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Favorite Wa-Griz Upgrade memories

BadlandsGrizFan

BadlandsGrizFan

Well-known member
With all the awesome new upgrades we have going on at the stadium this year...scoreboard..champions center..turf..new video boards last year..it certainly is a very exciting time.....I thought it would be cool to hear some of everyones favorite upgrades and stories around them....to our great stadium....

I'm sure some of you old farts have some great old memories.

The Majestic plaza was added my first year on campus and I remember the excitement watching it go up. Very memorable addition to our stadium......

Lets hear your thoughts.......
 
Not really sure if this can be considered an "upgrade" but it was pretty cool when they finally took out the bleachers in the student section. Everybody just stood on them anyway until they got broken! :twisted:
 
I had been on campus for a year before the east side expansion, and that was pretty cool to see it expand up. Made the stadium feel even bigger and made it look like a big-time stadium.

The other addition to the stadium that I loved were the LED panels along the Majestic Plaza and under the NEZ bat wings.
 
MissoulaMarinerFan said:
Not really sure if this can be considered an "upgrade" but it was pretty cool when they finally took out the bleachers in the student section. Everybody just stood on them anyway until they got broken! :twisted:
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I remember this. It might have been my last year at UM and the last year for those bleachers. It was maybe the UNH playoff game in 2004 where a kid got arrested for MIP and the students broke the bleachers in protest. Chants of "break the bench, break the bench" rang out as UM destroyed New Hampshire. The following week they tore down the goalposts after we handled SHSU. I think the bleachers were gone the next year, along with the regular goalposts.

The goalposts hang from the ceiling at Red's. Getting those uprights out of WaGriz and perhaps carrying them with 250 friends across the footbridge to Red's is my favorite upgrade. I'm not sure, though, because I wasn't there . . .
 
every home game after a north end zone expansion was complete. Could just feel how much louder the stadium had become.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
MissoulaMarinerFan said:
Not really sure if this can be considered an "upgrade" but it was pretty cool when they finally took out the bleachers in the student section. Everybody just stood on them anyway until they got broken! :twisted:
Click to expand...

I remember this. It might have been my last year at UM and the last year for those bleachers. It was maybe the UNH playoff game in 2004 where a kid got arrested for MIP and the students broke the bleachers in protest. Chants of "break the bench, break the bench" rang out as UM destroyed New Hampshire. The following week they tore down the goalposts after we handled SHSU. I think the bleachers were gone the next year, along with the regular goalposts.

The goalposts hang from the ceiling at Red's. Getting those uprights out of WaGriz and perhaps carrying them with 250 friends across the footbridge to Red's is my favorite upgrade. I'm not sure, though, because I wasn't there . . .
Click to expand...

I was only in elementary during this game, but I still remember hearing "Please do not ride the goal posts out of the stadium" turning into "Please exercise caution riding the goal posts out of the stadium" over the PA :lol:
 
I remember going over to watch the construction weekly when the Stadium was being built. I remember going with my Dad to select our seats (as part of the Stadium fundraising, GSA members could select two seats for $1000, and also got a keepsake piece of the bleachers from Dornblaser). My Dad and I selected two seats each on the west side, midfield. Sadly, my Dad became ill shortly afterward and never once used his seats, and I eventually let them go. I still have mine, and and have missed two games in the life of Wa-Griz. My Dad was a life-long Griz fan and a Charter Member of Century Club, which later became GSA.
 
These are all awesome.....we forget how lucky we are to have the amazing memories like these as fans....most schools at our level are not so lucky.....

keep em coming old timers...lol
 
I remember the first game, moving from Dornblaser to WaGriz. It was like, "Wow, what have we here?!?!" I've missed perhaps six games since that day.
 
Best upgrade memory - 1995, first season tickets in the newly constructed South End Zone seats (or Siberia as we referred to it during the December playoffs when the scoreboard blocked what little sun there was). I had my first job out of college and spent $150.00 of my first paycheck to cover season tickets for 2 adults and 1 student. Playoff tickets were a whopping $10 each.....man I miss those days.

2nd best upgrade memory was our 2003 move to the newly expanded NEZ.
 
grizfnz said:
Best upgrade memory - 1995, first season tickets in the newly constructed South End Zone seats (or Siberia as we referred to it during the December playoffs when the scoreboard blocked what little sun there was). I had my first job out of college and spent $150.00 of my first paycheck to cover season tickets for 2 adults and 1 student. Playoff tickets were a whopping $10 each.....man I miss those days.

2nd best upgrade memory was our 2003 move to the newly expanded NEZ.
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Rad Ass. :clap: :clap:
 
'68griz said:
I remember the first game, moving from Dornblaser to WaGriz. It was like, "Wow, what have we here?!?!" I've missed perhaps six games since that day.
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I thought that the loss of the original Dornblaser was sad, a classic Ivy League-style facility, with the team entrance on the north side of Schreiber. The original ceramic "UM" that oversaw Dornblaser mounted on the roof of Schreiber is still there, now overseeing just a parking lot. But, the field was right in the middle of campus. It was a reminder of a time, the 1920s, when sport and academics were hand-in-hand at American universities.

The replacement, at the Campbell Field site on South Avenue, was a serious let-down from the neo-classic to neo-high school.

From that low spot, Washington-Griz even as it was at that early incarnation, was such an "upgrade" that it signaled the intent to change the role of football at the University of Montana, and nearly as importantly, made it a part of the Campus again. Larry Donovan does not get the honor he deserves for initiating and shepherding that effort.

After that, North Level was the most impressive change partly because it really changed the look and feel of the stadium, and made end-zone seating a "positive," but also took the excellent acoustics and elevated those, as well, to "wow" class.
 
I was a sophomore at UM in 95. So the FIRST expansion will always be my favorite. I remember getting back to Missoula in Mid-August, and going right to campus to see the construction, but they kept both end zones covered and the fencing around the entire stadium was covered so no one could look in. That was way before internet and social media. The Eastern New Mexico game was the home opener, but the project was still coverd and not quite finished. So, walking into the new Wash-Griz for Homecoming against Boise State, the official unveil of the new EZ's was absolutely incredible. Griz kicked off to open the game and the roar was the loudest I've ever heard for an opening kickoff. BSU fumbled that kick but recovered, but when the Griz got the ball, Dicky hit Matt Wells for a 90-Yard TD, the Griz defense, who never got enough credit, physically knocked Tony Hilde out of the game, and we blasted the Broncos. Still one of the best days I've ever had in Wash-Griz for sure and an incredible start to an incredible season.
 
UMGriz75 said:
Larry Donovan does not get the honor he deserves for initiating and shepherding that effort. [The Washington family contribution that started all of it - making Wa-Griz possible]
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I will second that. :agree:
 
EverettGriz said:
I've always believed that adding Thai food as an option was a major upgrade.
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If you are ever in Amarillo, I know of an out of the way, hole in the wall Thai place up on Amarillo Blvd where we meet for lunch every Friday. One guy in our group used to taunt the chef - "you can't make it hot enough for me!"

Never had a bad meal there.
 
havgrizfan said:
I was a sophomore at UM in 95. So the FIRST expansion will always be my favorite. I remember getting back to Missoula in Mid-August, and going right to campus to see the construction, but they kept both end zones covered and the fencing around the entire stadium was covered so no one could look in. That was way before internet and social media. The Eastern New Mexico game was the home opener, but the project was still coverd and not quite finished. So, walking into the new Wash-Griz for Homecoming against Boise State, the official unveil of the new EZ's was absolutely incredible. Griz kicked off to open the game and the roar was the loudest I've ever heard for an opening kickoff. BSU fumbled that kick but recovered, but when the Griz got the ball, Dicky hit Matt Wells for a 90-Yard TD, the Griz defense, who never got enough credit, physically knocked Tony Hilde out of the game, and we blasted the Broncos. Still one of the best days I've ever had in Wash-Griz for sure and an incredible start to an incredible season.
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And, I remember my old army comrade, Pokey Allen, coach of the Broncos, dejected, in his home town, getting his team's butts kicked. Had to be a hard day. A good Missoula man, sadly taken by cancer too young.
 
RABIDAWG said:
And, I remember my old army comrade, Pokey Allen, coach of the Broncos, dejected, in his home town, getting his team's butts kicked. Had to be a hard day. A good Missoula man, sadly taken by cancer too young.
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And some group in the Homecoming Parade doing the "Hokey Pokey" in his honor all the way down Higgins Avenue.
 
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