. HUMPHREY METRODOME

-Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
-School: University of Minnesota
-Year Opened: 1982 -Home Record: -Capacity: 64,111 (football)
-Largest Crowd: 65,184 (Nov. 13, 2002 Minnesota 27, Iowa 29) -Big Game(s):
-Distinguishing Architectural Feature: The white, Teflon-coated, fiberglass fabric roof. We’re not even sure that makes sense.
-Current/Past Traditions: Other than the Little Brown Jug Game, losing. The Gophers have reached or eclipsed 8 wins just three times since moving to the Metrodome in 1982.
-Riots: None to speak of for the football team, but there were riots in 2003 following the Gophers second consecutive NCAA men’s hockey championship. So that’s something, I guess.
-Other Uses: Minnesota Twins (MLB, 1982-present), Minnesota Vikings (NFL, 1982-present), Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA, 1989-90) -Interesting Fact: Since its opening, visitors to the Metrodome have consumed more than a half million kegs of beer (or almost 9 million gallons). People in Green Bay just started to weep.


What can you say about the Metrodome? Just a massive, ugly monstrosity. But then again, weather conditions in Minnesota are hardly ideal, so the dome is nice. Oh, wait, we’re talking about football. Well, blame the hideous dome on the Twins then. If the Metrodome has one thing going for it, it’s that it’s definitely recognizable, what with the distinctive white roof and the baggie that serves as the right field fence during baseball games. But otherwise, it’s trash.

Mercifully for the school, the team, and its fans, the Gophers will be opening the 2009 season in a brand new outdoor stadium. Certainly this will be an upgrade over the Metrodome – but so would a decent-sized high school stadium. Whether or not it will give the Gophers any sort of recruiting kick or home field advantage and thrust them back into relevance in the Big Ten remains to be seen.