The orange-clad Rams loosening up at Hughes Stadium
FORT COLLINS — As I type, it’s 70 minutes before the scheduled kickoff of Colorado State’s season opener against Savannah State.
With the new on-campus stadium scheduled to open in 2017, this is the beginning of two lame-duck seasons for Hughes Stadium.
CSU is holding an official “kickoff” ceremony at the stadium site next Saturday, four hours before the kickoff of the home game against Minnesota, but construction already has started and the Rams no longer are billing that as a “groundbreaking.”
Pregame reading:
Saturday story:
Friday story:
Thursday story:
Wednesday story:
Tuesday story:
Monday online:
— Bobo has made the decision that the Rams won’t dress and shower at the Hughes Stadium locker rooms. The Rams dressed at their Joey Porter Locker Room in the McGraw Athletic Center/Moby Arena complex and were bused to the stadium, and then will return to the campus to shower and get dressed in street clothes.
That has led to a change in the post-game procedure for media interviews, with players requested off the available list (it does’t include all the starters or any true freshmen) waiting in the Hughes locker room to be interviewed there (just like the old days … an open locker room!) before joining their teammates on the buses and returning to campus. Then Bobo will speak in the interview room.
— Oh, the irony.
Or maybe it was deliberate.
On the concourse, the CSU athletic department has set up a table to provide additional seat relocation information to season-ticket holders directly below the part of the painted timeline that deals with the ’60s and the opening of Hughes Stadium.
— I’ve spotted a few fans cheating to go along with the Orange Out Ag Day designation, recycling Bronco T-shirts and gear. Does that count?
— CSU officials maintain there will be sufficient parking for the on-campus stadium on game days, and I’m taking their word for it. But as I look out over the parking lots from the press box, I think we can all agree that the one thing Hughes always has had going for it is the huge parking lots and capacity for tailgating.
— And I’m curious to see if this type of artwork homage to CSU tradition also will be the new stadium.
This montage on the concourse includes the images of two famous CSU Olympic gold medalists.
Swimmer Amy Van Dyken is at the lower left and 1936 decathlon winner , also a football star and student body president, is at the right.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei
