Metrodome memories (off the field)

Donate To GopherHole
Schnauzer

Schnauzer

Pretty Sure You are Wrong
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
6,362
Reaction score
2,935
Points
113
thought it would be fun to share some memories of the Metrodome years - specifically, memories beyond the play on the field. Share your own if you'd like. Here are three of mine...

1) I have already posted this one on GH but it is related to this subject. I'll make it short. As I was leaving the Metrodome after the last victory over Wisconsin, I purchased a little Gopher football for my son (then 5, now 11). I had him by the hand as he clutched his new football with his other arm. As we walked along the NW side of the stadium, the football squirted out of his arm. As he turned around to pick it up, a drunken Badger fan walking behind us lunged forward and kicked the ball out into the street, with all his might, barely missing my son's outstretched hands in the process. It was in full view of 30 or more people... a third of which rushed out in the street to retrieve my son's ball, another third basically assaulted the drunken idiot, while the last third looked on with gaping jaws.

2) I consider myself an "insider" of sorts regarding the infamous bathroom sex encounter at last year's Iowa game. My wife and I had attended the game with another couple and the other three all had to visit the bathroom on the way out of the stadium. I was the only one with an empty bladder so I waited by the door. I cringed as I followed the last part of the game on one of the monitors outside the bathroom. As I was watching, a previously unseen dude struck up a conversation with me. He started by saying "Pretty rough day for the gophers, huh? I acknowledged and then he continued: "But not as rough as it is for these two over here", pointing at two people seated in the stadium entry, surrounded by security and a couple cops. It was at this point I noticed the guy that had started talking to me had an audio earpiece and he clearly was bursting to get some information off his chest. I obliged and inquired about the two and he proceeded to tell me all about the bathroom sex encounter. I got a good look at both of them and of course immediately shared the news with the rest of my party when they returned.

3) We took some west coast relatives to the '07 Ohio State game. As the fourth quarter arrived and it was clear the Gophs were out of the game, I decided not to subject our guests to more of a game that they didn't have a connection with anyway, so we left mid-fourth quarter. As we left the underground parking across the street and eventually got on 7th street, we had to wait for an Ohio State fan and a Woman that was walking in front of him. At first he didn't look drunk... he was walking more like he had a physical or mental challenge. My first reaction seeing the impatient woman walking in front of him was thinking she didn't look like a very empathetic care taker. The guy struggled past us and caught up to her at the corner. Just then the light changed and as we drove forward everything became clear. The guy wasn't challenged at all. He was just THAT drunk because the entire front side of his pants were freshly wet with pee. There was a scene in our car that started with complete silence for several seconds before we all bursted out laughing.
 

Growing up my dad, grandpa and I would go to 1 Gopher game every season plus a handful of Twins games. My grandpa was in a wheelchair since the 1950's and died when I was 18. So the only real memories I have of him outside of visiting his apartment is these games. The last game I went to with him was the 1994 game against PSU where we got drilled 56-3. I miss going to games with him.
 

As much as going into the dome sucked, we used to have some good times tailgating. We didn't really start tailgating until around 2000 or so but when we started it was a blast with all of the open lots right off of Washington Ave. We learned real quick how to get it done right, with the help of the other tailgaters.

As much as I love the new stadium, I wish they had lots like they did on Washington Ave that we could cram thousands of fans in. I know there are lots by TCF but I'm not about to drop that kind of money for a spot.
 

During those games where Gopher fans are streaming out of the stadium because the Gophers were winning handily (never understood that) I liked to take advantage of the open seats. Spent the 4th quarter watching the game from the 50 when I had originally been sitting in the corner.

The dome reminds me of the remains of the Michelin Man.
 

The remember walking out of the dome after '03 Michigan, the few Wolverine fans in attendance were quite gleeful...I just remember that being like a zombie death march.

The other memory was walking out of the dome the final time, after that terrible game against iowa. I remember remarking to my father that I could take consolation that this was the final time I had to deal with that dump of a stadium. 10 seconds later, Iowa fans were heckling us, "sorry about ruining your going away party, enjoy drive home". That really stuck the nail in the coffin for me about that place. I mean I loathed Hawkeye fans anyway, but to get that was just a final sour taste to that dump of a stadium.

Schnauzer, that's really wild about that badger fan, how classless, good to see a lot of people step up to help give you and your son assistance.
 


GopherInWI said:
The remember walking out of the dome after '03 Michigan, the few Wolverine fans in attendance were quite gleeful...I just remember that being like a zombie death march.

The other memory was walking out of the dome the final time, after that terrible game against iowa. I remember remarking to my father that I could take consolation that this was the final time I had to deal with that dump of a stadium. 10 seconds later, Iowa fans were heckling us, "sorry about ruining your going away party, enjoy drive home". That really stuck the nail in the coffin for me about that place. I mean I loathed Hawkeye fans anyway, but to get that was just a final sour taste to that dump of a stadium.

Schnauzer, that's really wild about that badger fan, how classless, good to see a lot of people step up to help give you and your son assistance.
Click to expand...

Yes, that football-kicking situation was quite the scene. I was tempered by the fact I had a five year old by the hand so I basically just got out of dodge but my last glance revealed several guys pushing the "kicker" up against one of the athletic statues on the NW side. I have no idea how it ended.

As far as that Michigan game is concerned... I will always remember that pain. I actually wasn't at that game. I was fishing up north, night trolling. I was listening to that game on the radio and it was a roller coaster ride ending in a depth I hope not to experience again. It actually affected me to the point that from that day forward, it is what immediately pops into my head when I fish that spot. The unfortunate individuals that are in my boat have to hear about it every time I fish there.
 

Well, having 19 years of season tickets in the dome, I have plenty of memories.

Here's a couple I would like to share.

For the past 10 years I have hosted a "Gopher Party" at my house which included a pre-game party and in some cases a post game party as well. I would acquire a block of tickets for the guests right above my seats in the lower rows of section 219. The first couple of years consisted of a small group, maybe 10 people and we would just caravan to the dome. The party quickly caught on and by the 4th year we had over 30 people. We got smart and decided to rent a bus to transport us back and forth to the dome. We peaked at 60 attendees two years ago and had 53 in attendance last year. Great times, many of which most of us could barely remember the bus ride home. Having the bus was a great thing. 2009 was our last year as we knew it since "blocks" of tickets won't be available at TCF. We may do something this year but it won't be the same. However - Change is good !!!

My other memory would be winning the new Cemstone driveway a few years back. Yep, if you saw the Cemstone Gopher truck parked outside of the dome promoting winning a new driveway, I actually won the darn thing !! My name was drawn from a hat along with 5 others of which I had to compete against by throwing footballs through a target. This was in the plaza area before the Iowa game in 2007. I won the contest handily and ended up with a beautiful new cement driveway the following Summer. Not only that, but to make the day complete, we beat the Hawkeyes. The Cemstone people were great and I was glad to see their trucks dumping cement at the new TCF.

Some good memories over that past 19 years but nothing like what we have ahead of us !!
 

Schnauzer said:
As far as that Michigan game is concerned... I will always remember that pain. I actually wasn't at that game. I was fishing up north, night trolling. I was listening to that game on the radio and it was a roller coaster ride ending in a depth I hope not to experience again. It actually affected me to the point that from that day forward, it is what immediately pops into my head when I fish that spot. The unfortunate individuals that are in my boat have to hear about it every time I fish there.
Click to expand...

After that game I found my way back over to Northrup, where I met up with my brother and a bunch of trumpets from the band...we went back to a dorm room and just sat. No one spoke, no one swore, no one shed a tear. Just silent.

A chunk of that group, myself included went to Michigan the following two years, and got the beautiful feeling watching the Gophers take back the jug.
 

Schnauzer said:
3) We took some west coast relatives to the '07 Ohio State game. As the fourth quarter arrived and it was clear the Gophs were out of the game, I decided not to subject our guests to more of a game that they didn't have a connection with anyway, so we left mid-fourth quarter. As we left the underground parking across the street and eventually got on 7th street, we had to wait for an Ohio State fan and a Woman that was walking in front of him. At first he didn't look drunk... he was walking more like he had a physical or mental challenge. My first reaction seeing the impatient woman walking in front of him was thinking she didn't look like a very empathetic care taker. The guy struggled past us and caught up to her at the corner. Just then the light changed and as we drove forward everything became clear. The guy wasn't challenged at all. He was just THAT drunk because the entire front side of his pants were freshly wet with pee. There was a scene in our car that started with complete silence for several seconds before we all bursted out laughing.
Click to expand...

I think my buddy and I saw that guy and the woman as well, inside the Dome...he was cheering "Ohio!" every few seconds or so. He was pretty toasted, and she looked pissed. A good memory to take from a bad game and season.
 



GopherInWI said:
we went back to a dorm room and just sat. No one spoke, no one swore, no one shed a tear. Just silent.
Click to expand...

Switch out Argyle House for a dorm room, and you have the same thing my friends and I did. For the better part of an hour after we got back, that's all we did.

Only the second time I've ever been physically sick after watching a football game (first was the 1999 NFC Championship Game, when I still cared about the Vikes). It had nothing to do with the fact that it was the first time I went tailgating and drank heavily.
 

Michigan game 06 or 07 (don't remember). Four of us have tickets, one of my buddies tried to be funny be wearing an afro wig to the game. Wig guy and another buddy of mine are walking around the outside of the dome, about 20 feet in front of me and another guy. Out of nowhere, some punk kid in a Michigan shirt runs towards wig guy, rips the wig off his head and starts cheering and running away (towards me). Slide step by me to the left, punk kid goes down hard on the outdoor concourse. Wasn't so funny anymore.
 


93 Wisconsine game is the best memory I have of the dome. I think it's the only victoy over a ranked team I've ever seen in person. That was the brief shining moment I thought maybe Wacker wasn't a joke. The heartbreaker in Champaign put an end to that.
 



PlayHosea said:
Michigan game 06 or 07 (don't remember). Four of us have tickets, one of my buddies tried to be funny be wearing an afro wig to the game. Wig guy and another buddy of mine are walking around the outside of the dome, about 20 feet in front of me and another guy. Out of nowhere, some punk kid in a Michigan shirt runs towards wig guy, rips the wig off his head and starts cheering and running away (towards me). Slide step by me to the left, punk kid goes down hard on the outdoor concourse. Wasn't so funny anymore.
Click to expand...

Man, that gave me a good laugh! It must have been very therapeutic for you.. if I saw that there'd be no doubt that I would have been rolling on the ground in hysterics :)
 

My most striking memory is from the 2005 Wisconsin game. There was a 14-16 year old high school guy two rows behind us. He was a pretty muscled-up kid for his age and wearing a HS football t-shirt. For 85% of the game he was doing a great job of cheering. Well, you remember how that game went with the block of Kucek's punt... anyway - as my wife and I turned around to exit the metrodome at the end of the game, we se this kid uncontrollably sobbing - I mean really blubbering:cry:. That kind of says what it means to be a Gophers fan.

Hopefully, there will be no sobbing at TCF Bank Stadium.
 

gophmeister said:
93 Wisconsine game is the best memory I have of the dome. I think it's the only victoy over a ranked team I've ever seen in person. That was the brief shining moment I thought maybe Wacker wasn't a joke. The heartbreaker in Champaign put an end to that.
Click to expand...

That is about the first memory I have of going to Gopher games. I was there and if I remember right they gave away little gold plastic footballs to all of the fans when you came through the door. After every touchdown, it was a flood of gold footballs going down towards the field. My god it was loud as hell in there.

Also the Purdue game a few years ago when we tied it at the end of the game and won it in overtime.

I have too many bad memories there that I have spent years in therapy trying to forget. My best friend and I almost came to blows after the Michigan game in '03 though. He is a Michigan fan and he sat next to me and took the sh*t I gave him all game. Then at the end he had the last laugh.
 

Best game I experienced: overtime win against top-15 ranked Purdue in '05; the noise in there was deafening, like being underneath a jumbo jet taking off.

Worst game: Wisconsin, also in '05. We gave Wisky fans so much crap until the blocked kick; afterwards we all just slumped into our seats and withered away.

I wish I couldve been to other games before, but I was unfortunately a Fargo resident before enrolling here in '04 :/
 

gophmeister said:
93 Wisconsine game is the best memory I have of the dome. I think it's the only victoy over a ranked team I've ever seen in person. That was the brief shining moment I thought maybe Wacker wasn't a joke. The heartbreaker in Champaign put an end to that.
Click to expand...

Most fun I've ever had at a football game.
 

buddylee853 said:
Man, that gave me a good laugh! It must have been very therapeutic for you.. if I saw that there'd be no doubt that I would have been rolling on the ground in hysterics :)
Click to expand...
It was a nice physics lesson for the young man. An object in motion (him-5'9" 165 lbs) stays in motion, unless a force (me, 6'0", 280 lbs) acts upon it. And yes, we got the wig back.
 

PlayHosea said:
It was a nice physics lesson for the young man. An object in motion (him-5'9" 165 lbs) stays in motion, unless a force (me, 6'0", 280 lbs) acts upon it. And yes, we got the wig back.
Click to expand...


:clap: I wish I could have seen that. It took nutz for that little fella to do that.
 

GOFUR said:
.. I won the contest handily and ended up with a beautiful new cement driveway the following Summer. .. QUOTE]

One of the six contestants you beat in that football throwing contest was my WIFE !! Very impressive that you can win 'handily' over women in a football throwing contest.
Click to expand...
 

buddylee853 said:
Best game I experienced: overtime win against top-15 ranked Purdue in '05; the noise in there was deafening, like being underneath a jumbo jet taking off.
Click to expand...

That game was the loudest I've ever heard the Dome...
 

Long time reader... first time poster here...

I thought I would share this story with y'all.

During my sophomore year, the 2004 season, we had a rather large crew going to the Iowa game. We lost that game 29-27, I think, and were walking out of the student section. While in the traffic jam in the small concourses we heard a few drunk Iowa fans chanting "Mo-Tor-City Bowl clap, clap, clap-clap-clap" This was rather annoying as my friends and I were still bitter after the loss.

A girl in our group was asking the Iowa fans what the cheer meant. She wasn't a football fan, she didn't know much about the rivalry, but still really enjoyed her first football game. One of the Iowa fans said something to the extent that the U wasn't as good as Iowa and proceeded to claim Iowa's superiority.

To which our female friend astutely replied, "But you're from Iowa?!?"

That shut them up real good. Ha!
 

Sam said:
Long time reader... first time poster here...

I thought I would share this story with y'all.

During my sophomore year, the 2004 season, we had a rather large crew going to the Iowa game. We lost that game 29-27, I think, and were walking out of the student section. While in the traffic jam in the small concourses we heard a few drunk Iowa fans chanting "Mo-Tor-City Bowl clap, clap, clap-clap-clap" This was rather annoying as my friends and I were still bitter after the loss.

A girl in our group was asking the Iowa fans what the cheer meant. She wasn't a football fan, she didn't know much about the rivalry, but still really enjoyed her first football game. One of the Iowa fans said something to the extent that the U wasn't as good as Iowa and proceeded to claim Iowa's superiority.

To which our female friend astutely replied, "But you're from Iowa?!?"

That shut them up real good. Ha!
Click to expand...

Classic!

I remember that game too. A missed field goal at the end would have won it. Mason went into "safe" mode on the final drive despite the fact the Gophers had moved the ball really well (as they often did in those years). I can't remember exactly but things got waaaay too conservative and then a penalty(?) added extra length to the potential winning field goal. It missed and that was the difference.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
That game was the loudest I've ever heard the Dome...
Click to expand...


I remember that game as well. Great great game. My roommate and I walking back afterward were interviewed by FSN. We were very giddy and said that the Gophs have a good chance taking the conference.
 

Schnauzer said:
Classic!
Mason went into "safe" mode on the final drive despite the fact the Gophers had moved the ball really well (as they often did in those years). I can't remember exactly but things got waaaay too conservative and then a penalty(?) added extra length to the potential winning field goal. It missed and that was the difference.
Click to expand...

Mason didn't go into safe mode on the final drive. Cupito could barely complete a pass and was awful all game, but we were gashing them all day on the ground running straight at them. On 2nd and 4 (?) we tried a stretch play, but Greenway busted through the line and dropped MBIII for a big loss. On 3rd and long we ran MBIII again but were only able to gain back 3-4 yards. Lloyd badly missed his kick from 52 and that was that.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Mason didn't go into safe mode on the final drive. Cupito could barely complete a pass and was awful all game, but we were gashing them all day on the ground running straight at them. On 2nd and 4 (?) we tried a stretch play, but Greenway busted through the line and dropped MBIII for a big loss. On 3rd and long we ran MBIII again but were only able to gain back 3-4 yards. Lloyd badly missed his kick from 52 and that was that.
Click to expand...

the problem I had on that drive was the 3rd down call. At this point we were actually 3rd and 12 from the Iowa 35 yard line. Iowa had called a timeout with 56 seconds left after the loss of 4 on 2nd down, so we had time to setup a good passing play, but we rushed again and only got 1 yard back, leaving a 51 yard field goal attempt.

The problem was the Lloyd was not having a good year. At that point in the season, he was 0-1 on 50+, and only 1-4 on 40+. Considering the last 2 rushing plays had gone for 2, -4, there was no great indication we'd be able to shorten that yardage. Settling for a 50+ yard FG for a kicker that had a terrible year was in hindsight, not a good decision.
 

cduff said:
the problem I had on that drive was the 3rd down call. At this point we were actually 3rd and 12 from the Iowa 35 yard line. Iowa had called a timeout with 56 seconds left after the loss of 4 on 2nd down, so we had time to setup a good passing play, but we rushed again and only got 1 yard back, leaving a 51 yard field goal attempt.

The problem was the Lloyd was not having a good year. At that point in the season, he was 0-1 on 50+, and only 1-4 on 40+. Considering the last 2 rushing plays had gone for 2, -4, there was no great indication we'd be able to shorten that yardage. Settling for a 50+ yard FG for a kicker that had a terrible year was in hindsight, not a good decision.
Click to expand...

I did not remember it this well but the running call on third and long was what left the "conservative" thought in my head. I do remember not having a lot of confidence as Lloyd set up for the field goal... for all the reasons you just reminded me of.
 

The face off between the Wisky Tuba section and the Gopher equipment semi.

The a few thousand Wisky faithful and the band were doing their 5th quarter victory celebration on the east side of the dome. The Gopher equipment van was attempting to drive through the throng with no success. The driver repeatedly laid on his loud horn but the Wisky fans ignored him and refused to move. Finally the tuba section marched towards the semi and had a Tieniman Square stand off as the tubas blasted back at the semi driver. The driver just threw up his hands, smiled and gave up.

That was a classic.
 

cduff said:
the problem I had on that drive was the 3rd down call. At this point we were actually 3rd and 12 from the Iowa 35 yard line. Iowa had called a timeout with 56 seconds left after the loss of 4 on 2nd down, so we had time to setup a good passing play, but we rushed again and only got 1 yard back, leaving a 51 yard field goal attempt.

The problem was the Lloyd was not having a good year. At that point in the season, he was 0-1 on 50+, and only 1-4 on 40+. Considering the last 2 rushing plays had gone for 2, -4, there was no great indication we'd be able to shorten that yardage. Settling for a 50+ yard FG for a kicker that had a terrible year was in hindsight, not a good decision.
Click to expand...

Under normal circumstances, you would be absolutely right. But I went back and checked out the box score for this game:

Cupito: 9/16 73 yds 2 picks
MBIII: 29 carries, 167 yds
Maroney: 19 carries, 156 yds 3 TDs

That illustrates how ineffective our passing game was that day. I remember sitting in the stands having absolutely no confidence in our ability to complete a pass and being happy with the run call on 3rd and long. Granted, we didn't execute it well, but think about it for a minute. Did we have a better chance at gaining 6-8 yards on that play with a pass or with a run?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom