I have such fond memories and experiences. I will be sad to see it go. I bought a single ticket for the Purdue game. Mrs and daughter Phat are fair weather fans and won't brave the elements. I'll be there to cheer on the Cats, to sing the Alma Mater, and have one last game at our beautiful old place. And I will weep.
Is there any positive sentiment at all for old Ryan/Dyche?
- Thread starter phatcat
- Start date
Dippin' Dots are considered 'the ice cream of the future'. It is about time we have a stadium that befits the official frozen dessert treat of Ryan Field at Dyche Stadium.
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Love it..
My streak is intact, I've never had a bad time (regardless of outcome) at Dyche/Ryan.
Purdue game will be especially hard for those of us in the east lot. It will be no more. 😞
My streak is intact, I've never had a bad time (regardless of outcome) at Dyche/Ryan.
Purdue game will be especially hard for those of us in the east lot. It will be no more. 😞
Yeah, that will be a big part of NU history ending with Ryan being vacated. Things will never be the same, but there will be good times to look forward to in the near future!
In traveling to and from Homecoming, I drove, and I know it's a little weird but I used the opportunity to visit campuses I have never seen - Michigan, MSU, Illinois and Purdue. Thoroughly impressed at the quality and scale of the facilities but can only wonder at how intimidating these campuses are to freshmen. Anyway, in the stadium race let's just say that although it is a great place to watch a game from a sight line perspective, Ryan Field is a dump that can't face a demo ball soon enough. No tears from me.
My first time there, I was four years old in 1956. Yes, so many memories of my grandfather and my parents now all gone. Almost every game, I look over to the spot of Grandpa’s seats. Now I go to games with my kids and grandchildren. So yes, I have many, many, many fond memories.
When I walk through the concourse it just feels so cold and primitive, totally devoid of any charm. I have many wonderful memories at the stadium as we all do, but I won't miss the structure and hope/look forward to new memories inside the confines of a modern structure with comfort, amenities, and sightlines in mind.
Went to a ton of games in the 60's ad 70's with my Dad. We had great seats, 40 yard line about 6 rows under the deck. It's not the same now that the men aren't all smoking a cigar; damn that aroma brings back such a flood of memories. Things change and if you want to get some locals to be fans, there has to be more to the experience than a run down stadium. If you have never been there before I think you would expect a rat to run up your leg any minute. It's time to invest more in pride than nostalgia.
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I always thought the towers were kinda cool, but it's time to say goodbye to that haggard old edifice. I won't miss those ice cold benches, long waits to pee, and the acidic smell of old concrete. Good riddance. I love the concept for the new stadium.
That's not weird. I enjoy visiting other college campuses.
I was in North Carolina this weekend and went by Duke and UNC yesterday. It was game day in Chapel Hill, and the atmosphere was surprisingly festive. Perhaps that was because their team is good this season, but I think of UNC as more of a basketball school. Duke was off this weekend, but I walked around their stadium, which is nicer than I expected. It's built into a hill, so you walk down into it from the main part of the campus to the north, which was neat. Reminded me of Cal's stadium, being built into a hill and having an open air concourse around the top of the seating area. As there's no shade, I can see how it can get uncomfortably hot early in the season, but the weather yesterday was perfect and would have been nice for a game.
Regarding Ryan Field, I have great memories of the place, but it's time to move on. We can and will do better.
I have nostalgia for the memories there (especially those shared with friends), but we need a modern home for the program.
It's just nowhere near the quality of the rest of the athletics facilities, and that's a blunt reality.
It's just nowhere near the quality of the rest of the athletics facilities, and that's a blunt reality.
Dyche/Ryan will live in all of our memories. My fondest memory is attending games packed with students, we fraternity men (so to speak) dressed in tweed coat and tie, accompanied by girlfriends in soft wool plaid who we would die to sleep with but for the fact there was slim to no chance, drinking from hip flasks, and cheering wildly for Ara Parseghian's Number 1 team in the country (for a week). Ahhh, those were the days.
I for one, do not really have a problem with the old place. That said it is probably pretty important to get a new one built because if it is not, it may never be and solid facilities are likely one thing that will keep FB at NU and NU in BIG
My most recent game was an OT win over Iowa in 2017, in what would be the second of an eight-game win streak that culminated in the Music City Bowl.
My dad, and two sons, and my daughter, who had just turned four. Daughter and I spent the third quarter in the South tower. Hardly any views at all from the towers, as I recall, but we eventually got her to the bathroom at the top. I don’t recall why we didn’t go in the main concourse, but I hadn’t been in the towers before. (I wasn’t going to take her into the garden of Port-O-Johns beyond the South end zone. She’s still really cute, and I still do wildly inconvenient things for her if she asks really sweetly. Just turned ten. Yeeeeesh.)
I had lots of great memories in the WNUR broadcast booth, none better than 54-51 over Michigan. United Airlines was in the press box serving lamb that day, my first non-gyro lamb 🤷🏼♂️
It’s a dump.
The bathroom on southwest side of stadium is falling apart too! The lid on toilet seat was half off bowl and paper towel dispenser was broken. Water leaking from antiquated hand washers as well. I figure that nobody cares since it all is going to be razed in a couple months
Eight hundred million on a structure that will be used, with concerts included, 15-25 times a year? WTF!!
The 200 million spent on the Taj Fitz was supposed to bring us to the promised land. How did that work out?
Remove seven thousand seats so we don’t have to see all those seats filled with the barbarians dressed in red, maize, blue, green, orange, yellow and whatever other colors our opponents’ fans wear. Plus we won’t have to hear them chanting and singing their fight songs. Game day, I hate seeing so many of the bastards making themselves feeling at home in our stadium.
Install a new, better video board and sound system. Fix the bathrooms.
Put one hundred million into an NIL fund.
Use the rest, I’d estimate 600 million, on medical research.
The cold benches? I rent the seat backs to keep my sorry old butt comfortable on cold days.
The 200 million spent on the Taj Fitz was supposed to bring us to the promised land. How did that work out?
Remove seven thousand seats so we don’t have to see all those seats filled with the barbarians dressed in red, maize, blue, green, orange, yellow and whatever other colors our opponents’ fans wear. Plus we won’t have to hear them chanting and singing their fight songs. Game day, I hate seeing so many of the bastards making themselves feeling at home in our stadium.
Install a new, better video board and sound system. Fix the bathrooms.
Put one hundred million into an NIL fund.
Use the rest, I’d estimate 600 million, on medical research.
The cold benches? I rent the seat backs to keep my sorry old butt comfortable on cold days.
Some of you have mentioned visiting other stadiums to see the Cats and explore campuses. I had never thought of that much but as it is the old stadium is a terrible ambassador for Northwestern and along those lines a hinderance to the strategy of being Chicago's B1G Team. Who would want to attend a game at a shabby, half empty, stadium before a solid fan relationship has been built up?
Just wait till you're my age. Long waits to pee will be par for the course.
Hungry, you must be post-1997 renovation, which replaced the men’s room pee walls with urinals. I always thought of using the lineup at the pee wall as a vivid example of “continuous and differentiable” when TA’ing B14-1 calculus, but thought better of it.
The pee wall was a technology that should never have been abandoned.
Michigan Stadium had a pee wall when I saw Noah Herron’s NU team lose there. It was amazing. No waits, just a tight squeeze.
I agree with pee walls. They actually were sanitary. No matter how drunk you got it was hard to miss.
I've attended nearly every home game since the early 90's. Reflecting on thirty-plus years of NU games I have strongly positive sentiment about being at the many legendary games during that time, but my sentiment towards the actual venue has gotten fairly negative. I like the towers and curving west facade. The view of the games from pretty much any seat between the 30s is excellent, probably better than it will be in a new stadium. That's about all I've got for positives. The negative aspects of RF are all well-known so I won't get into them. I don't need the Taj Mahal of stadiums to enjoy going to games, but current RF comes up well short of even being just an average stadium in 2023.
Hey, you need to get permission from Mike Webb to reclaim your old handle. Party pooper.
A lot of that is general maintenance rather than falling apart
I like the troughs at the Shoe in Columbus. I like that they are lined with M stickers.
Taj Fitz is part of the overall. Not the answer in itself. And it was as much about making the life of FB players more managable.
As far as the cold benches, lined pants make them much better and they are far more comfortable (to me) than those seat backs
Remember it well. Everything you say is accurate. Probably because we were in the same freshman class.! 😂
The venue sucks but the memories are priceless. First game in high school -1976.
We hosted Ohio State only eleven months ago. Though the weather probably suppressed attendance at bit the official figure was nearly 43k. I agree that seatbacks are well-worth the fee, especially for games like that.
I've probably been to 100+ games at Ryan Field, during college the only games I missed was maybe 1 thanksgiving weekend game. That being said an upgrade is definitely needed, I love the new modern look of the stadium!
That game was in early November and I was no where to be found, recovering from late October knee replacement surgery. My seats are in the east stands so there were probably Buckeye fans crowding us out.
Positive sentiment? Sure. I have lots of great memories at Ryan Field, both in the stands and in the press box.
I also had lots of great memories in the old Welsh-Ryan Arena, but I didn't shed a single tear when they gutted it and I like sitting in the new one a heck of a lot more.
I also had lots of great memories in the old Welsh-Ryan Arena, but I didn't shed a single tear when they gutted it and I like sitting in the new one a heck of a lot more.
