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| Colorado Aggies.Com |
| Dedicated to the Preservation of Athletic History at Colorado State University |
| The Old Main Blog |
JUNE 15, 2010 - It has come to my attention that after writing the book about CSU football history and spending countless hours developing
the Colorado Aggies.com website, the time has come to begin a blog. I really never understood what a blog is or why they are so great, but
friends and fans have said to me I need to impart more of my opinion and thoughts on CSU athletic history.
So with the conference expansion the hottest topic in the sporting world, I have decided to wait on that subject and just write the equivalent of
a Seinfeld episode that simply means nothing. That nothing is more about this website, why it is here and how much I really enjoy the history
of not just CSU athletics, but the history of the school as well.
I chose Old Main as the title of the blog because it is the one building that was on the CSU campus that I never got to see which I truly love to
look at in pictures. The stately school house look of the old building is a classic look of the first building on the CSU campus. I think back to
1878 when they laid the cornerstone and how much hope there was in building the land-grant college of Colorado. Every night I left the
Morgan Library on the CSU campus while I researched the book Aggies to Rams, I stopped and looked at the cornerstone, which was built into
the new addition of the library.
This ancient piece of CSU history lives on in the current library and is a perfect link to the school's past living on in the present. The site of Old
Main was paved over for a parking lot in my freshman year at CSU and I visited the ground during construction and saw a few chunks of
brick still in the soil. It was the center of the campus for so many years and now rests with little knowledge that the original building of the
school was once there.
So what does Old Main have to do with athletic history at CSU? If you know the history of athletics, Old Main is where college president
Alston Ellis watched the first football game in Fort Collins history from. His window in Old Main looked out over College Avenue where he
watched in anger and horror at a game he despised.
Old Main is also where the first gymnasium on the campus was built and lasted until 1926 when the South College Gym was built. (the gym
actually lasted until the building burned down, but it only housed varsity athletics until 1926.) Harry Hughes had his first offices in Old Main
until the new gym was built and Dr. Lory supported athletics from his office at Old Main. It is also where the mysterious bell was once housed
and freshmen would ring it through the night in victory of a football contest until the bell finally disappeared.
So I have blogged about pretty much nothing. In the coming months there might be something to blog about that is related to CSU athletic
history.
For now, keep the Aggie Spirit alive.
the Colorado Aggies.com website, the time has come to begin a blog. I really never understood what a blog is or why they are so great, but
friends and fans have said to me I need to impart more of my opinion and thoughts on CSU athletic history.
So with the conference expansion the hottest topic in the sporting world, I have decided to wait on that subject and just write the equivalent of
a Seinfeld episode that simply means nothing. That nothing is more about this website, why it is here and how much I really enjoy the history
of not just CSU athletics, but the history of the school as well.
I chose Old Main as the title of the blog because it is the one building that was on the CSU campus that I never got to see which I truly love to
look at in pictures. The stately school house look of the old building is a classic look of the first building on the CSU campus. I think back to
1878 when they laid the cornerstone and how much hope there was in building the land-grant college of Colorado. Every night I left the
Morgan Library on the CSU campus while I researched the book Aggies to Rams, I stopped and looked at the cornerstone, which was built into
the new addition of the library.
This ancient piece of CSU history lives on in the current library and is a perfect link to the school's past living on in the present. The site of Old
Main was paved over for a parking lot in my freshman year at CSU and I visited the ground during construction and saw a few chunks of
brick still in the soil. It was the center of the campus for so many years and now rests with little knowledge that the original building of the
school was once there.
So what does Old Main have to do with athletic history at CSU? If you know the history of athletics, Old Main is where college president
Alston Ellis watched the first football game in Fort Collins history from. His window in Old Main looked out over College Avenue where he
watched in anger and horror at a game he despised.
Old Main is also where the first gymnasium on the campus was built and lasted until 1926 when the South College Gym was built. (the gym
actually lasted until the building burned down, but it only housed varsity athletics until 1926.) Harry Hughes had his first offices in Old Main
until the new gym was built and Dr. Lory supported athletics from his office at Old Main. It is also where the mysterious bell was once housed
and freshmen would ring it through the night in victory of a football contest until the bell finally disappeared.
So I have blogged about pretty much nothing. In the coming months there might be something to blog about that is related to CSU athletic
history.
For now, keep the Aggie Spirit alive.
| #1 "To Blog or Not to Blog" |
| Blog #2 "The Spirit of '76" |
JULY 8, 2010 - Last month I found a 1976-77 Silver Spruce yearbook on eBay for only $5 and I
decided that I needed some fresh material from the 70s for the website. I don't have a very
extensive collection of yearbooks, but I felt that for just a few bucks this yearbook needed to
come home to Fort Collins.
It was very entertaining as I looked through the book and remembered the Bicentennial year of
my youth. Sure, I was only six and in Kindergarten, but I remember that year very well. In fact,
if you lived through it how could you forget that everything was about the "Spirit of '76"?
Everywhere things were red, white and blue with '76 plastered on everything.
The real entertaining part of that yearbook is the styles of clothes, hair, glasses and even baseball
hats that brought back many memories. But this yearbook has plenty of color and the color I
saw was green and yellow. So it made me think about something...
The Next CSU Throwback?
The 1976 CSU and Wyoming game was almost the center of Ram football that year and there
are plenty of photos from this game to see. I found some pictures while researching Aggies to
Rams and then this yearbook featured that game as well. The reason is that it marked the first
regional telecast of a Border War game (it was not called the Border War yet in '76) and it was
colorful to say the least. It was also the third CSU game broadcast from Hughes Stadium on
ABC Regional TV.
The uniform styles from that game for both schools were something out of a 70s nightmare.
The Rams in dark green jerseys with yellow pants, yellow helmets (green horns) and yellow
numerals, while the Cowboys had brown helmets with a white Cowboy Joe, white jerseys and
yellow pants. However, that nightmare is actually a cool nightmare possibly worth re-living.
I got to thinking how CSU and Wyoming could put on a "Spirit of '76" throwback day in 2011
to celebrate the 35th anniversary of this day. OK, throwbacks are nothing new, but get the
students and other fans to dress in their best '76 throwback attire and you would have an
all-encompassing throwback day.
There are flaws to my idea though. First, how are you going to get the coaches to wear those
hideous plaid pants and big baseball hats like Sark Arslanian and his coaches? Then there is the
problem of replicating the beer trays with steel cans. Do you think Coors will make retro
press-tab cans complete with band aids when you cut your finger as you push it into the lid?
Coors Light was not released until 1978, so you would have to drink the beer of Smoky and the
Bandit.
Last, and certainly not least, how are you going to grow that much hair for one weekend?
I enjoy throwbacks and if throwbacks continue to be a part of football, the time has come to
celebrate the 70s and the color that came with them. So grab your bell-bottoms and pass the
chick to the top of the student section, the Spirit of '76 lives on in 2011!!!
decided that I needed some fresh material from the 70s for the website. I don't have a very
extensive collection of yearbooks, but I felt that for just a few bucks this yearbook needed to
come home to Fort Collins.
It was very entertaining as I looked through the book and remembered the Bicentennial year of
my youth. Sure, I was only six and in Kindergarten, but I remember that year very well. In fact,
if you lived through it how could you forget that everything was about the "Spirit of '76"?
Everywhere things were red, white and blue with '76 plastered on everything.
The real entertaining part of that yearbook is the styles of clothes, hair, glasses and even baseball
hats that brought back many memories. But this yearbook has plenty of color and the color I
saw was green and yellow. So it made me think about something...
The Next CSU Throwback?
The 1976 CSU and Wyoming game was almost the center of Ram football that year and there
are plenty of photos from this game to see. I found some pictures while researching Aggies to
Rams and then this yearbook featured that game as well. The reason is that it marked the first
regional telecast of a Border War game (it was not called the Border War yet in '76) and it was
colorful to say the least. It was also the third CSU game broadcast from Hughes Stadium on
ABC Regional TV.
The uniform styles from that game for both schools were something out of a 70s nightmare.
The Rams in dark green jerseys with yellow pants, yellow helmets (green horns) and yellow
numerals, while the Cowboys had brown helmets with a white Cowboy Joe, white jerseys and
yellow pants. However, that nightmare is actually a cool nightmare possibly worth re-living.
I got to thinking how CSU and Wyoming could put on a "Spirit of '76" throwback day in 2011
to celebrate the 35th anniversary of this day. OK, throwbacks are nothing new, but get the
students and other fans to dress in their best '76 throwback attire and you would have an
all-encompassing throwback day.
There are flaws to my idea though. First, how are you going to get the coaches to wear those
hideous plaid pants and big baseball hats like Sark Arslanian and his coaches? Then there is the
problem of replicating the beer trays with steel cans. Do you think Coors will make retro
press-tab cans complete with band aids when you cut your finger as you push it into the lid?
Coors Light was not released until 1978, so you would have to drink the beer of Smoky and the
Bandit.
Last, and certainly not least, how are you going to grow that much hair for one weekend?
I enjoy throwbacks and if throwbacks continue to be a part of football, the time has come to
celebrate the 70s and the color that came with them. So grab your bell-bottoms and pass the
chick to the top of the student section, the Spirit of '76 lives on in 2011!!!
