Saw My 1st Gophers Game Live in '74
Archie Griffin, Cornelius Greene, et al for the Buckeyes . . . Rick Upchurch, Tony Dungy, et al for the Golden Gophers. You definitely could hear the crowd from outside the stadium, and with an open end at TCF Bank Stadium, the roars should carry out even further (although I am no acoustical engineer).
On a side note, I also saw my 1st Vikings game in 1975 (the NFC Championship "Hail Mary" game, I might add). Memorial Stadium was more of football stadium, of course, rather than a football stadium plunked in a baseball, and ironically so, given that the Twins ended up playing in a football stadium for 27 years. Was still great to watch outdoors.
On a side-side note: I watched the NFL Network's production of "The Missing Rings" - The 1969 Minnesota Vikings. Just awesome. That was the year I began paying attention to the Vikings as a young lad. They were invincible Greek and Roman gods rolled together to me. When they lost to the Chiefs in SB IV - I went up to my room and sobbed uncontrollably for 45 minutes. The first - and very last - time I ever shed tears over the Purple. As to playing outdoors - The Met wasn't a loud stadium, per se, but the elements made that venue. The footage from the 49ers game that year is unbelievable - heavy, heavy, snow.
The Gophers did not won a Big Ten title during their tenure in the dome, and the Vikings - curiously - have not been back to the Super Bowl since moving downtown.
