Mick Jagger and Bono Vox strutted in the south end zone. Gene Autry fell off Champion, his horse. Jim McMahon went down, too. The 1947 NCAA Track and Field Championships were snowed on two nights in a row - in late June.
Robert L. Rice Stadium (nee Ute Stadium, 1927) was built for University of Utah football. But memories of the antiquated structure - which falls to demolition crews soon after the Utes' 1997 home finale Saturday afternoon against Rice (who else?) - are as varied as the people who attended them.Broadway musicals, band and dance competitions, light operas, NFL exhibition games, Rolling Stones and U-2 concerts, graduations and all-day Shriners' convention events that left Autry weary enough to topple off his horse - all were a part of Ute/Rice Stadium. So was a U.S. president's wife, Lady Bird Johnson. Addressing rain-soaked Utah graduates, she was shielded from the rain that day by an umbrella held by U. public relations director Parry Sorensen.
But college football built the place. And it will help rebuild it into a showplace for the 2002 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium name will remain "Rice," and the current playing surface will remain as is. The sidelines will be a little wider.
Perhaps because only the seating structure changes, many say they're more excited about having the new facility than they are sad to see the old one go.
That includes Bill Marcroft, in his 29th year as U. play-by-play radio/TV announcer. "We always kind of led the league in new facilities," he said, thinking of the Huntsman Center, the new gymnastics building currently under construction as well as soccer and softball fields and the like. "Football lagged behind."
This will catch it up again.
"I think the new things will be absolutely wonderful," said Ted Jacobsen, retired Huntsman Center director who was a U. student in 1948 and who worked in a number of arts- and sports-related Utah jobs since 1957. "I see no reason to look back at the old one."
Jacobsen recalls stories of former athletic director Bud Jack and others digging in the dirt after the old wooden stands were removed and before the present concrete base was built. They found coins dating nearly to 1927 as well as a snake living under the stands.
Jack's best memory is of the scholarship box. "I guess I got more satisfaction out of that. Mr. Rice thought it was a good idea," he said.
Football coach Ron McBride, who first came to Utah as a Wayne Howard assistant in 1976, finds the new stadium project "pretty interesting - that's a lot of years, huh? It should be very nice." His memories are mainly of wins, like in 1978 when "Frank Henry ran the same (pass) route twice to win the game" against BYU and future Chicago Bears Super Bowl-winning punky QB McMahon. And Utah's second-straight 34-31 victory over BYU in '94, and wins over Oregon, Air Force and Fresno State that made Utah a respected program.
Director of athletic media relations Bruce Woodbury - 25 years a staffer and a lifelong fan - is one suffering nostalgia attacks this week. "I spent my whole life in that stadium," he said.
He cherishes childhood memories of the Utah-Utah State Thanksgiving Day games, when the family met at the University Avenue home of his grandfather, a U. professor. After turkey dinner, they'd walk to the game, then walk back for postgame turkey sandwiches.
Woodbury's best game recollection is of the 1972 win over Arizona. Utah was down 27-0 with 14 minutes left and won 28-27, then the NCAA-record winning comeback.
It was also in 1972 when the stadium was named after Rice, who donated $1 million for renovations.
The holiday games touched another longtime fan who requested anonymity. She grew up in the days before traffic and smog and recalls Thanksgivings when, from her childhood home in Sugar House, "on a clear day, you could hear the people screaming" at the game.
She has rarely missed a game in her adult life. "A true fan is there no matter what," she said. "I used to take the children. It was a wonderful experience for families." Like Woodbury, she's sorry to see it go. "I'm a traditionalist. I hate to see change."
Jan Hancey of Centerville has been watching Ute football for 40 years. She'll be happy if the new structure has better washrooms and seating access, but she'll have some sadness Saturday. "I do have a lot, but I don't want to buy a chair. I don't have that much nostalgia," she said, adding that she has no place at home to put the seat that's been hers for decades.
Hancey remembers Marv Bateman, the punter who led the NCAA in 1970 and '71 (45.7 and 48.1 averages) and the way the Ute band came double-time high-stepping out of the old Northwest tunnel, playing "Utah Man" and going directly into the script Utah formation for every game. Now it only does the script at homecoming games.
Players are more concerned with Rice, the team, than Rice, the stadium. "It takes down some of the history other players built," said senior tight end Chris Jahries, noting that more people will be able to see future players in the new stadium. Saturday he'll be thinking "not so much of the stadium as of the crowd. The crowd makes any field."
Senior cornerback Clarence Lawson is a crowd-believer, too. "I always look at the fans, every game," he said. "It will be very sad. I will be thinking about that last time with my team. It will be weird. We've just got to come together. We don't want to lose the last game (played in the 32,500-seat version of Rice Stadium)."
Especially not to Rice.
*****
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Ute / Rice Stadium memories
Date Score Coach
10-1-27 Utah 44, Colorado 6 Ike Armstrong
First game in Ute Stadium
11-18-61 Utah State 17, Utah 6 Ray Nagel
Attendance of 32,438 sets Ute Stadium record.
9-18-65 Arizona 16, Utah 9 Ray Nagel
4 inches of snow fell during an early September game.
11-4-72 Utah 28, Arizona 27 Bill Meek
Utah down 27-0 with 14:00 left; winning comeback is biggest in NCAA history to that point.
11-19-88 Utah 57, BYU 28 Jim Fassel
Scott Mitchell quarterbacks Utah to first win over BYU in 10 years.