Bryant-Denny Stadium
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL
Capacity: 101,821
Opened: October 1929

The Stadium: Bryant-Denny Stadium is right in the thick of the spread out campus, and with its expansions, bumps up against the campus buildings on two sides, a cemetery outside one end zone (obviously with the remains of defeated Tide opponents) and, on the other, the Walk of Championships. In The Walk are stone announcements of each National Champion teams with the names of coaches and players. To the side of The Walk is a park setting with semicircular garden areas featuring statues of each National Championship winning coach. Two of these five coaches are former Vanderbilt Assistants. My photo is with Former Vandy Assistant Bryant. The Walk of Champions leads to the Grand Entrance of the Stadium.

The architects have done a magnificent job of blending in the upper decks and end zones with the original lower bowl. The effect is an intimate feel to a 101,000 seat SEC arena, especially because they kept the end zones so close to the field. The end zone stands are steep, as are the upper decks. The entry portals are evenly spaced and attractive. The architects placed the aisles on the forty fives, not on the fifty, so there is a complete section of seats midfield. All the better to sell 50 yard line seats.

As in most SEC stadiums, there are hedges around the field. It's a southern thing. We're an agricultural part of the country. The four sides are accessed by four round towers in the corners that one circles, up and up and up. Very efficient and a great use of space.

Tailgating: The Tailgating was mostly around the iconic Denny Chimes, named for the same president who is on the Stadium. He ran Bama for twenty five years, and raised enrollment from 500 to 5,000. He was a frustrated athletic coach and team owner (self admitted; an early day Mark Cuban) who used athletics to create fame and prestige for the University. This was not universally appreciated by some sectors. After Bear Bryant's demise, Bryant's name was added to the stadium name.

Pre-Game Traditions: The Big Event is when the Team arrives two hours before kickoff, and drives up in their motorcoaches to debus and walk up The Walk to the stadium. The enormous crowd gathers to cheer and photo and gawk.

The Elephant Stomp is an exciting Game Day tradition at UA. The band will begin one hour before kickoff. There will be a pep rally and then the march to the stadium. The drum line will begin two hours before kickoff.

Unique Fact: The Million Dollar Band. So named in 1922 by some alum to a sports writer because that is how good the band sounded to him. They had an excellent pre-game with a typical Homecoming halftime. The MDB looked and sounded terrific. The sound was loud and full in the lower bowl. Their game management was excellent, as they played often and appropriately, with interesting in-the-stands choreography movements.

Tip: A must visit to the campus is the Bear Bryant Museum, a wonderful place for anyone who enjoys the color, pageantry and pure fun of college football. There is a recreation of Bear's office (just like they do with Oval Office in Presidential libraries), a crystal Bear houndstooth hat, a Heisman Trophy, championship rings, and lots of old programs from Great Games.

Notre Dame Stadium
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, IN
Capacity: 80,795
Opened: October 1930

Stadium Design: Notre Dame Stadium, where they "shake down the thunder from the sky" (now that you have to admit is intimidating, kind of Biblical), was constructed in 1930 when Head Coach Knute Rockne was in his prime. The profits the program had made during a rather so-so 1928 season totaled over $500,000, a sum Rockne wanted to use to build a gargantuan arena to replace old Cartier Field. However, Father O'Donnell, President of the University, did not want to put the school in debt over a stadium. Rockne "resigned" over this issue (a tactic he employed several times) as a negotiating ploy. (Reminiscent of the comment, "Countess Dumarche has committed suicide." "What! Again?") Rockne got his stadium and O'Donnell commanded the financing plan, which included selling seating rights to the best prime locations for a ten year period (Cost: $3,000 between the 45's.) Over $150,000 was raised from O'Donnell's seating sales.

Rockne was involved in every aspect of the stadium design. He favored the simplistic bowl concept at Michigan, but he wanted it smaller, as ND was, and is, a much smaller school. He selected the firm that designed Michigan Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Commiskey Park. His major alterations were in the location of the entrance tunnel and narrowing the amount of space between the field and the stands. Rockne even oversaw the layout of the streets and the parking plan for the Stadium. What he drew remained in use until the 1996 renovations. The original capacity was 54,000; the final cost was about $750,000. In 1996, the capacity increased to 80,795; the field was lowered increasing the height of the first row over the field, a good move.

Pep Rally: A Friday night Pep Rally is held in a large open field near The Stadium. The Band enters from behind the stage, and the Leprechaun, backed up by the Cheerleaders, leads the frenzied event. Hearing their invigorating Fight Song, "Cheer, Cheer for Old Notre Dame", there actually at Notre Dame, being played by their band, and sung by their students, is simultaneously thrilling to a Goosebumps level, and intimidating. Within the area, booths sell beer, brats and other such Midwestern fare.

Pre-Game Traditions: The Tunnel. There is only one Tunnel, and it leads past the locker rooms to the middle of the north End Zone. Knowing that fans salivate to walk down The Tunnel and run into The Stadium, the ND powers recognize their national touristic appeal and open it for a couple of hours on Friday afternoons. 5,000 fans see themselves slapping the "Play Like A Champion" sign and rushing through The Tunnel and onto The Field amidst the strains of The Fight Song. Banners signifying the National Championships hang from the ceiling, eleven - so far.

The Dome and The Mall: Tourists and fans flood the quads and the Mall, where there is a line to get in the Dome Building. That is because bag pipers pipe inside the rotunda of the Dome. The players go to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for their pre-game mass. Afterward, the players leave the Basilica and follow the Band down the mall to The Stadium with the Golden Dome and the Basilica as the backdrop. What a setting!

Unique Fact: A home game in South Bend attracts fans of the opponent and hordes of general tourists. More than any other school game experience, ND is a "tourist destination." Starting on Friday, green-coated volunteers are stationed at main intersections around the campus to greet visitors with a "Welcome to Notre Dame. May I help you with any directions?"

Ryan Field
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
Capacity: 49,256
Opened: 1926 & 1997

Stadium Design: William Dyche (pronounced dike), NU Class of 1882, was the Mayor of Evanston and later the Business Manager at Northwestern. Interested in athletics, especially that new found sport called foot-ball, he oversaw the construction of a 10,000 seat, wooden-planked stadium in 1905 at the site of the present day facility. By the 1920's, the Great Decade of Stadium Building, the need was obvious for a much larger and more substantial structure. As Business Manager, he oversaw the design and construction of the edifice that was named for him, Dyche Stadium. Built in 1926, the original capacity was 45,000. The insightful design focused on the curved tops of the sidelines, to provide more seats at midfield. While an obvious concept to give the most spectators the best view of the field and provide the most seats between the twenties for the ticket manager, it is astounding how few architects incorporate this concept.

From 1926 through 1948, the capacity and design remained the same. Then, after the Rose Bowl victory of 1948, the South End Zone (EZ) was added, curiously connecting to the Student Side (SS) but not the Press Box (PB) Side. This creates an asymmetrical EZ with an opening through it to the stands. The addition increased capacity to 52,000. The enclosed EZ is where the statue of the Wildcat stands. In 1954, sections were added to each side of the SS, which created seats that faced the End Zones. The capacity reached its zenith, 55,000, and stayed such until 1976. This was a period of Wildcat excitement and interest. Average attendance was in the forties, and Coach Ara Parseghian led the Cats to a #1 pre-season ranking in several polls in 1962. Then the Time of Troubles closed in over the stadium, like the fog drifting in off nearby Lake Michigan. The Wildcats endured the Nation's Longest Losing Streak from 1976 to 1982.

In 1996, the new reconstruction took place, with two significant changes. First, the Stadium had been built with a track, as were most of the 1920s coliseums. In the redesign, NU took out the track and lowered the Field of Play by something like 8 to 10 feet. They built a grass covered sloping wall that connects the stands to the field, creating the attractive setting of putting the field inside a grassy embankment. Second, they added an attractive, in itself, modern and functional Press Box. OK, but the bad part is that this destroys the signature identity of Dyche Stadium, the rounded Roman arches that stride the length of the exterior of both the PB and SS sides. The new stadium opened in the Fall of 1997. It was named Ryan Field in honor of Patrick Ryan - a 1959 NU graduate, founder of AON Corporation, donor to the Campaign for Athletic Excellence, and Chair of the Northwestern Board of Trustees.

The Campus: In pleasant, warm weather, the campus is most impressive: tree-filled, a spacious collection of old and new architecture that somehow blends together. Attractive mostly gray limestone buildings. And, get this, the campus is literally on Lake Michigan. There is a beach with real sand and a grassy park with hillocks and benches for studying and daydreaming, and clouds and sun and waves and sailboats.

Pre-Game Traditions: In the center of the treed classroom area stands a Great Tradition, The Rock, a large boulder sitting in the middle of campus. Campus groups compete to see who can paint The Rock for The Next Game. Pledges/freshmen are stationed there all night to guard the paint job once it is done; so no other clan can paint over their work.