Latest / Hangin' Out with Bob / Brickhouse Memories (University of Minnesota's Memorial Stadium)

Transcript

Brickhouse Memories (University of Minnesota's Memorial Stadium) · Hangin' Out with Bob

0:07
OK, hello and welcome to Hanging Out with Bob,
0:10
podcast hosted by me, Bob at Home. Thanks for
0:17
joining us and let's get started. Well, in this
0:25
podcast, a podcast during which I'll be flying
0:28
solo. I'm going to focus on a place that is gone
0:30
but not forgotten. A place that will always hold
0:33
a special place in my heart. That place was home
0:37
for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers
0:39
football team for 58 seasons. Memorial Stadium.
0:46
Now, the Gophers have been playing football since
0:49
1882. Their first football season was 143 years
0:54
ago. Think about that. Not even 20 years after
0:58
the end of the Civil War, the Gophers put a football
1:01
team on the field to play other college football
1:04
teams. Before Memorial Stadium was built in 1924,
1:08
the Gophers played at Northfield from 1899 to
1:12
1923. They also played at various other fields
1:16
on campus in Minneapolis. But again, my focus
1:19
will be on Memorial Stadium, the Brickhouse,
1:23
as it was known to Gophers players and fans.
1:25
The Goavers played their home football games
1:27
there from 1924 through 1981. It was located
1:32
on University Avenue on the east bank of the
1:35
University of Minnesota campus and across the
1:37
street from several fraternities along University
1:40
Avenue. Now, before I get into the nitty -gritty
1:50
on Memorial Stadium itself, I want to talk for
1:53
a bit about the University of Minnesota football
1:55
program, because if it weren't for the Gophers
1:58
football team, the stadium wouldn't even have
2:01
been built, right? Whether you want to call them
2:04
the Golden Gophers or just Gophers, which is
2:07
my preference for what it's worth, Minnesota
2:09
competes as part of the NCAA Division I Football
2:13
Bowl Subdivision, or FBS for short, and it's
2:17
a member of the Big Ten Conference. which, as
2:20
of 2025, actually includes 18 schools. The Gophers,
2:25
though, were one of the seven original founding
2:27
members of the Big Ten Conference back in 1896.
2:31
And just a footnote, in 1896, it was called the
2:34
Western Conference. And since their first season
2:37
in 1882, the Gophers have played in more than
2:41
1 ,300 officially sanctioned games, including
2:45
25 bowl games. They finished in the top 25 of
2:49
the national polls 16 times. The Gophers have
2:53
won a total of seven national championships,
2:56
most recently a consensus national championship
2:59
in 1960. And the Gophers have won at least a
3:03
share of the Big Ten championship 18 times. Eleven
3:07
shared, most recently in 1967, and seven outright.
3:20
Okay, now that we've given you a quick history
3:22
of the Gophers football team, let's concentrate
3:25
on Memorial Stadium, where the Gophers started
3:28
playing their home games in 1924. Memorial Stadium
3:32
opened on October 14, 1924. Think about that
3:37
for a second. 1924. Over a hundred years ago
3:42
now. It was the Roaring Twenties. The Jazz Age.
3:47
Gasoline cost between 13 and 25 cents a gallon.
3:53
Nationwide prohibition had been in effect since
3:55
1920. The U .S. had 48 states, not 50. Calvin
4:01
Coolidge was president of the United States,
4:04
and he was less than a month away from winning
4:06
the next presidential election. Memorial Stadium,
4:11
the brick house, was dedicated to the 3 ,500
4:14
or so university workers and graduates who served
4:17
in World War I, 98 of whom died in service. Built
4:22
on approximately 11 acres of land on the east
4:25
bank of the University of Minnesota campus, Memorial
4:29
Stadium had 52 ,736 permanent seats, but could
4:35
seat over 56 ,000. And with the addition of temporary
4:39
bleacher seating, more than 60 ,000 fans could
4:42
fit into Memorial Stadium. In fact, a stadium
4:46
record 66 ,284 fans watched Minnesota face Purdue
4:52
on November 18th, 1961. There was nothing fancy
4:57
really about Memorial Stadium, at least by today's
5:00
standards. It was shaped like a big old horseshoe,
5:04
as were many stadiums built at that time, meaning
5:07
there was an open end where the temporary bleachers
5:09
could be set up. The stadium seats were wooden
5:13
benches, really. No seat backs. There were no
5:16
luxury suites. No club seats. The stadium had
5:21
just one tier. There was no roof, obviously.
5:25
Not even a canopy to protect fans from the elements.
5:28
Snow, rain, ice, wind, the sun. But considering
5:33
that it was built during the roaring 20s, I'm
5:36
sure it was as state -of -the -art as any other
5:38
stadium built at the time. It took seven months
5:41
to construct Memorial Stadium. at a cost of $572
5:45
,000. That's right, $572 ,000, a little over
5:51
half a million dollars, in 1924, of course. But
5:55
even adjusted for inflation, that comes to $10
5:58
.6 million today. Huntington Bank Stadium, the
6:03
Gophers' current home stadium since 2009, cost
6:06
over $300 million to build. and would have cost
6:10
about $445 million in 2024. But back to Memorial
6:22
Stadium. More than 475 workers were employed
6:26
for the construction, which required more than
6:29
1 .4 million feet of lumber, 1 million bricks,
6:33
no wonder they called it the brick house, and
6:37
90 ,000 sacks of cement. The Gophers played their
6:41
first game in Memorial Stadium on October 14th,
6:45
1924, defeating North Dakota 14 -0. Here's another
6:51
fun fact about that inaugural football game against
6:54
North Dakota in 1924. The cost of a ticket to
6:58
that game? How about one dollar? No! Yep, a buck.
7:05
No! Now, $1 in 1924 is equivalent in purchasing
7:11
power to about $18 .50 today. But still, I don't
7:16
know if I could buy a ticket to a Big Ten football
7:19
game anywhere today for just $18 .50. The Gophers
7:32
had a stellar record playing at Memorial Stadium,
7:35
including 12 unbeaten seasons at home. They didn't
7:40
suffer a losing season at home from the building's
7:43
inception in 1924 until 1950. Think about that.
7:49
27 straight seasons without a losing record at
7:52
home. By contrast, in the 16 seasons the Gophers
7:56
have played at their current home, which was
7:58
first called TCF Bank Stadium and later renamed
8:01
Huntington Bank Stadium, they've had four losing
8:05
seasons at home. They also haven't had an unbeaten
8:08
season at home, although they have had a couple
8:11
of six -and -one seasons. Now, if I were to ask
8:21
most people today how they remember Memorial
8:24
Stadium, assuming they remember it or have even
8:27
heard of Memorial Stadium, they would probably
8:30
say, oh yeah, that was a place on campus where
8:32
the Gophers played their home football games.
8:35
However, There are some things about the stadium
8:37
that might surprise some people, or that they
8:40
might not remember. For example, Memorial Stadium
8:43
had natural grass and artificial turf surfaces
8:46
in its 58 -season history. The playing surface
8:50
was natural grass from 1924 to 1969. It was changed
8:56
to an artificial turf, tartan turf, they called
8:58
it, in 1970, and the Gophers played on tartan
9:02
turf through the 1976 season. They went back
9:06
to natural grass for the 1977 season and stayed
9:09
with it through the final season in 1981. In
9:13
earlier years, Memorial Stadium also served as
9:17
the university's track and field venue, which
9:20
meant the seats closest to the field were still
9:22
farther away from sidelines than in some other
9:25
stadiums. For example, at Kinnick Stadium in
9:28
Iowa City, home of the Iowa Hawkeyes, there is
9:31
no track. I've been to a couple games at Iowa
9:34
City over the years. In the Kinnick Stadium,
9:37
fans in the lowest rows can practically reach
9:40
out and touch the players on the sidelines. Memorial
9:44
Stadium is also an occasional backup venue for
9:47
professional football and soccer. In 1969, for
9:51
example, the Minnesota Vikings played a regular
9:53
season game on October 5th against the Green
9:56
Bay Packers at Memorial Stadium. The game was
9:59
moved there due to a conflict with a Minnesota
10:02
Twins playoff game at Metropolitan Stadium, Game
10:05
3 of the 1969 American League Championship Series
10:09
the following day. I remember well that Vikings
10:12
-Packers game at Memorial Stadium, even though
10:15
I wasn't there. My brother Dave and I rode with
10:19
our uncles Judd and Joe to a bowling alley in
10:22
Menominee, Wisconsin to see that game on TV.
10:26
Because back in 1969, The NFL did not allow teams
10:30
to televise home football games. Even if they
10:33
were sold out, the games were still blacked out.
10:37
The Vikings beat the Packers that day 19 -7,
10:40
and attendance at the Brickhouse was 60 ,740.
10:46
By contrast, official capacity for Vikings games
10:49
at Met Stadium was only 47 ,900. In 1971, Two
10:55
years after that game against the Packers, the
10:57
Gophers played a preseason game at Memorial Stadium.
11:01
It was the second season with artificial turf
11:03
at the Brickhouse. Anyway, the Vikings beat the
11:07
New England Patriots 17 -10. It was only a preseason
11:11
game, but the reason I remember it so well was
11:14
because I had entered a football pool at the
11:17
summer job I had. I think it cost a buck or two
11:20
to enter, but I got the numbers zero and zero.
11:23
In other words, If each team had a number that
11:26
ended in zero, whether it was 0, 10, 20, etc.
11:30
in points scored, it paid $50 at the half and
11:35
$50 at the end of the game. Well, in the first
11:38
half, the Vikings had a 10 -0 lead, so I won
11:42
50 bucks. And if the Vikings had just added a
11:45
field goal in the second half to make the score
11:48
20 to 10 instead of 17 to 10, I would have won
11:52
another 50 bucks. And $50 in cash in 1971 would
11:58
be close to $350 today, adjusted for inflation.
12:02
About that artificial turf at Memorial Stadium,
12:05
tartan turf, they called it, it was a 3M product.
12:09
It was removed after seven seasons and the field
12:11
returned to natural grass in 1977. I actually
12:15
had a sample of that tartan turf. I can't remember
12:17
where I got it, where they were selling it, but
12:20
it was about a four inch by four inch sample.
12:23
I just remember thinking, hmm, it doesn't look
12:26
too cushiony if you were to land on it from a
12:28
hard tackle, say. Oh, and the Minnesota Kicks
12:33
soccer team of the North American Soccer League
12:35
played a match at Memorial Stadium. It was a
12:38
1981 playoff match on September 6th against the
12:41
Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The Kicks lost 3 -0,
12:46
or as they would say in soccer, 3 -0. The match
12:49
was moved due to a schedule conflict with the
12:51
twins at Met Stadium. but it was the last match
12:54
in Kicks history. And here's something I didn't
12:57
know about the Brickhouse. There were a total
12:59
of 30 gates at the stadium. All but one of them
13:03
was used for fans to enter the stadium to get
13:05
to the seats. But there was one gate, Gate 27,
13:10
on the south end of the stadium that served as
13:12
the entrance to the Laboratory of Physiological
13:16
Hygiene, which was part of the School of Public
13:18
Health. The lab was located under the bleachers
13:22
of the stadium. In that lab, they conducted research
13:25
on heart attack risk factors and prevention trials
13:29
from 1942 to 1992. The lab was also the site
13:34
of the Minnesota starvation experiment, where
13:37
36 conscientious objectors of World War II were
13:41
confined for a year. The gate itself is described
13:44
as dark, dank, and noisy on game days. However,
13:49
the lab staff tried to make the area welcoming.
13:53
The stadium became a destination for researchers
13:55
from around the world. Honestly, I did not know
13:59
about this lab until I started my research on
14:01
the stadium. The thought of using what looks
14:04
like a gate to get into a football stadium, but
14:06
instead takes you into a lab. Well, I just never
14:09
imagined anything like that. Two other things
14:12
I did not know before I started my research.
14:15
One, that racquetball courts. were located beneath
14:18
the upper level of the stadium. And two, there
14:22
was an area beneath Memorial Stadium where members
14:25
of the golf team could practice by hitting golf
14:28
balls into nets. I'm sure that came in handy
14:30
during the winter months. Not too many golf courses
14:33
open up here in the wintertime. Memorial Stadium
14:37
served as the anchor for Stadium Village, a small
14:40
commercial area at the southeast portion of the
14:43
Twin Cities East Bank campus. It really was in
14:46
a great location. Bars and restaurants were within
14:49
walking distance, and they enjoyed great business
14:52
before and after football games. Williams Arena,
14:56
where the basketball and hockey teams played,
14:58
was across the street. Cook Hall, at the open
15:02
end of the horseshoe -shaped stadium, had that
15:04
thin, wide, no -frills scoreboard on top of the
15:08
building. All it had on the scoreboard were the
15:11
teams, Minnesota and visitors. the period, in
15:16
other words which quarter it was, minutes to
15:19
play in seconds, the down, and yards to go for
15:23
first down. No high def screens for commercials
15:27
or ads, no rock music blaring, about as basic
15:31
as you can get. I want to spend a moment talking
15:40
about the attendance figures at Memorial Stadium.
15:43
According to goforsports .com, the website for
15:47
University of Minnesota athletics, there were,
15:51
according to my account, seven seasons during
15:54
which average attendance was over 60 ,000, twice
15:58
in the late 1940s, three times in the 1950s,
16:03
and twice in the early 1960s. The largest attendance
16:08
for a single home game was 66 ,284. in 1961 against
16:15
Purdue. That was the season after the Gophers
16:18
won their last national championship. A total
16:22
of 21 games were played during which the attendance
16:25
was over 60 ,000. Nine of those games were against
16:29
Iowa. Four were against Purdue. Three were against
16:34
Michigan. Two were against Southern Cal, long
16:39
before they joined the Big Ten last year. in
16:42
one game each against Wisconsin, Northwestern,
16:45
and Notre Dame. And so many famous all -American
16:49
gophers who played at Memorial Stadium over the
16:52
years. Bronco Nagurski, Bruce Smith, Paul Geel,
16:58
Tom Brown, Sandy Stevens, Bobby Bell, Carl Eller,
17:05
just to name a few. And by my unofficial count,
17:09
some 48 different golfer players who played at
17:12
Memorial Stadium were named first -team All -Americans,
17:16
and 11 of those players were two -time selections.
17:21
But as the song by George Harrison goes, all
17:24
things must pass. Average attendance at Memorial
17:27
Stadium started falling off in the 1970s. Six
17:32
times in the 1970s, in fact, average attendance
17:35
at home games was below 40 ,000. No! My take
17:40
on why those attendance numbers dropped at Memorial
17:43
Stadium? I can think of at least a couple reasons.
17:47
One, the Gophers weren't as competitive in the
17:50
Big Ten. By the late 1960s, the Big Ten was starting
17:54
to become more like the Big Two, Michigan and
17:57
Ohio State, and the Little Eight. That is, the
18:00
rest of the Big Ten, including the Gophers. And
18:04
two, the Minnesota Vikings. Before the Vikings'
18:08
first season here in 1961, the Gophers were the
18:11
only show in town, or at least the only football
18:15
show in town. The state of Minnesota eventually
18:18
became, for better or for worse, Vikings country.
18:23
NFL Sundays became bigger here than college football
18:25
Saturdays. The Gophers still have their loyal
18:28
fans, and I'm certainly one of them, but not
18:31
nearly as many as the Vikings now have. And just
18:35
for the record, I'm a loyal fan of both the Gophers
18:37
and the Vikings. One can be loyal fans of both
18:41
teams. Anyway, with pressure from both the downtown
18:45
Minneapolis business interests and the Gophers
18:49
athletic boosters, the school elected during
18:52
the spring of 1982 to move out of Memorial Stadium
18:56
and over to the new Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome,
18:59
about two miles away from the East Bank campus.
19:03
Then -athletic director Paul Geel said he thought
19:06
it would help the Gophers recruit better players
19:08
because they would want a chance to play in the
19:10
same new stadium used by the Vikings and the
19:13
Twins. Also, the attendance was expected to go
19:17
up in the late fall with protection from harsh
19:19
weather. With a dome, with a roof, It didn't
19:23
matter if it was raining, snowing, or freezing
19:25
cold outside. At least that's what many people
19:29
were saying or thinking at the time. Now, even
19:32
after the Gophers had moved to the Metrodome
19:34
for the 1982 season, Memorial Stadium still stood,
19:39
but it was empty. It had become neglected and
19:42
badly in need of renovation. Then newly named
19:46
head coach Lou Holtz gave an impassioned speech
19:49
when the time came in 1984 to decide whether
19:53
to remain at the Metrodome, and he declared,
19:56
athletes want to play at the Dome. With all due
20:00
respect to Coach Holtz, his statement proved
20:02
to be not true. Holtz, in fact, left Minnesota
20:06
for Notre Dame after the 1985 season. He was
20:10
here for just two seasons. John Gudekunst, who
20:14
succeeded Holtz, and Jim Wacker, who succeeded
20:17
Gudekunst, both had losing records. Wacker, especially,
20:21
was 16 and 39 overall, a 291 winning percentage.
20:26
Glenn Mason, in his 10 years at the helm, had
20:29
greater success than either Gudekunst or Wacker,
20:32
but he eventually was fired too. But when he
20:35
was head coach of the Gophers, from 1997 to 2006,
20:40
he was pleading for the powers that be to move
20:43
football back to the campus. Back to Memorial
20:53
Stadium. When the football squad moved downtown
20:56
to the Metrodome, the University of Minnesota
20:59
proposed a new natatorium, an indoor swimming
21:02
complex, that would extend into the field at
21:05
the open end of the horseshoe and ensure that
21:08
there could be no return for the football team
21:10
to Memorial Stadium. And after legal challenges
21:14
to halt construction of the natatorium failed,
21:17
The Aquatic Center, an auditorium, opened in
21:20
1990. The stadium was torn down two years later,
21:25
in 1992. The original brick entrance arch to
21:29
Memorial Stadium was preserved, though. When
21:33
the McNamara Alumni Center was built on the same
21:36
site where the stadium once stood, the original
21:39
arch from that stadium was installed in the interior
21:42
atrium of the McNamara Alumni Center. over the
21:46
entrance to a small museum. I've actually seen
21:49
that arch in the McNamara Alumni Center. It was
21:52
kind of bittersweet to see it though. I'm glad
21:55
the arch was not demolished, but it really made
21:57
me miss Memorial Stadium. When Memorial Stadium
22:08
was demolished in 1992, 2 ,000 of the original
22:12
bricks were used in the building of Mariucci
22:15
Arena, where the Gophers men's hockey team plays
22:17
their home games. All things considered, the
22:21
move to the Metrodome from Memorial Stadium proved
22:24
to be far from a rousing success. The Gophers'
22:29
home games lost the charm of being on a college
22:32
campus. The Gophers had the lowest priority in
22:36
scheduling at the Metrodome, too, behind the
22:38
Twins and Vikings. and sometimes the Gophers
22:41
even had to move some of their games to Friday
22:43
nights if the twins were in the baseball playoffs.
22:46
On May 20, 2006, the state legislature passed
22:51
a bill providing funding for a new on -campus
22:54
stadium. It opened in the fall of 2009 as TCF
22:59
Bank Stadium, renamed Huntington Bank Stadium
23:02
in 2021. The new stadium is located about a block
23:06
from where the old stadium once stood. And it
23:09
was designed so that the McNamara Alumni Center
23:12
on the old site is visible to the open end of
23:16
Huntington Bank Stadium, which also has a horseshoe
23:19
shape. And I can tell you, Huntington Bank Stadium
23:23
is a great venue for football. And it's great
23:26
to see the Gophers back on campus playing their
23:29
home games. I have so many great memories of
23:39
the Brick House. My brother Dave and I had season
23:41
tickets there in the late 60s and early 70s when
23:45
we were still in high school. Dirt cheap ticket
23:48
prices too. And our seats were in the bowl end,
23:52
almost directly behind the goal posts. I went
23:55
to many home games at Memorial Stadium over the
23:57
years, but I think the most exciting memory for
24:00
me was in October 1967. when the Gophers came
24:04
from behind to beat Michigan 20 to 15 for the
24:08
little brown jug trophy. Although I had been
24:11
a Gophers fan since the 1960 season when they
24:15
won their last national championship, that Gophers
24:18
-Michigan game in 1967 was the first game I'd
24:21
ever seen at Memorial Stadium. The atmosphere
24:25
was so charged. Before the start of the game,
24:29
the Gophers marching band ran out of the tunnel
24:32
in the bowl end and onto the field to play songs
24:35
like John Philip Sousa's Minnesota March, the
24:38
Battle Hymn of the Republic, the National Anthem,
24:41
and of course, the Minnesota Rouser, the school's
24:44
fight song. And during the games, hearing the
24:47
voice of longtime PA announcer Jules Perlt just
24:51
added to the excitement. I still laugh when I
24:54
think about the way Jules Perlt would announce
24:56
the scores of other Big Ten games of that day.
25:00
Remember, that scoreboard on top of Cook Hall
25:02
barely had enough room to list the score down
25:04
on the field below. So Jules Perlt, instead of
25:07
automatically listing the winning team first,
25:10
he'd sometimes do the opposite, as in, final
25:13
score, Iowa 22, Purdue 41, or Wisconsin 13, Northwestern
25:21
17. Anyway, I was 14 years old when I saw that
25:26
Minnesota -Michigan football game. My brother
25:29
Dave was about a week away from turning 13. But
25:33
I thought that game was one of the coolest things
25:35
I'd ever seen. Remember, that 1967 season was
25:39
the year the Gophers tied for the Big Ten Championship,
25:42
the last time they won at least a share of the
25:45
Big Ten title. Hmm, it's been a long time. Well,
25:58
this has been fun. A labor of love to research
26:01
and a chance to share my memories of Gophers
26:04
football at Memorial Stadium, the Brickhouse.
26:07
And I'm planning to record future podcasts about
26:09
the Gopher football squads who played there.
26:11
For example, the years when Murray Wormath was
26:14
head coach from 1954 through 1971. Or when Cal
26:19
Stahl was at the helm from 1972. through 1978.
26:24
Even the last three seasons at Memorial Stadium,
26:27
1979, 1980, and 1981, when Joe Salem was head
26:31
coach and before the Gophers moved downtown to
26:35
the Metrodome. To my loyal listeners, and especially
26:39
to my fellow Gophers fans, well, to borrow a
26:42
line from the Minnesota Rouser, I just want to
26:44
say, hats off to thee. Thanks for hanging out
26:52
with me, Bob At Home. Please join me for the
26:55
next episode of Hanging Out With Bob wherever
26:58
you listen to your podcasts. Until then, bye!