Quotes: Looking Back at UR Stadium

"The very first overtime game played at the Division I-AA level was our game against [the University of Massachusetts] in '87. We beat UMass, which was coached by Jim Reid at the time, before he came here, and we won 52-51 when their kicker missed an extra point. I still remember his name to this day: Silvio Bonvini. ... We didn't even know what was going on in the booth. Ray Tate literally got up and walked downstairs to the coach's booth right in the middle of the game and asked them what the heck overtime was all about."

Bob Black, play-by-play announcer for the Spider ISP Sports Network

"I think the fondest memory for me would be the growth in our student attendance, and not only the growth in our student attendance, but the involvement in our student attendance in the four years that I've been here. Because the first year that I was here, the average student attendance was probably in the 600s and now, I mean we had 1,650 [at Homecoming]. ... Those would probably be some of the fondest memories, seeing our students really get involved in football."

Jana Ross, assistant athletic director of marketing and fan development

"I think the culture has changed a little bit too at the stadium. [It used to be] we did the tailgate thing with the ties and khakis. I saw that change. My freshman year, I went to my first game and it was like, 'You have to wear a tie.' So I did and I walked up there so stiff. My second game, I was like, 'Why am I doing this?' I didn't wear a tie anymore from then on."

Drew Setterberg, Richmond College '06

"We went to the first game, we went to the game before we were Mic Men or whatever and our stands were ... I was actually pretty angry that it wasn't full because [it was an] undefeated football season [and the defending] national champions."

Dan Fairley, freshman and one of the "Mic Men" at football and basketball games

"[At Homecoming] looking up at the stands and seeing it completely packed with people, that was up there. That was great. ... I looked up, because we were just standing there and we took a step back and I was like, 'Look up real quick' and [Fairley] was just like 'Whoa.'"

Mike Laventure, freshman and one of the "Mic Men" at football and basketball games

"My first football game that I ever went to my freshman year, it's just really exciting. There's so many people. I went to high school football games and they were kind of boring, but it was just so exciting to be in a huge stadium experiencing something different."

Christie Barrows, junior and captain of the SpinnURs

"The field is a great field. For the players, it's great. ... There are some people that have been around a long time that might say there's some historic value, the memories there. I can see that, when they were kids, their dad brought them or their grandfather and all the memories. There might be some memories, but you know, I've only been here nine years. There are a few good memories there from the nine years I've been there but not enough to have any impact on wanting to move to a new stadium."

Jim Miller, athletic director

"Dennis [Blackburn] does a wonderful job - he's the guy that takes care of the field. Coming and looking at our stadium for as old as it is and kind of the nostalgic and the history that's involved, that's what I'm probably going to miss the most, the stadium and the history and nostalgia of it. Even though it's very old and in ways, decrepit in places, the field and then when you put the people in the crowds, it looks great when we put the team on the field."

Ross

"The tradition that's around the stadium, even though we haven't been able to experience that much, it's just where you call home, even though it's a home away from home, basically."

Fairley

"I thought my first game was really fun, just because it's a lot different than my high school and it was my first big college game and we're actually good, and just the atmosphere was a lot of fun. It's fun driving out there ... just getting off-campus I guess and being close to Carytown."

Katherine Utz, freshman

"On Fridays, we go down to the stadium early, usually myself and the PR person, whether it was Mike [DeGeorge] or the guys before him, Scott Meyer and Simon Gray, kind of set up the press box and set up the broadcast booth with all the equipment. I made it a habit of stopping by Mary Angela's every Friday and picking up a half-pepperoni, half-cheese large pizza and bringing it into the press box. ... I don't think that when we go to the on-campus stadium 300 yards from here that I'm going to go all the way to Mary Angela's and bring it back. ... I'll definitely miss the pizza on Friday afternoons."

Black

"A lot of fond memories and I'll tell you mine. Mike Ireland's [interception return against the University of Massachusetts this season] down to the 1. ... Me and Mike DeGeorge had joked that he was going to do it. That was my favorite play."

Mike Kirn, senior and athletic student marketer

"We got the interception in the last minute of the game and I was sprinting down the sideline and then there's all the Powerade and all the rain and stuff. I was sprinting and it was like, wooooosh, laid out. And Mike just kept running. He kind of stopped and was like, 'Gotta keep running.' Even though I fell ... I was just hoping everybody was looking at the other guy running and not really me."

Fairley

"The playoff game in 2000 in the rain and cold when we beat Youngstown State [University] 10-3, Jason Hill intercepted a pass with 1:44 to go and returned it 44 yards for the game-winning touchdown and then his brother, Harold, intercepted a pass a minute later to win the game. ... I'll never forget Jim Reid's quote after the game ... 'This was a game made for neither man nor beast, just football players.'"

Black

"It's always the fun little things that are funny, when we have the SPCA and they come and the dog pees on the field. ... Little things like that that I have to deal with that I'm like: 'There you go. There's the presentation. He peed on the field.'"

Ross

"We were finally able to get the right equipment in the locker room to do our post-game interview with coach and players from a hook-up in a small equipment closet. ... The first time I opened the door to go in there and turn the light on, there was a mouse staring right at me. ... I think it was actually one of our female athletic trainers who grew up in the country who had no fear whatsoever, she went in there and scurried the mice out of the room. The rest of us just kind of stood there."

Black

"One of the other things that they haven't done here in a long time that we did two years ago is we had a flyover for the Homecoming game and people really enjoyed that. That was a fun experience. Getting my own call, I had a call name to organize the people that flew over and I was talking to the pilot in the plane. They called me Hot Lips."

Ross

"I just remember Stacy Tutt was the guy we put all our hopes in. 'Give the ball to Stacy!' He was our quarterback and our running back basically. He'd just keep the ball and run it. I remember we rushed the field when we clinched a game in the playoffs. You don't have many chances to rush the field or the court at Richmond."

Setterberg

"We beat [the University of Delaware in 1998]. We hadn't beaten them in maybe five years. I don't think coach Reid had ever beaten Tubby Raymond, who was their legendary coach ... [Raymond] was just standing there looking at his watch, ready to go home. I think his son was getting married that night or something so he was just looking at his watch, waiting for the game to end, and our guys and coach Reid were ecstatic because they had just beaten Delaware for the first time."

Black

"Going to a game in general and just having the fans there and the whole atmosphere of the whole experience is pretty cool. I think it's going to be a lot better on campus, so I don't know what I'd miss. It's a hassle in general getting there."

Sam Campbell, freshman

"Although our new stadium is going to be so much nicer and it's so long overdue in my opinion, I think what I'll miss [is that] our stadium has a lot of character. It's been our home for however long. It's got Tim Hightower. It's got Lawrence Sidbury. It's got our four years there, so it's just special."

Kirn

"[I'll miss] the whole tradition ... when they have it, the shuttles to get down there because it's really like, everybody's going there. Everybody gets pumped up on the way there with stuff like that so that was really exciting. I guess the ride there when everyone is together is going to be something that I'll miss, that and the tradition."

Laventure

"Is it going to be Yankee Stadium, when they got rid of that? Probably not, but I'm a Philadelphia guy and when we got rid of Veterans Stadium, which nobody liked, that was an old dinosaur too, but they had a year-long going away party with a number banner countdown and bringing back all of their former greats and I would certainly compare it to that. I think the reaction of people saying goodbye to UR Stadium has been terrific."

Black

Contact staff writer Barrett Neale at barrett.neale@richmond.edu