OT: Your stadium stories, worst experiences?

Several bad experiences.

1. Camp Randall Stadium, loss vs. Wisconsin, 1993. Terrifying . . . Wisconsin fans severely injured rushing the field (trapped on chain link fence and railing.) LINK:  1993 Wisconsin MIchigan Disaster.
2. Michigan Stadium, loss vs. Ohio State, 1981. Missed the opening, because the lines to get in were ridiculous. And Michigan lost.
3. 1986 Michigan - Minnesota game. Michigan was ranked #2, and this was supposed to be a gimme game, setting up Ohio State the next week. Michigan stumbled, losing on a field goal at the end, 20 - 17. Michigan would have been in the MNC game had they beat Minnesota. What coulda been. . . 

West Lafayette is a rather crappy place to watch football anyway.  I was in a bad mood driving down there, we had shit seats and the tailgates sucked. 

First half was ok with good guys up 28-10 and it looked like Drew Henson & Co. were rolling.  Then, the horror happened.  Walking out of that stadium with those fans was shitty.  And walking past all the tailgaters blasting "Who Let the Dogs Out" will always associate that shitty song with that shitty day at that shitty place.

Went to a UM-MSU hockey game at Munn when I was in school with a bunch of friends. We had standing-room tickets, which if you've ever been to Munn, are directly behind the seats, really basically just the concourse, and don't really allow you to see much of anything, especially if the people in the seats decide to be dicks and just stand up to block Michigan fans' views. Which started to happen as the game got close and tense in the 3rd.

We were stone-sober, enjoying the game, and a Sparty in the last row of the seats decided he was going to start harassing us--mainly, getting right up in my girlfriend at the time's face. And she wasn't doing anything except goofily watching the game. It got really ugly. I got between them and started yelling at the guy to leave her alone, and all of the sudden an MSU cop comes up behind me and tries to kick me out. She wouldn't believe that the other guy had started it. She was convinced I was drunk and belligerant, the whole nine yards, when it was totally the other guy just raging on a girl for no reason other than he thought that's what you do to rival fans.

It was the first and last time I went to Munn. No need to deal with that shit. And those famed Melting Moments ice cream cookies weren't even that good, either.

As for other stories, I have a stack from Michigan Stadium over the last few years. Our section has gotten intolerable with single-game ticket buyers being absolute assholes. But I digress.

Best Experience: 2013 National Title game. Yeah we lost, but it could be a long time before we ever get back there. And I was there to see it all live, when Spike made himself known to all mankind, when Burke essentially became a one-man army and nearly won Michigan a national title by himself. One hell of a game, and every Louisville fan I came across was very respectful.

Worst Experiences: 2009/2013 OSU: Despite having bad seasons, both of these games were absolutely winnable, which made them even more soul-crushing. What was worst for me about both of those games was what happened afterwards. For the 2009 game, I was walking home past the Union, and these drunken OSU females decided to jump on top of the Michigan Union sign and spell out O-H-I-O together for a picture. And nobody did anything about it. The thought of it still sickens me to this day.

With 2013 OSU, coming so damn close, and having to walk out of the stadium and watch all the OSU fans wrapping their arms around each other and singing Carmen Ohio was just vomit-inducing. And then as I was walking back to the Bell Tower, what I can assume were drunken OSU students who came up for the game walked by and started talking a whole lot of shit. In retrospect, I hope they were the ones who ran into Lewan that night.

at Northwestern. That was early 00s, I guess.  We actually got a great parking spot for tailgating, but it was raining so hard, we had to sit and eat in the car.  It poured during the first half and the water flooded the walways and areas under the stands.  There was a few inches of standing water all over the place.  Fortunately, the rain let up in the second half and the mud flying everywhere made it entertaining.  The game ended well, too.

The 2013 game at NW was also pretty miserable, but only because it was colder.  Not a monsoon like the other game.  And, I was at the M00N game, too, but the weather was better and the people sitting around us were entertaining as we all embraced the "ineptitude bowl".

My worst is Michigan Stadium unfortunately. I like to be in my seats for kick-off and a little before if I can swing it. My then girlfriend, now wife, got a student ticket so we had to go get it validated. No big deal, I like walking around campus on game day, but it did put us a bit behind schedule. She had her purse with her to pay for the extra fee for non-students. Well, not thinking clearly we head straight to the gate and sure enough being late meant a huge line. It wasn't until we got to the very front some 20 minutes later that we realized they weren't going to let her in with the purse.

Fuck. Ok, walk over to Crisler to check it. Another huge line. Finally get inside the concourse about the end of the 1st quarter, get to our section and, ugh, line literally to the fence. Another 15 minutes, and it's midway through 2nd quarter before we finally get to our seats.

Midway through halftime, I go take a piss and yup, you guessed it, huge fucking line. They were doing work on one of the bathrooms or something so everyone on that half of the stadium had to use one bathroom. Finally get back mid-way through the 3rd and by that point we're getting blown out (can't remember the game, pretty sure it was 2009 though, so Penn State?). Just miserable. Oh and we go to get my girlfriend/wife's purse after the game and another huge line. I literally spent more time in line that day than actually in my seat watching football.

Close second would be 2008 Northwestern for obvious reasons.

5-0 Purdue game in 94 or 95. Ice coming down sideways. I dropped my pint bottle of booze, the cap broke, and all my precious antifreeze was lost. Tragic.

4th quarter of last Year's UM-Utah game is about as low as it gets. At least with the M00N game, we won. Worst heartbreak was in South Bend, watching as Harry Oliver kicked the field goal to beat us. I only watched the Kordell Stewart game on TV; otherwise that would have been comparable.

Totally unrelated to UM... went to see Jethro Tull at Nassau Coliseum when I was but a lad. Two metal heads next to me were hammered, but seemed cool enough. One of the guys threw up on the guy in the row under us - the guy who was puked on turned around to seek vengeance, but when the metal heads stood up, they were each about 6'5" and built like lineman. The pukee sat right back down without uttering another word.

The game was great as far as winning and going to the Rose Bowl, but sitting next to me was a 400 pound Buckeye guy (I think it was Bucknut's dad) who took up my seat and his.  He smoked a cigar all game and used me as an ash tray. 

Illinois 2007, I had a grown ass man in his mid 40's yelling, "Lloyd Carr deepthroats" for a solid 20 minutes before I asked him to grow up, and it nearly turned into fistycuffs as this gentlemen clearly couldn't hold his liquor. 

The 2012 Air Force game. A drunk kid two rows in front of me kept yelling "Funchess!" at the top of his voice. Problem is, he was yelling the incorrect pronunciation like "Foon-chess". Then he almost collapsed on the aisle. He got dragged out by his buddy and never returned, for that game or any game that followed.

Worst experience? Being there losing to OSU 2010. Tate Forever throwing pick after pick and half the stadium was wearing red. Oregon 2007 was a close second. The worst seats I was ever in were the end zone section at Ross-Ade. Couldn't see shit.

My brother is a Purdue alum so we went to a Purdue bowl game against Maryland in, oh, 2006 or so.  It was at the Citrus Bowl stadium in Orlando, which they've been renovating lately but at the time was the biggest hole of a stadium in the world.  As a UVA fan, pretty much every time you bump into Maryland fans you're going to hear it from them, but I figured it was just rivalry stuff and with Purdue gear on they'd just be normal.  Not one bit.  Seemed like they wanted to start something any time, any place - motel parking lot, random downtown bar, wherever.  In the stadium we sat near a group of some 60-something Terps who kept loudly making passive-aggressive remarks to each other about how shitty everything Purdue-related was, purposely loud enough for us to overhear.  Purdue ended up losing and the shit-talking during the walk of shame out of the stadium was brutal.   My has since shared my extreme distaste for Maryland.

My wife and I lived in Tempe, AZ for a few years while she was finishing up school, and we never missed a time when a Detroit sports team was in town.  One of the times we went to a Suns v. Pistons game, we somehow managed to end up in a section surrounded by nothing but folks in purple and orange, which is rare because it's not uncommon for fans of visiting teams to outnumber the fans rooting for the home team and Phoenix sporting events.

Anyways, earlier on in the game, Rodney Stuckey went for a layup and Shaq fouled him real hard, probably the hardest foul I've even seen in person (pretty much grabbed him in mid-air and slammed him down, it was quite unlike Shaq).  I, not thinking, immediately jump up and start screaming at the top of my lungs "Flagrant 2!!!  That's a flagrant 2, kick him out of the game!!!"  What made it worse is the arena was pretty silent at time so my voice carried a lot farther than I wanted it to.  The play was initially just called a foul, and all I got was a decent spattering of boos and dirty glances sent my way, but that was it.  

However, the refs decided to review it, and then they changed the call to flagrant 2 and ejected Shaq.  I made the mistake of clapping when they did, and all the cussing and trash came flying my way.  Got some empty cups, napkins, fries, etc... thrown at me along with a ton of boos and "fuck you's", but nothing that could injure me or force my wife and I to take off.  To be honest, I kinda enjoyed playing the temporary villain that day.

1. 5-0 Purdue.  I didn't get past halftime of this game.  Just not worth it.  I had a raincoat over basically a light fall coat, but no gloves, so my hands went numb sometime in the 2nd quarter. 

2. Home game against BC in '96.  This was still the "I have no idea how to dress for games" phase of undergrad for me.  75 degrees or so before the game, huge cold front comes through with rain and the temp drops into the low 60s.  I was in a T-shirt and shorts soaking wet.  Not good times.

3.  Fricking Utah game this year.  Good lord the water.  Didn't get a dry pair of socks until 10 pm when I got home.  I'll have to remember to bring some spare socks and shoes if rain is expected.

We vacationed in Puerto Vallarta to celebrate my wife's 30th birthday in 1978 and she got really sick with an intestinal issue.

We returned to SoCal and one of my friends took me to the second game of World Series at Dodgers' Stadium, whereupon Motezuma's Revenge hit me.  I dashed to the men's room, there were no doors for the toilets.

It got really ugly in every sense of the word.  Men were lined up to use the urinals so they had to stop in front of my merciless condition.  They kept saying things like: "Oh no..stop it" or "poor guy... must have been to Mexico" or worse.

I finally made it out of there thinkimg that I could regain my anonymity, but Ohhh no.  Some of the men who witnessed this very unfortunate incident started cheering as I walked by......other were pointing at and saying "that's the guy we told you about."

It was the incredible game where Bobby Welch struck out Reggie Jackson in the 9th inning of Game 2.........there was some joy in Mudville, but not so much in my neck of the woods.

In 1998, I went to Bloomington to watch Western play the Hoosiers. The fans were incredibly nice. Only bad experience was listening to IU's marching band announcer, who might have the most obnoxious voice of a stadium announcer I've ever heard. I spent most of the game trying to find a radio channel for the Michigan game and I couldn't find it....which might have been a blessing in disguise since that was the day Donovan McNabb did bad things at the big house. During post-game, the IU band announcer took a break from announcing the music to joyously announce over the speakers that Michigan had lost and was now 0-2 on the season. The 1,000 or so fans left in the stadium could care less but I wanted to run on to the field and deck the jackass. In 2013, I went to the big house to watch us play IU (that ugly defensive game we won 63-47). Indiana brought their marching band and during their Pregame, I was horrified to hear that awful voice over the speakers again.

I have a PSU friend and went to the 400th win. Whole place was moving...

First game was Hoke's first that got rained out, best 35 min of my life

As a student in 2005 against Minn and OSU. I must have yelled NOOOO so effing loudly when Gary Russell ran for that huge gain that put the Gophers in range for the game-winning FG. I think of a scene in Fast and the Furious when Vin Diesel is talking about how he witnessed his father die in a car crash and hought that he was hearing his dad's screams when they were in fact his own. Absurd, I know.

Against OSU later that year, we couldn't get Troy Smith down, Morgan Trent (I think) dropped an INT that would have ended the game (at least that's how I remember it), and Antonio Gonzalez made an absurd catch. Goddammit.

Home Lions game a couple years ago. It was my buddies bachelor party and I was the best man so we pulled a Michigan @home game Saturday followed by a Lions @home game Sunday. The Michigan game was cold and rainy and pretty awful but we partied pretty hard obviously.

My buddies dad is with us. He used to be a cook on a Navy ship for a bunch of years and he is pretty old but he was partying right along witht the rest of us as he likes to do.

Anyway Sunday rolls around and we are tailgating for the Lions game and it was actually pretty nice out. We all start hitting the booze pretty heavy. I look over and the old man is sitting in the party van on the steps. I walk over to him and he grabs my shoulder and his eyes roll back in his head. I yell to my buddy and he runs over and we all think his dad is having a heart attack and dying. We call an ambulance and he is rushed to the hospital. My buddy hops in the ambulance and rides with him. The rest of us walk to the hospital.

Turns out the old man was dehydrated from partying too hard with us for two days. Pretty horrible day as my buddy literally thought his dad was dying in his arms. Pretty awful emotional experience for him. Anyway I still tell my buddy to this day "Remember that time we almost killed your dad at your bachelor party?" 

Michigan had the game against OSU won with less than a minute to go in OT.  Some UM fan who went to Eastern Kentucky, quite possibly the first instance of a Walmart Wolverine sighting outside of the state, started a fight with an OSU fan.  Bad thing is that the UM fan started talking smack during the Sweet 16 game Friday night.  He was asking for it.  My dad got in the middle of the fight to break it up and he felt foolish when he found out the guy went to EKU.  

Cold, wet heavy snow before the game, a sea of scarlet and gray inside the stadium, and a lifeless performance by a injury-ravaged UM squad in Carr's last home game.

I drank with anger after that game...

 

You mean the hold take down clock ran out game we lost 26-24?

student ticket.  Sat around my friends and all of the other students for The Game in a Michigan sweatshirt.

I don't think I need to explain this anymore.

Drove up to Cleveland at 7am the following morning dead hungover to go the the Browns/Steelers game.  The Steelers won on a final 2 minute TD drive......