Photo by Jim Robins.

It is two hours before kickoff at the inaugural game at TCF Bank Stadium, the new home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. It is rare to witness the opening of a brand-new university stadium – though, ironically, the University of Akron opened their own new stadium earlier today – because most universities never bother moving out of their old, ancient facilities; they simply expand and renovate. That’s what happened last season at Ohio State, this season at Michigan and Oklahoma State, and more facilities in coming years.

Memorial Stadium in 1939. Eventually bleachers would be added to the end zone.

But Minnesota didn’t have the luxury of renovating an old facility: Memorial Stadium, the former home of the Gopher Gophers, was torn down in 1992, a decade after the Golden Gopher football stadium started calling the Metrodome home in 1982. It was a traditional brick horseshoe, full of memories and tradition: Bronco Nagurski put the place on the map after arriving on campus in 1926, receiving All-American honors three times, once both on offense and defense. Over the years notables like Bruce Smith, Carl Eller, Bobby Bell, Bud Grant, Paul Giel and Tony Dungy called Memorial Stadium home. (Indeed, my last game at Memorial Stadium was spent watching a young Dungy running some sort of modified wing-T offense.)

Next page: Why the Metrodome sucks

Article Index

Page 1: Overview

Page 2: Why the Metrodome sucks

Page 3: The specifics 

Page 4: Some more first impressions