SPORTS
Friday, June 6, 1986
Page 15
The Michigan Daily
'M' Stadium: It's 'awesome, awesome'
By DARREN JASEY Michigan Stadium is known for. Its
The relaxed clamor of friendly 106,155 attendance for the 1979 Ohio
voices and occasional bursts of ap- State game ranks as college football's
plause, similar to those of parents at a largest single game crowd.
Little League baseball game, fill the Moreover, Michigan Stadium is large
air of the Michigan Stadium press enough to seat half of the people
box. living in Ann Arbor. The 730,315 fans
Through wide panes of crystal clear that attended Michigan games in 1979
glass that span from 30 yard line to 30 is an NCAA all-time high, as is the
yard line, every movement of the 105,588 average attendance of last
players and coaches can be seen. No year.
wide screen television set could cap- Michigan Stadium was completed
ture the vividness of the moment and in 1927 as part of Athletic Director ' W
better. Fielding H. Yost's revamped athletic
THE ANNUAL Blue-White spring plan. Yost, who earlier in the decade
game is not the typical Michigan coached Michigan football teams to 10 ~~
Stadium affair. The press box, or Western Conference Championships
Communication Center, is not packed and four national titles, is respon-
with 300 reporters splattering their sible for the look of today's athletic
note pads or electronic typing devices campus.
with hurried thoughts and ideas. The In addition to the new football
crowd outside in the stands is sparse stadium, he built the country's first 0
and relaxed in the hot afternoon sun. field house, Yost Field House (now
The usual mass of over 100,000 Yost Ice Arena), and the first in-
people that has poured into the tramural sports building. He also ....
stadium for 66 straight regular season' developed the baseball field and the
games and the tension of hard-hitting golf course. Ber
football games is absent, but an in- "HE HAD more foresight than blea
tense cloud of nostalgia still hovers anyone in the country," says "lt'
over the giant stadium like the after- Michigan's current athletic director small s
noon haze in the spring Ann Arbor and former track coach during the were re
sky. 1950s, Don Canham. "He was the first THAI
Gordon Reynolds, a 73-year-old to do something for the students." though.
Pontiac native who witnessed a Yost saw the building of a new with d
Michigan football game in this 72,500 capacity stadium, over 25,000 could fi
stadium's first year of existence, more than the old Ferry Field, as an a secon
credits that aura to "a great, great investment for the future of Michigan for anot
tradition that has developed over the athletics, He also fully expected the Ron K
years." capacity of the stadium to grow with Green I
SINCE THE first game increasing demand. on a Col
played here on October 1, 1927 The first expansion came in the box cot
(a 33-0 vistory over Ohio Wesleyan) form of temporary circus bleachers sunglas
the stadium's capacity has grown that rimmed the concourse of the in- appear
from 72,500 to its current 101,701. Over ground stadium. This raised the on the s
24 million people have watched a capacity in time to accommodate encoura
Michigan football game from the ex- 87,000 fans at the stadium's "The t
panding stands since the stadium's dedication game against Ohio State in should
birth. Player greats, such as Bennie 1927. Then, the permanent concrete says Kr
Oosterbaan, Terry Bahr, Jim Man- and steel continuation of the stands action
dich, and Dennis Franklin have com- that gives the stadium the exterior - "You
peted on its field in that 59-year span. look that it has today, enlarged the Athleti
Says Reynolds, cracking a smile, capacity to 97,239 in 1949. In 1956 the separat
"The players change and the people stadium's capacity was increased to it has t
change, but the stadium is still the 101,001 after the raising of the new through
same." Communication Center freed some stadium
Long-time ABC football analyst new space. The current capacity of THE
Frank Broyles, who has visited 101,701 was reached in 1973 when a to build
Michigan Stadium for numerous
nationally televised games, calls it
"an awesome, awesome strcutrue for -
a college stadium."
"It is probably. the best (college
stadium) ever built," added the
University of Arkansas Athletic VEGG ETE
Director. "It is always a great thrill
for me to visit that stadium with those
101,000 fans." O 9
LARGE CROWDS are what
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Daily Photo by ANDI SCHREIBER
nie Neely (left) and Chester Preece help freshen up Michigan Stadium by stenciling new numbers onto the
chers. Although they're both retired, Neely and Preece work for the University for five months a year.
s just something to keep us out of trouble," said Preece.
ection of box seats and rails
placed by bleacher seats.
T MAY not be the end of it
The stadium was also built
eep enough footings which
easibly support the addition of
nd deck and seating capacity
ther 30,000 people.
Kramer, former Wolverine and
Bay Packer football star, sips
ke he picked up from the press
ncession. His graying beard,
ses and thick arms make it
as though this giant should be
idelines shouting out words of
agement to the young players.
tremendous vision of Yost
never be underestimated,"
ramer as he intently eyes the
down on the field.
see," says Kramer, "the
c Department down here is a
te entity to the University and
o support itself, and it does it
h the revenues of this great
.1."
STADIUM, which cost $950,000
, was financed by the selling of
$500 bonds. Since the stadium's debt bad seats, nor is there any running
was paid off in 1947, it has generated track surrounding the field. People
enough income to fund its own main- are much closer to the game."
tenance and much of the rest of the SAYS KRAMER, "From the design
athletic program. Yost's investment of their architectural feat that they
has certainly paid its dividends. have here, all of the other great
Canham, who also knows a little stadiums of the world have been built.
about finances himself, credits Yost's They started out building all these
brilliant engineering background as a stadiums up in the air, but this one
major contributor to the success of here was dug into the ground."
the stadium. Nowdays you would be hard
"It's a stadium designed pressed to find a stadium that isn't
specifically for football," says
Canham. "It's a natural bowl with no See MICHIGAN, Page 16
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111[I I Ni 4'N\
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