What do you have from Memorial Stadium?

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gophermartin

gophermartin

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Rodent Rampage triggered a question in my head. What memorabilia do you have from Memorial Stadium?

I was there the day they started knocking it down. Sad day...but I do believe we wouldn't have ever gotten the gem of a stadium we have now....anyways. I have a handfull of bricks with the mortar on them still from that day. I got to stand inside of it...emtpy but distant view from the endzone seats....the seats on the 50s were far from the field...but I'm not sure how much further away it was than the Dome seats from the sidelines. I bet the view was similar to those given by Purdue's stadium today.

GM

Today, 10:28 AM RodentRampage
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I may have never attended a game at Memorial Stadium, but I have a piece of it. I have a square piece of the bleachers with the number "5" on it. It's hanging up in my living room over a door.
 

I don't have anything but I did attend two games there as a kid. My parents bought me a Gopher T-shirt at one of the games and it was pretty cutting edge stuff because the "M" was all sparkly... very ahead of its time in the days of simple one color print t-shirts. I remember one of the games was a tough loss to Oregon State (I think) while the other one was a big win over some cupcake.
 

When my parents finished their basement they had a brick from Memorial Stadium added in as part of the fireplace. I always thought that was cool. Unfortunately they have since sold the house....
 

Ha... I went into the record books and found the game the tough loss that I had attended:

Sat, Oct 07 1979 Oregon State - Memorial Stadium 14 - 17 (L)

I remember thinking "How could some inferior team from out west beat a Big 10 team?" - at the time. I think that was the game where my parents bought me the sparkly Gopher t-shirt.
 

I was a student when they took her down. I don't recall that they sold anything, except that I know people who either purchased or were given bricks with a small plate mounted on them. I don't have any Memorial Stadium memorabillia, other than a couple of bricks that I "found" one night on a walk back home from a night out. I have never done anything with them, but have been saving them for the day I finish my basement Gopher bar.
 


Yes I "found" mine as well...although as I remember it...they didn't care if anyone took them. They were just sitting out.

I was a freshman or a sophomore that year.

GM
 

I got to play a pickup game of football in the stadium next to where the pool had been built in the middle of it. I remember that vaguely as a kid being a really cool thing to do, but even then it seemed very odd that someone would want to build a pool right on top of a football field.

I also have a brick
 

Now that I am thinking about it, that was strange. Does anyone remember how long the facade of the stadium stood around the finished aquatic center, before they tore down the bricks? Why didn't they tear it all down right away?
 

UptownMaroon&Gold said:
Now that I am thinking about it, that was strange. Does anyone remember how long the facade of the stadium stood around the finished aquatic center, before they tore down the bricks? Why didn't they tear it all down right away?
Click to expand...

Somebody recently told me that they wanted to tear it down earlier but protesters or some opposition prevented them from taking it down. Once the aquatic center was built inside of it the U was able to convince everyone that they couldn't play football there again and demolition was the only choice. I have no idea of the accuracy of that statement.
 



Just a ticket stub from the only game I attended there,

11/08/1980 Indiana Memorial Stadium • Minneapolis, MN W 31-7 30,092
 

Photos

That's something missing from that great new website. I would like to see a photo of memorial with the aquatic center inside, does anyone have one by chance?
 

I have a big plastic cup, which I got at the concession stands. It is gold with maroon writing (it says University of Minnesota and has some footballs and Goldys on it)

I think it's 16 oz. I remember that I bought a Pepsi, and it cost a dollar. At least I think I remember that.

I took it home, washed it out, and have used it to keep pens and pencils in for almost 30 years.

Someone asked about the stadium staying up even after they built the Aquatic Center. One reason for it staying up was the fact that there were offices located under the stands right up until it was torn down. The Dept of Epidemiology of all things was located there. I think there was also a weightroom connected by tunnel to Cooke and Williams, but I never saw that.
 

Much like the North Stars, Memorial Stadium was gone shortly before my family moved to Minnesota. Those, along with the 1991 Halloween blizzard, are the three things I barely missed out on, and will forever keep me from true Minnesotan status.
 



FreakyDeke said:
That's something missing from that great new website. I would like to see a photo of memorial with the aquatic center inside, does anyone have one by chance?
Click to expand...

I know there is one in the athletic center itself, or was at one time.
 

What would be cool would be to have enough bricks from Memorial Stadium to side your house with them.
 

They used a bunch of them on the expansion on the east side of Williams. Go look and you will see the original bricks there and in the arch they have inside McNamara.

GM
 

I have one brick with some mortar still on it. I "found" mine one night before a basketball game.
 

I have nothing from old Memorial Stadium but...

memories of the only two games I saw there.

My first game there was MN vs. USC in fall of 1980 (Marcus Allen, Keith Van Horne and Ronnie Lott among others were on that team) and walking up the ramp to the seating area of the bowl end and looking out onto the field and seeing a shade of green this then highly-impressionable 13-year old had never seen before left me awestruck.

I also remember seeing the USC linemen (including Van Horne) warming up in the grass area near the bowl end and gasping at the size of those behemoths. They proved too much in the end as the Gophers kept it close for awhile before losing 24-7.

It was also the first time I had ever had any exposure the phenomenon known as tailgating. Seeing meat sizzling on grills and people partaking in a cocktail or two in the parking lots on our walk to the stadium and the atmosphere that surrounded Memorial on that glorious autumn afternoon is etched forever in my mind.

I believe it was about a year later that I attended my second and final game at the Brickhouse and watched Mike Hohensee carve up the Oregon State defense with a school record or two in a rain-soaked game with 35,000 or so fans in the stands. What I remember most about that game was Trent Tucker, Barry Wohler (who had knocked my high school off in the state FB finals the fall before) standing in a group with other basketball players a few rows in front of us on the home side toward the Gophers' locker room end of the stands. One of my friends even got Trent's autograph, but I doubt he kept it.

I also remember ABC was broadcasting the MN/OSU game regionally that day and, through binoculars, could see their announcing crew broadcasting the game in a temporary booth of sorts above the Memorial Stadium press box on the visitors' side of the field. It looked like they were set up in a big tent.

I also remember buying a "rain coat" from a vendor in the concourse below which turned out to be nothing more than a glorified hefty bag but it kept me somewhat dry.

I could go on, but you get the idea.
 

All I have is a ticket stub from the one game I attended.
But another story. My brother is a MPLS police officer and managed to get us into the decaying stadium on a cold grey November Sunday. (1988 maybe?) Overgrown weeds dominated the field, and the bleachers and steps were in complete disrepair. We walked around the field and stands for a good hour, and I climbed to the top of the stands for several views. Just wish I had brought my camera. It was very sad and incredibly depressing.
To this day, I still don't understand the logic of moving indoors.
 


FreakyDeke said:
That's something missing from that great new website. I would like to see a photo of memorial with the aquatic center inside, does anyone have one by chance?
Click to expand...

This is the only one I have, from aerial imagery in 1991.

memstadium.jpg
 

memorabilia

Interesting. My wife gave me a Gopher wool blanket with a big 'M' in the middle which we used during cold weather games. I just dug it out of the cedar chest the other day. We'll use it again if they'll let us bring it into the stadium. I'm sure I have programs, homecoming buttons, and press guides from that era. I also bought three roles of the old artificial turf when they sold that to put on my screen porch floor. That house is sold though, and I don't know what happened to the turf.
 

FreakyDeke said:
That's something missing from that great new website. I would like to see a photo of memorial with the aquatic center inside, does anyone have one by chance?
Click to expand...

I think that the website's developers wanted badly to include the photo that you describe, but they simply didn't have one. The site encourages viewers to contribute stories, pictures, or videos. Someone has added a game film from the 1949 Minnesota-Iowa game. It's a great morale booster because that time Minnesota scored 55 points, and Iowa didn't! At any rate, someone with a picture of the "aquatic football facility" should feel free to share it.
 

I recall driving into the stadium in 1991 or 1992, parking

my car next to that abomination of a swimming complex, and walking up the stairs and sitting in a section near the Radisson Hotel. Many of the benches were gone by then, but I found a seat.

I had a few moments to reflect on the stadium, my recollection of my last visit during a game, the Ohio State win. I probably cursed the Metrodome, and felt very sad knowing that much history was lost forever, leaving us marooned in the horrible Metrodome for the rest of my life. Thankfully that not so irrational fear was avoided.

I think there were just a few parking spots around what was the 30 yard line, and the way to access them was to drive through the Memorial Arch where the band used to enter the stadium. It was about 9 AM on a Sunday, so I just drove right in.

A few weeks or months later I was at Sparky's for progressive beer night, and the restroom lines were absurd, so I walked right across the street, past the not very restrictive fence and into the falling ruins of the partially destroyed stadium and relieved myself in the approximate area where the men's room used to be, just to the right of the Memorial Arch, after walking into the dark concourse. I think I actually found the restroom, but there was debris everywhere so it was hard to tell. I was not far to the right of the arch, though.

It was dark and I was several beers into it, but it was quite a moment. I zipped up my trousers, grabbed a brick for my dad and went home back to Sparky's/ Station 19 and hid the brick under a shrub.

My dad rode on the official U train to the Rose Bowl as a student, but both my passion for Memorial Stadium, and hatred of the Metrodome seemed to run much stronger within me than in dad.

I hope he lives to see another Rose Bowl; he has been waiting a long time.
 

oak_street1981 said:
My dad rode on the official U train to the Rose Bowl as a student, but both my passion for Memorial Stadium, and hatred of the Metrodome seemed to run much stronger within me than in dad.

I hope he lives to see another Rose Bowl; he has been waiting a long time.
Click to expand...

Your post really hit home Oak Street. My dad hopes to make it to the new stadium to see one or more games this year. He always said the tickets are on me when we make it back to the Rose Bowl. We have been waiting and waiting..

I do remember sneaking in the old stadium in my high school years. One hop over the fence and you were in. I was pretty upset with the dome move and often found myself (with a few others) running around the stadium pretending to be Marion Barber. Finding my seats and drinking a few beers. Running through the tunnels to Williams arena and such. Not much security back then haha.

I have tons of pennants-buttons-hats still all together from those glory days of out-door football. Many of my favorite memories are from that building. I can still smell the hot chocolate drifting up from the concesssion stands..
 

Yes it does suck what they did to Memorial Stadium

but don't rag on the aquatics center. It has allowed the men and women to be at or near the top in the conference year in and year out.

Go Gophers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Please remind me who might give two craps

about swimming in America?????

I will look upon that building that soiled the sacred Memorial Stadium field with scorn until they put me in the ground.

I would guess no one but the parents of the swimmers or Olympics obsessed people watch college swimming.

College bowling is more important.
 

I only have memories. Shutting out #1 Michigan, watching Tony Dungy play against UCLA, working at the Brickhouse (now the Big Ten) on Saturday home games, Oh HOW I Hate OHIO State t-shirts. Having football on campus again will be great.
 

oak_street1981

REAL Gopher fans like myself support all of our teams.

Go Gophers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

It's not the swimming teams' fault that Memorial Stadium was torn down. I've never gone to a swimming meet, but I might watch a bit of it on TV if Gophers swimming is on the Big Ten Network and there is nothing else on TV. I may not have the same level of interest in all the Gopher sports teams, but I still want the Gophers to win every event they compete in.
 

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