How to Go to a Football Game In Idaho

38 States down, 12 to go. The football team at Boise State University, the most popular sports team in the State of Idaho, hosts the University of Virginia this coming Saturday.

Before You Go. Being sort-of in the Rocky Mountains, Idaho can get cooler and then colder sooner than New York does. Being sort-of in the Pacific Northwest, Idaho can get rainier than New York does. Precipitation is not scheduled to be an issue next Saturday, but low temperatures might be: Mid-60s by day, but low 40s at night. Definitely bring a jacket.

The Idaho Panhandle is in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York, because it shares economic and cultural links with adjoining Washington State and its eastern city of Spokane. The southern part of the State is in the Mountain Time Zone, 2 hours behind. This includes Boise, where this game will take place.

Indeed, the shape of Idaho doesn't make sense: The Panhandle probably should have gone to Washington, and the rest of the State to stand on its own or to neighboring Montana or Utah. Or maybe the Panhandle, and eastern Washington and Oregon, should have been merged into a single State, which has been discussed. The combined region is sometimes called The Palouse.

Tickets. BSU got over 31,000 for all 6 home games last season, and 2 were close enough to capacity to be considered sellouts. That was roughly the case the year before, too, and they got 31,581 for their home opener 2 weeks ago, against Troy University of Troy, Alabama, a school many of those fans probably had never even heard of. Getting tickets might be difficult.

Students are seated in the northeast corner, so those sections are unavailable. Midfield seats are $65, south end zone seats are $43, and north end zone seats are $28.

Getting There. It's 2,470 miles from Midtown Manhattan to the Boise State campus. Knowing this, your first instinct will be to fly. You can get a flight from Newark to Boise Airport, but it won't be nonstop. Round-trip fare would be a little over $800. There is no bus service from the airport to downtown.

Amtrak does not go to Boise, making its only stop in the State in Sandpoint, 500 road miles to the north. Greyhound goes there, with a round-trip fare of $452, but it can drop to $375 with advanced purchase. The station is at 1212 W. Bannock Street.

Knowing that, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and stay on that through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah. Outside Ogden, Utah, at Exit 168, switch to Interstate 84 West. Take that into Idaho, and get off at Exit 54, which will take you into downtown Boise.

Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2:45, Iowa for 5 hours, Nebraska for 6:45, Wyoming for 6:30, Utah for 3:30, and Idaho for 3:45. In total, that's around 41 1/2 hours. Given rest stops, we're talking more like 56 hours -- almost 2 1/2 days.

Once In the City. During the American Civil War, when Congress was considering organizing a new territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name "Idaho", which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone language term meaning "the sun comes from the mountains" or "gem of the mountains." Willing later claimed he had simply invented the name. And the origin of the name isn't the only strange thing about the State.

The State House in Boise

Idaho gained Statehood on July 3, 1890, the 43rd State, and is home to about 1.7 million people. About 225,000 of these live in the largest city, Boise -- and that's pronounced "BOY-see," with an S sound, not "BOY-zee," with a Z sound -- which is also the capital. It was founded in 1862, and was named for an exclamation made by a French guide: "Les bois, les bois!" (The wood, the wood!) The river, a U.S. Army fort, and finally a city were then named "Boise."

Idaho is 89 percent white. There are more Native Americans and people of Asian descent living there than black people. This explains why it has voted Republican in every election but 1 since 1948, and even in 1964, it came closer than any State other than the Deep South and his home State of Arizona to going for Barry Goldwater.

It's also why far-rught groups like the Aryan Nations and the "Christian Identity" lunatics have found Idaho to their liking. The Ruby Ridge incident of 1992 was in Idaho. And while we associate the dumb right-wing freak Sarah Palin with Alaska, not only was she born in Sandpoint, but got her degree (somehow) from the University of Idaho.

Other than that, while its nickname of The Gem State speaks to its jewelry production, Idaho is most famous for its potatoes, producing about 1/3rd of the nation's spuds. Indeed, while the State's license plates call it "Scenic IDAHO" and show mountains, they also say, "FAMOUS POTATOES," even though there's no picture of a potato on one -- or on their State Quarter, which shows the State Bird, the peregrine falcon.

The State sales tax is 6 percent, but it rises to 6 1/2 percent in Boise. The Area Code is 208, and ZIP Codes start with the digits 83, 837 in the Boise area. The local daily newspaper is the Idaho Statesman. Main Street and Warm Springs Avenue divide streets addresses into North and South, and 1st Street divides them into East and West.

What amounts to a skyline in Boise.

The Eighth & Main Building is at center,

the State House dome to the right.

The Downtown Circulator, a streetcar system, is under construction. But even if it were ready, it wouldn't help you get to the game. Valley Regional Transit runs the buses. A single fare is $1.00, and and all-day pass is $3.00. Boise doesn't have a beltway.

Boise Junior College was founded as a 2-year school in 1932. It became a 4-year school, Boise College, in 1965; was renamed Boise State College in 1969; and was renamed Boise State University in 1974. "Extended Studies at Bosie State" offers regional classes in Lewiston, Coeur d'Alene, Nampa and Twin Falls. Notable alumni include current Governor of Idaho and former Congressman Butch Otter, former Governor Mike O'Callaghan of Nevada, author William Anderson, actor Earl Boen and film director Michael Hoffman.

Going In. Boise State's stadium opened in 1970 as Bronco Stadium, and was renamed Albertsons Stadium in 2014, when naming rights were purchased by Joe Albertson, head of the Albertsons grocery chain. Capacity was 14,500 when it opened, and was expaned to 20,000 in 1975, 30,000 in 1997, and to the present 36,387 in 2012.

It is about a mile and a half south of downtown, across and on the Bosie River. The official address is 1400 Bronco Lane. Bus R2 from downtown. (That's R2, not R2-D2.) If you drive in, parking is $15.

The stadium is a horseshoe, open at the north end. The playing surface is named Lyle Smith Field. Smith played football and basketball at the school in the 1930s, served as the school's football coach from 1947 to 1967, and its athletic director from 1968 to 1981. He moved the program up from junior college to the NAIA in 1968, NCAA Division II in 1970, and Division I-AA (now FCS) in 1978. After him, it moved up to Division I-A (now FBS) in 1996. He died a few weeks ago, at the age of 101.

The field is laid out north-to-south, and has been artificial turf since the stadium opened. And not just any artificial turf: Since 1986, it's been blue, first AstroTurf, and, since 2008, FieldTurf.

Albertsons Stadium, with their training facility,

Caven-Williams Sports Complex, at the northwest corner

Due to its distinctive color, it is known as the Smurf Turf. They're used to playing on it, visiting teams aren't, so the effect is similar to how the Boston Celtics knew the dead spots on the parquet floor of the old Boston Garden, while visiting teams couldn't avoid them.

The NFL banned colors other than green for fields (aside from the end zones) in 2011, but, contrary to myth, the NCAA has never done so, not even with a grandfather clause allowing Boise State to keep theirs. In 2014, Eastern Michigan became the 2nd FBS school to adopt a nontraditional color, going gray. None of the major conference schools have done so, though.

Admit it: You thought that if any school was going to go

with a nontraditional color, it would be a "hippie" school

like the University of Colorado, or the University of Oregon,

or the University of Washington, or Bill Walton's UCLA, man.

Since 1997, the stadium has hosted a bowl game, even though Idaho is not exactly a warm-weather destination as bowl cities are generally known for being. It was called the Humanitarian Bowl until 2011, when they decided to go with a local name (like Miami's Orange, New Orleans' Sugar, Dallas' Cotton, Atlanta's Peach, and so on), and began calling it the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. It is the longest-running cold-weather-city bowl in the country.

The Taco Bell Arena, the 12,644-seat home to BSU's indoor sports teams, is opposite the northwest corner of the stadium. It was known as the BSU Pavilion from its 1982 opening until 2004.

Food. It's "mid-major" college football, so don't expect anything spectacular. But I've read that a particular favorite item of the locals are the mini-donuts with caramel dipping sauce.

Team History Displays. Boise State won the Big Sky Conference title in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1994; won the Big West Conference in 1999 and 2000; won the Western Athletic Conference in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010; and have won the Mountain West Conference in 2012 and 2014.

That's 18 league titles in a span of just 42 seasons, and includes undefeated seasons in 2006 (13-0, including an overtime win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl) and 2009 (14-0, including another Fiesta Bowl win, over Texas Christian). However, due to strength of schedule, their final poll rankings were only Number 5 in 2006 and Number 4 in 2009. They did, however, win the Division I-AA National Championship in 1980.

Display inside Albertsons Stadium.

That's Lyle Smith in the hat.

Although they have minor rivalries with Brigham Young, Nevada (the main campus in Reno, not UNLV), Fresno State and Hawaii, Boise State's biggest rivalry is with their cross-State opponents the University of Idaho.

UI is located in Moscow, Idaho, and I once read a Sports Illustrated article that didn't make them look good. They were doing silly categories for college football. They said the best college town was Austin, home of the University of Texas. They listed a tie for the worst: "1. Pullman, Washington, home of Washington State. To party, students must drive 10 miles to Moscow, Idaho. 2. Moscow, Idaho." (Actually, it's 8 miles, as close as the campuses of USC and UCLA.)

Their teams are called the Vandals. The original Vandals were an East Germanic tribe, from present-day Poland, and sacked Rome in AD 455, thus the creation of the term "vandalism" for property damage. Good name for a football team, although it's not clear what damage they could do to a bucking Bronco, as Boise State calls its teams.

They first met in 1971, and Boise State leads the rivalry 22-17-1. But when BSU moved to the Mountain West in 2011, their schedule was such that they had to give up an interleague game, and they chose Idaho. Idaho then refused to play BSU in basketball. They still don't like each other much. Now members of the Sun Belt Conference, UI have a losing record all-time, but are 3-0 in bowl games.

Boise won every game from 1999 onward, including all 10 games since the institution of the Governor's Trophy in 2001.

Boise State players with the Governor's Trophy,

inside Idaho's indoor stadium, the 15,200-seat Kibbie Dome

UPDATE: On November 19, 2018, Moneywise compiled a list of their Worst College Football Stadiums, the bottom 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Boise State was spared. Idaho was not, coming in 11th: 

The Kibbie Dome is one of the smallest and most unusual venues in the NCAA. The 43-year-old stadium seats fewer than 16,000 and has a domed roof made of wood. An opposing coach once famously said the barrel-arched building looked like "a Campbell's Soup can cut in half."

There is not much of a rivalry with Idaho State University, in Pocatello, which plays in the Big Sky Conference and whose teams are called the Bengals. UI hates ISU much more than BSU does. They succeeded Boise State as Division I-AA National Champions in 1981.

Boise State has one player in the College Football Hall of Fame, and one in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but they're not the same player. Linebacker Dave Wilcox starred for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1960s, and he's enshrined in the Pro Hall in Canton. Randy Trautman was a defensive tackle at BSU from 1978 to 1981, and he's in the College Hall in Atlanta. He never played in the NFL, instead playing for the CFL's Calgary Stampeders.

Other notable BSU athletes include former Knick and Net Chris Childs, Basketball Hall-of-Famer Gus Johnson, All-Star pitcher Larry Jackson, former Jet running back Cedric Minter, former Jet cornerback Kyle Wilson, and Super Bowl-winning Pittsburgh Steeler defensive tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen.

A statue of centenarian Lyle Smith stands outside the stadium. He did live long enough to see its dedication.

Stuff. There is no team store at the stadium. The Bookstore and Bronco Shop are in the same building, but with different addresses: 1700 and 1910 W. University Drive, respectively.

Boise State Football: A Photographic History, a coffee-table book, was published by the University in 2009. The DVD Out of the Blue: A Film About Life & Football at Boise State was produced last year.

During the Game. You're a visitor, and have no reason to antagonize the locals. Don't do that, and your safety won't be an issue. You wanna talk potatoes, go ahead. You wanna talk about the Smurf Turf, critiquing is okay, insulting is not. And stay away from the subject of neo-Nazis, as they're understandably sensitive about that.

Bronco players are led out of the tunnel at the beginning of the game by a horse and rider, with the first player out carrying The Hammer, awarded to the last game's best special teams player, or to the player with the biggest hit.

The noise level at Albertsons Stadium, led by the Blue Thunder marching band, has been measured as high as 123 decibels -- above the 120db threshold of human pain. Bronco fans chant "Boise! State!" with opposite sides of the stadium answering each other. 

After the Game. Be nice, and you'll get nice in return. You and your car (if you drove in) should be safe.

Most of the nearby places to eat are on South Broadway Avenue (U.S. Routes 20 & 26). To the south of the Stadium and the River, going south from the Stadium, there's a Chili's, a Burger Belly, a Starbucks, a Subway, a Wendy's, a Burger King, a Noodles & Company, a Del Taco, a McDonald's, a Little Caesar's, a Taco Bell and a Pizza Hut. Among non-chains, there's The Pie Hole, the Suds Tavern, Cobby's, R Bar, and Flying Pie Pizzeria. If that's not enough choice for you, there are other choices north of the Stadium and the River.

If you're a fan of a European soccer team, you can get your fix at the Double Tap Pub, at 409 S. 8th Street, downtown.

Sidelights. There are no professional, even minor-league, football, basketball or soccer teams in Idaho. The State does have 2 professional baseball teams. The Boise Hawks play in the Class A Northwest League, 5 levels below the major leagues, and are currently a farm team of the Colorado Rockies. They play at the 3,452-seat Memorial Stadium. 5600 N. Glenwood Street.

They've won 6 Pennants: 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002 and 2004, and have won their Division 10 times, most recently in 2012. Previously, the Boise Braves won Pennants in 1956 and 1958. So that's 8 Pennants for Boise.

On the other side of the State, the Idaho Falls Chukars play in the Pioneer League, a Rookie league, 6 levels below the majors, as a farm club of the Kansas City Royals. They play at 3,400-seat Melaleuca Field, at 568 West Elva.

Idaho Falls teams have won 7 Pennants: As the Idaho Falls Russets in 1952, as the Idaho Falls Yankees in 1963, as the Idaho Falls Angels in 1970 and 1974, as the Idaho Falls Braves in 1998, as the Idaho Falls Padres in 2000, and as the Chukars (a bird indigenous to the area) in 2013.

Boise has a minor-league hockey team, the Idaho Steelheads, winners of the 2004 and 2007 Kelly Cups as ECHL Champions. (For geographical reasons, the letters officially no longer stand for anything, much less their original "East Coast Hockey League.") They play at the CenturyLink Arena, built in 1997 and seating 5,000. 233 S. Capitol Blvd. downtown.

The Idaho State Historical Museum is at 214 S. Broadway Avenue, 3 blocks north of the river. The Discovery Center of Idaho is at 131 W. Myrtle Street, also downtown. Yes, there is an Idaho Potato Museum, but it's in Blackfoot, at 130 NW Main Street, 256 miles southeast of Boise, closer to Idaho Falls (29 miles southwest of it). So it's a bit of a trek.

Neither Elvis Presley nor the Beatles ever performed in Idaho. Idaho has never produced a President, or even a Vice President. The closest it has come is when Sarah Palin, born and, for want of a better word, educated in Idaho, but living most of her life in Alaska (including her brief term as Governor), was nominated by John McCain to run on the Republican ticket in 2008.

The tallest building in Idaho is just 323 feet tall, and carries the rather unimaginative name of the Eighth & Main Building, for its downtown Boise address.

Few TV shows have been set in Idaho. The most popular is Malcolm In the Middle. Then there was the briefly-running 2012 spinoff of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite. Other than that film, the best-known movie set in the State is My Own Private Idaho, whose title was taken from a B-52's song.

*

Idaho is beautiful -- if sparsely populated, and partly populated by some people who are unpleasant by choice. But that shouldn't be a problem at a Boise State football game. Your only problem there could be the assaults on your eyes by the Smurf Turf and on your ears by the Blue Thunder and the fans they egg on. You could still enjoy yourself.