This coming Friday night, the new Mile High Stadium in Denver will host "The Rocky Mountain Showdown" between the 2 biggest teams in its State, Colorado and Colorado State.
Before You Go. The Denver Post is predicting mid-80s for Friday afternoon, low 60s for the evening. This is far from Aspen ski weekend weather, so you won't have to swap Summer clothes for Winter gear.
Denver is in the Mountain Time Zone, so you'll be 2 hours behind New York time. And there's a reason it's called the Mile High City: The elevation means the air will be thinner. Although the Rocky Mountain region is renowned for outdoor recreation, if you're not used to it, try not to exert yourself too much. Cheering at a sporting event shouldn't bother you too much, but even if the weather is good, don't go rock-climbing or any other such activity unless you've done it before and know what you’re doing.
Tickets. Good luck. The game is already sold out, so you'll have to go to an outside source. Upper deck seats can be had for as little as $32, but if you want to get closer, be prepared to pay more than $100.
When available, tickets for UC games at Folsom Field run $104 in midfield, $60 in the end zone, and $46 in the upper deck. For CSU games at Canvas Stadium, it's $65 in the lower level and $33 in the upper deck.
Getting There. It's 1,779 miles from Times Square in New York to downtown Denver, 1,793 miles to Folsom Field in Boulder, and 1,758 miles to Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins. You're probably thinking that you should be flying.
NOTE: This being Labor Day Weekend, prices may be higher than normal.
You can get a round-trip flight for Thursday night will run you over $1,200, depending on what time you want to fly. If you're going to a game at either team's campus, you're better off renting a car at Denver International Airport and driving the last 42 miles to Boulder, or the last 69 miles to Fort Collins.
Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited leaves Penn Station at 3:40 PM Wednesday, arrives at Union Station in Chicago at 9:50 AM Thursday (that's Central Time). The California Zephyr leaves Chicago at 2:00 PM Thursday and arrives at Denver's Union Station at 7:15 AM (Mountain Time) Friday. The round-trip fare is $466.
Union Station is at 1700 Wynkoop Street at 17th Street, which would be great if you were going to a Rockies game, as it's just 3 blocks from Coors Field. The front of the building is topped by a clock, framed by an old sign saying UNION STATION on top and TRAVEL by TRAIN on the bottom.
If you actually think it’s worth it to drive, get someone to go with you, so you’ll have someone to talk to, and one of you can drive while the other sleeps. You’ll be taking Interstate 80 most of the way, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, before taking Interstate 76 from Nebraska to Colorado, and then Interstate 25 into Denver. (An alternate route: Take the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes to Interstate 70 and then I-70 through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado into downtown Denver. It won’t save you an appreciable amount of time over the I-80 route, though.)
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Iowa, 6 hours in Nebraska, and 3 hours and 15 minutes in Colorado. Including rest stops, and accounting for traffic (you’ll be bypassing Cleveland and Chicago, unless that’s where you want to make rest stops), we’re talking about a 40-hour trip.
From downtown Denver to the CU campus in Boulder: Take U.S. Route 36 West, the Denver-Boulder Turnpike, 29 miles northwest. It should take a little over half an hour. To the CSU campus in Fort Collins: Take Interstate 25 North to Exit 268, and drive about 5 miles west on East Prospect Road; in total, 64 miles north. It should take an hour and 15 minutes.
To reach CU by public transportation, at Market Street Station, 16th & Market, take the BV Bus to the Boulder Transit Center, which is on campus. The ride should take about an hour and 20 minutes. Forget about reaching CSU by public transportation.
Once In the City. Colorado was admitted to the Union as the 38th State on August 1, 1876, 4 weeks after the Centennial of American independence. Hence, ever since, it has been known as the Centennial State.
Founded in 1858 as a gold rush city, and named for James W. Denver, then Governor of the Kansas Territory, from which Colorado was separated, Denver is a State capital and city of 630,000 people, in a metro area of 3.2 million -- roughly the population of Brooklyn and Staten Island combined. It's easily the biggest city in, and thus the unofficial cultural capital of, the Rocky Mountain region.
The State House
The sales tax in the State of Colorado is 2.9 percent, however, the City of Denver adds a 3.62 percent sales tax, for a total of 6.52 percent. ZIP Codes in Colorado start with the digits 80 and 81, with the Denver area running from 800 to 810, Boulder from 80301 to 80329, and Fort Collins from 80521 to 80528. The Area Code for Denver and Boulder is 303, with 720 overlaid; for Fort Collins, 970.
Unlike Denver, with a big Hispanic community and a somewhat smaller black one, the 2 college towns are overwhelmingly white. Boulder, founded in 1858 and named for an abundance of big rocks, is 85 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian, and 1 percent black. Fort Collins, founded in 1864 and named for a local military commander, Lieutenant Colonel William O. Collins, is 82 percent white, 11 percent Hispanic, 3 percent black, 3 percent Asian, and 1 percent Native American.
The Denver Post is a good paper, but don't bother looking for the Rocky Mountain News: It went out of business in 2009. Boulder's main paper is The Daily Camera, while Fort Collins' is named, with as little imagination as the Denver papers, The Coloradoan. Denver is powered by Xcel Energy, Boulder by the Boulder Electric Utility, and Fort Collins by the Platte River Power Authority.
State Route 470 serves as Denver's "beltway," while neither Boulder nor Fort Collins has one. Broadway is Denver's main north-south drag, separating East addresses from West. But the northwestern quadrant of the street grid is at roughly a 45-degree angle from the rest of the city, and this area includes the central business district, Union Station and the ballpark.
Boulder's east-west street addresses increase eastward, while north-south addresses increase from Dartmouth Avenue. In Fort Collins, Laporte Avenue is the north-south divider, and College Avenue (U.S. Route 287) is the east-west divider.
Bus and light rail service in Denver and Boulder is run by the Regional Transportation District (RTD), and goes for $2.25 for a single ride, and $6.75 for a DayPass. Denver switched from tokens to farecards in 2013. Transfort runs Fort Collins' buses.
It was built on the site of the McNichols Sports Arena, home to the NBA's Denver Nuggets from 1975 to 1999, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche from 1995 to 1999, and the first major league team called the Colorado Rockies, the NHL team that became the Devils, from 1976 to 1982. The Denver Dynamite played there from 1987 to 1991, made the Arena Football League Playoffs every season, and won the 1st ArenaBowl in 1987. But the cost of running the team was too high, and it folded.
When the time came to play the final concert at McNichols, the act that played the first concert there was brought back: ZZ Top. This fact was mentioned on a Monday Night Football broadcast, leading Dan Dierdorf to note the alphabetic distinction of the long red-bearded men, and say, "The first one should have been ABBA." Which would have been possible, as they were nearly big in the U.S. at the time. However, the fact that the arena only lasted 24 years, making it not that hard for the act that played the first concert there to also play the last, says something about America's disposable culture.
The old stadium was just to the north of the new stadium/old arena. The current address is Mile High Stadium Circle, but the old intersection was W. 20th Avenue & Bryant St. (2755 W. 17th Avenue was the mailing address.) It was built in 1948 as Bears Stadium, an 18,000-seat ballpark.
When the American Football League was founded in 1960, it was expanded to 34,000 seats with the addition of outfield seating. The name was changed to Mile High Stadium in 1966, and by 1968 much of the stadium was triple-decked and seated 51,706. In 1977 – just in time for the Broncos to make their first Super Bowl run and start "Broncomania" – the former baseball park was transformed into a 76,273-seat horseshoe, whose east stands could be moved in to conform to the shape of a football field, or out to allow enough room for a regulation baseball field. The old-time ballpark had become, by the standards of the time, a modern football stadium.
The biggest complaint when the Rockies arrived in 1993 wasn't the thin air, or the condition of the stadium (despite its age, it was not falling apart), but the positioning of the lights: Great for football fans, but terrible for outfielders tracking fly balls. But it was only meant to be a temporary ballpark for the Rockies, as a condition for Denver getting a team was a baseball-only stadium. What really led to the replacement of Mile High Stadium, and its demolition in 2002, was greed: The Broncos' desire for luxury-box revenue.
At Bears/Mile High Stadium, the Broncos won AFC Championships in 1977, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1997 and 1998, winning the Super Bowl in the last 2 years after losing the first 4 in blowouts. (They've now won an AFC title at the new stadium, but not a Super Bowl.) The Denver Bears won Pennants while playing there in 1957 (as a Yankee farm team), 1971, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983 and 1991 (winning the last one under the Denver Zephyrs name).
The old stadium also hosted the Denver Gold of the United States Football League, the 1983 USFL Championship Game, the Colorado Caribous of the original North American Soccer League, and the Rapids from their 1996 inception until 2001 -- in fact, they played the stadium's last event, before playing at the new stadium from 2002 to 2006. The U.S. national soccer team played a pair of games at Mile High Stadium in the 1990s, and beat Mexico at the new stadium in 2002 (the only game they've played there so far). It has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.
While the 2008 Democratic Convention was held at the Pepsi Center, Senator Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech outdoors in front of 80,000 people at New Mile High Stadium.
The Red Lion Hotel Denver and the Skybox Grill & Sports Bar are now on the site of the old stadium. At McNichols, the Nuggets reached the ABA Finals in 1976, and the Avalanche won the 1996 Stanley Cup (albeit clinching in Miami). Elvis Presley sang at McNichols on April 23, 1976.
The complex that included Mile High Stadium and the McNichols Arena was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 1976 Winter Olympics. But in a 1972 referendum, Colorado voters rejected funding that would have built more facilities, and, in what remains the only example of this ever happening, Winter or Summer, a city withdrew as host for an Olympic Games. They were awarded, instead, to Innsbruck, Austria, which already had the facilities in place from hosting them in 1964.
The new stadium, and the site of the old stadium and arena, are at Mile High Station on the light rail C-Line and E-Line.
CU's Folsom Field opened in 1924, known as Colorado Stadium until 1944, when it was renamed for the late former football coach Fred Folsom. It had 26,000 until a 1956 expansion made it 45,000, and a 1967 expansion made it 50,000, which has more or less been capacity ever since. It is a north-south horseshoe, open at the north end. The field was switched to artificial turf in 1971, and back to real grass in 1999.
The address is 2400 Colorado Avenue, less than a mile from downtown. Take the HOP Bus. If you drive in, parking is $30.
The building at the north end is the Dal Ward Athletic Administration Building, named for their 1948-58 head coach. Balch Fieldhouse, their 1937-79 basketball arena, overlooks the west stand. An embankment in the closed south end reads "COLORADO," and can be seen in the closing credits of the 1978-82 ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy, which was set in Boulder, and in which the title characters, played by Robin Williams and Pat Dawber, balance on the goalposts. (Don't try that. You could fall, and end up echoing Mork's Orkan profanity: "Shazbot!")
On October 6, 2017, Thrillist compiled a list of their Best College Football Stadiums, the top 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Folsom Field came in 22nd:
In keeping with Boulder's hippie image, Folsom Field hosted rock concerts before most college football stadiums did. The 1st was by, you guessed it, the Grateful Dead, in 1972. Van Halen played it in 1986, Paul McCartney in 1993, and the Dave Mathews Band in 2001.
State Route 470 serves as Denver's "beltway," while neither Boulder nor Fort Collins has one. Broadway is Denver's main north-south drag, separating East addresses from West. But the northwestern quadrant of the street grid is at roughly a 45-degree angle from the rest of the city, and this area includes the central business district, Union Station and the ballpark.
Boulder's east-west street addresses increase eastward, while north-south addresses increase from Dartmouth Avenue. In Fort Collins, Laporte Avenue is the north-south divider, and College Avenue (U.S. Route 287) is the east-west divider.
Bus and light rail service in Denver and Boulder is run by the Regional Transportation District (RTD), and goes for $2.25 for a single ride, and $6.75 for a DayPass. Denver switched from tokens to farecards in 2013. Transfort runs Fort Collins' buses.
Don't worry, the weather isn't forecast to look like this during your visit.
I chose this picture for the look of the train, not for the snow and wet streets.
The University of Colorado was founded on March 14, 1876, 5 months before Statehood. In addition to its main campus in Boulder, it has campuses in Denver (a graduate school for liberal arts), Colorado Springs, and its Medical Campus in the Denver suburb of Aurora, including the University of Colorado Hospital.
Notable UC (or, more often used, "CU") athletes, other than football players, include:
* Basketball: Chauncey Billups and Scott Wedman.
* Baseball: Former Mets catcher John Stearns, and former Yankee reliever Jay Howell.
* Track & Field: Bill Toomey, Gold Medalist in the decathlon at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
* Skiing: Billy Kidd, Silver Medalist at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria in 1964, at a time when an American winning any Winter Olympic medal was a big deal.
* Figure Skating: Debi Thomas, Bronze Medalist at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
* Tennis: Alexandra Stevenson, 1999 Wimbledon ladies' singles finalist, and daughter of basketball legend Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
Notable graduates in other fields include:
* Science: Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross; and many astronauts, including Scott Carpenter (one of the Mercury 7), Jack Swigert (command module pilot for Apollo 13), Stuart Roosa (command module pilot for Apollo 14), Ellison Onizuka (the 1st Asian-American astronuat, died in the 1986 Challenger disaster), James Voss (part of the longest spacewalk ever, nearly 9 hours straight, in 2001), and Kalpana Chawla (the 1st native of India in space, died in the 2003 Columbia disaster).
* Entertainment: Big Band leader Glenn Miller; "Hollywood Ten" screenwriter Dalton Trumbo; South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone; and actors Larry Linville, Joan Van Ark, Lydia Cornell, Christopher Meloni, Brian Dietzen, Jonah Hill, Angus T. Jones. Robert Redford attended, but did not graduate.
* Journalism: Linda Chavez, Dave Briggs and Tom Costello. If you count sportscasting, Rick Reilly, Jim Gray and Chris Fowler.
* Literature: Jean Stafford.
* Politics, representing Colorado unless otherwise stated: Senators Gordon Allott, Hank Brown; Governors George Carlson, Kate Brown, Roy Romer and Bill Ritter; Lynne Cheney, novelist and wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney; President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, the 1st elected female head of state in any African nation; and President Tsakihagiin Elbegdorj, leader of his country's 1990 liberation from Communism, co-author of its Constitution, twice its Prime Minster and once its President.
Colorado State University also precedes Statehood, having opened in 1870. It was known as Colorado Agricultural College until 1935, then Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts -- or Colorado A&M -- until 1957. Although the teams have long been called the Rams, like a lot of schools who are, or once were, known as "A&Ms," they are sometimes still called the Aggies.
Notable CSU athletes, outside of football, include: Basketball player Becky Hammon, dogsled racer Susan Butcher; swimmer Amy Van Dyken, winner of 4 Gold Medals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and 2 more at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney; and Glenn Morris, Gold Medalist in the decathlon at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
CSU Administration Building
Notable CSU graduates, outside of sports, include: Senators Wayne Allard and Cory Gardner of Colorado, and John Ensign of Nevada; Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana; actors John Amos, Keith Carradine and Dominique Dunne; and comedienne Leslie Jones.
Going In. Broncos Stadium at Mile High, formerly Invesco Field at Mile High and Sports Authority Field at Mile High, has been the home of the NFL's Denver Broncos since 2001. Everyone just gives it the same name as the old facility: "Mile High Stadium." It includes the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and the Broncos' Ring of Fame.
It was built on the site of the McNichols Sports Arena, home to the NBA's Denver Nuggets from 1975 to 1999, the NHL's Colorado Avalanche from 1995 to 1999, and the first major league team called the Colorado Rockies, the NHL team that became the Devils, from 1976 to 1982. The Denver Dynamite played there from 1987 to 1991, made the Arena Football League Playoffs every season, and won the 1st ArenaBowl in 1987. But the cost of running the team was too high, and it folded.
It hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1990, with UNLV (the University of Nevada at Las Vegas) clobbering Duke. (The University of Colorado, in Boulder, made the Final Four in 1942 and 1955, although it wasn't yet called the Final Four. No other Colorado-based school has made it, and none has won a National Championship -- not in basketball, anyway.)
When the time came to play the final concert at McNichols, the act that played the first concert there was brought back: ZZ Top. This fact was mentioned on a Monday Night Football broadcast, leading Dan Dierdorf to note the alphabetic distinction of the long red-bearded men, and say, "The first one should have been ABBA." Which would have been possible, as they were nearly big in the U.S. at the time. However, the fact that the arena only lasted 24 years, making it not that hard for the act that played the first concert there to also play the last, says something about America's disposable culture.
The old stadium was just to the north of the new stadium/old arena. The current address is Mile High Stadium Circle, but the old intersection was W. 20th Avenue & Bryant St. (2755 W. 17th Avenue was the mailing address.) It was built in 1948 as Bears Stadium, an 18,000-seat ballpark.
When the American Football League was founded in 1960, it was expanded to 34,000 seats with the addition of outfield seating. The name was changed to Mile High Stadium in 1966, and by 1968 much of the stadium was triple-decked and seated 51,706. In 1977 – just in time for the Broncos to make their first Super Bowl run and start "Broncomania" – the former baseball park was transformed into a 76,273-seat horseshoe, whose east stands could be moved in to conform to the shape of a football field, or out to allow enough room for a regulation baseball field. The old-time ballpark had become, by the standards of the time, a modern football stadium.
The biggest complaint when the Rockies arrived in 1993 wasn't the thin air, or the condition of the stadium (despite its age, it was not falling apart), but the positioning of the lights: Great for football fans, but terrible for outfielders tracking fly balls. But it was only meant to be a temporary ballpark for the Rockies, as a condition for Denver getting a team was a baseball-only stadium. What really led to the replacement of Mile High Stadium, and its demolition in 2002, was greed: The Broncos' desire for luxury-box revenue.
At Bears/Mile High Stadium, the Broncos won AFC Championships in 1977, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1997 and 1998, winning the Super Bowl in the last 2 years after losing the first 4 in blowouts. (They've now won an AFC title at the new stadium, but not a Super Bowl.) The Denver Bears won Pennants while playing there in 1957 (as a Yankee farm team), 1971, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983 and 1991 (winning the last one under the Denver Zephyrs name).
The old stadium also hosted the Denver Gold of the United States Football League, the 1983 USFL Championship Game, the Colorado Caribous of the original North American Soccer League, and the Rapids from their 1996 inception until 2001 -- in fact, they played the stadium's last event, before playing at the new stadium from 2002 to 2006. The U.S. national soccer team played a pair of games at Mile High Stadium in the 1990s, and beat Mexico at the new stadium in 2002 (the only game they've played there so far). It has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.
While the 2008 Democratic Convention was held at the Pepsi Center, Senator Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech outdoors in front of 80,000 people at New Mile High Stadium.
The Red Lion Hotel Denver and the Skybox Grill & Sports Bar are now on the site of the old stadium. At McNichols, the Nuggets reached the ABA Finals in 1976, and the Avalanche won the 1996 Stanley Cup (albeit clinching in Miami). Elvis Presley sang at McNichols on April 23, 1976.
The complex that included Mile High Stadium and the McNichols Arena was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 1976 Winter Olympics. But in a 1972 referendum, Colorado voters rejected funding that would have built more facilities, and, in what remains the only example of this ever happening, Winter or Summer, a city withdrew as host for an Olympic Games. They were awarded, instead, to Innsbruck, Austria, which already had the facilities in place from hosting them in 1964.
The new stadium, and the site of the old stadium and arena, are at Mile High Station on the light rail C-Line and E-Line.
CU's Folsom Field opened in 1924, known as Colorado Stadium until 1944, when it was renamed for the late former football coach Fred Folsom. It had 26,000 until a 1956 expansion made it 45,000, and a 1967 expansion made it 50,000, which has more or less been capacity ever since. It is a north-south horseshoe, open at the north end. The field was switched to artificial turf in 1971, and back to real grass in 1999.
The building at the north end is the Dal Ward Athletic Administration Building, named for their 1948-58 head coach. Balch Fieldhouse, their 1937-79 basketball arena, overlooks the west stand. An embankment in the closed south end reads "COLORADO," and can be seen in the closing credits of the 1978-82 ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy, which was set in Boulder, and in which the title characters, played by Robin Williams and Pat Dawber, balance on the goalposts. (Don't try that. You could fall, and end up echoing Mork's Orkan profanity: "Shazbot!")
To truly understand why the home of the Buffaloes is such a special place, go to a game at sunset. Seated in the upper reaches of the stadium, watching the sun dip behind the Rockies while the lights shine on the field below is one of the most magical scenes in sports.
In keeping with Boulder's hippie image, Folsom Field hosted rock concerts before most college football stadiums did. The 1st was by, you guessed it, the Grateful Dead, in 1972. Van Halen played it in 1986, Paul McCartney in 1993, and the Dave Mathews Band in 2001.
Since 1979, Frank Shorter, winner of the 1972 Olympic Marathon and a Boulder resident ever since (he's from Middletown, New York), has hosted The Bolder Boulder, a 10-kilometer race run as a tribute to veterans, every Memorial Day, with the finish line at Folsom Field. (UPDATE: In 2020, due to COVID, it was canceled for the 1st time.) A statue of Shorter now stands outside the stadium.
Colorado State have used 3 different home stadiums in the last 52 years, a greater turnover than most teams have had. They played at Colorado Field from 1912 to 1967, but at 14,000 seats it was too small for big-time football. It was torn down in 1972, and replaced with Jack Christiansen Memorial Track, named for one of the school's top football and track athletes. 151 University Avenue, about 3 blocks east of the current stadium.
Its replacement opened in 1968 as Hughes Stadium, named for Harry Hughes, head coach from 1911 to 1941. In 2003, the field was named Sonny Lubick Field. In 2006, that playing surface was switched to artificial turf, and the Rams have played their home games on plastic ever since.
But, again, with just 32,000 seats, CSU's stadium was judged to be too small for the demands of major college football. Lubick/Hughes was demolished in 2018. 2000 South Overland Trail, about 5 miles southwest of downtown and 4 miles west of the main campus. Bus 2 will get you to Overland Trail, then walk a mile south.
In the 2017 season, the Rams moved into Canvas Stadium, at 751 West Pitkin Street, about a mile and a half southwest of downtown. Take the MAX bus, and transfer to the HORN bus. If you drive in, parking is $25.
The playing surface is still named for Louis "Sonny" Lubick, for the man who coached them from 1993 to 2007. In 2018, the naming rights to the stadium were sold to Canvas Credit Union. The new stadium seats 41,000, runs north-to-south, and, as I said, has an artificial field.
During the Game. Coloradans love their sports, but they're not known as antagonistic. Stick with the fans of one team, and don't antagonize fans of the other, and you should be fine.
The Golden Buffalo Marching Band forms a block CU at midfield before the game, and plays the fight song, with the rather unimaginative title of "Fight CU." Since 1966, the mascot has been Ralphie the Buffalo, always a female because a male would be too difficult for the "Ralphie Handlers" to control. The current version, Ralphie V, debuted in 2007.
She appears at all home games, but for away games, including bowl games, the Handlers appeal to the hosts for permission to bring her. If turned down, they take no for an answer and leave her home.
Colorado State also has a live mascot, CAM the Ram, named for the school's former name, Colorado A&M. Sheep don't live as long, and the current version is CAM 25. Each school also has a costumed mascot, CSU's being named CAM and CU's being named, in a play on buffalo poop, Chip.
After the Game. As long as you don't antagonize anyone, you should be safe. If you're looking for a place to get a postgame meal, you'll have to walk a ways from Folsom Field: Either north to Arapahoe Avenue, east to Denver Boulder Turnpike, or west to Broadway. In the case of Canvas Stadium, places to eat and drink are a little closer, to the southeast, centered along Prospect Road.
Perhaps the most famous sports-themed restaurant in Denver is Elway's Downtown, a steakhouse at 1881 Curtis Street. Several downtown buses will place you within a block of it. It's owned by the same guy who owns John Elway Chevrolet in the southern suburb of Englewood.
Unfortunately, this was the best picture of it that I could find.
Food. Being a "Wild West" city, you might expect Denver to have Western-themed stands with "real American food" at its arena. Being in a State with a Spanish name, in a land that used to belong to Mexico, you might also expect to have Mexican food. And you would be right on both counts. Mile High Stadium fits the description, with an emphasis on "Bud & Brats" (Budweiser and bratwurst).
According to CU's website, "Concessions areas are located in Balch Fieldhouse, on the Southwest plaza, the East concourse, the Buff Walk and Indoor Practice Facility. Concession stands are open beginning two hours prior to kickoff until 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter." CSU provides a stadium map, which shows concession stands around the entire concourse.
Team History Displays. The CU Buffaloes have been considerably more successful than the CSU Rams. The Buffs have won 27 Conference Championships: The Colorado Football Association in 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1908; the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1923, 1924, 1934, 1935 and 1937; the Mountain States Conference in 1939, 1942, 1943 and 1944; the Big Eight Conference in 1961, 1976, 1989, 1990 and 1991; and the Big 12 Conference in 2001. They won the Big 12 North Division in 2002, 2004 and 2005, and, moving into the Pacific-12 Conference in 2011, its South Division in 2016.
Colorado claims the 1990 National Championship, but this is one of the most dubious titles. In their 1st 3 games, they barely managed a tie against then-Number 8 Tennessee in a neutral-site game in Anaheim, squeezed past Stanford at home, then lost away to Number 21 Illinois. Their next 3 games weren't much better: They won a close one away to Number 22 Texas, edged Number 12 Washington at home, and then came "The Fifth Down" that saved them away to Missouri. By all rights, they should have been no better than 3-2-1 at that point.
But they kept winning, including 27-12 away to Number 3 Nebraska. They went to the Orange Bowl ranked Number 1, and beat Number 5 Notre Dame 10-9, finishing 11-1-1. Still, only the sportswriters' poll, the Associated Press (AP), awarded them the National Championship. The coaches' poll, United Press International (UPI), gave it to Georgia Tech, which finished 11-0-1.
Led by running back, and basketball star, and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Byron "Whizzer" White, Colorado played in the 1st Cotton Bowl in 1937, but lost it to Rice. They've won the Orange Bowl in 1956 and 1990; the Cotton Bowl in 1995; the Fiesta Bowl in 1994; the Bluebonnet Bowl in 1967 and 1971; the Liberty Bowl in 1969; the Aloha Bowl in 1993 and 1998; the Holiday Bowl in 1996; the Insight.com Bowl in 1999; and the Houston Bowl in 2004.
Byron White
The Buffaloes have not retired any uniform numbers. White, early 1960s guard Joe Romig, 1950s guard John Wooten, mid-1960s safety Dick Anderson (of the Miami Dolphins' Super Bowl winners), late 1960s running back Bobby Anderson (Dick's younger brother), 1990 defensive end Alfred Williams, and 1982-94 head coach Bill McCartney have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. Not yet in the Hall of Fame is their only Heisman Trophy winner, 1994 running back Rashaan Salaam.
Rashaan Salaam
Other notable Buffalo players include 1950s end Gary Knafelc (from the 1960s Green Bay Packers champions), 1970s receiver Cliff Branch (from the 1970s Oakland Raiders Super Bowl team), 1970s tight end J.V. Cain (who died of heat exhaustion during the St. Louis Cardinals' training camp in 1979), defensive tackle Troy Archer (who played for the Giants and also died during 1979 training camp, in a car crash), 1970s receiver Dave Logan (an All-Pro with the Cleveland Browns), 1990 running back Eric Bieniemy, early 1990s passing combination Kordell Stewart and Michael Westbrook, and 1990s receiver Rae Carruth, an All-Pro receiver for the Carolina Panthers, recently released from prison after 18 years for trying to kill his girlfriend.
Colorado State have won 15 Conference Championships: In the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 1915, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1925, 1927, 1933 and 1934; in the Skyline Conference in 1955; in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in 1994, 1995 and 1997; and in the Mountain West Conference in 1999, 2000 and 2002. They have never come close to a National Championship.
They played in only 1 bowl game before 1990, losing the 1949 Raisin Bowl. They've won the Freedom Bowl in 1990, the Holiday Bowl in 1997, the Liberty Bowl in 2000, the New Orleans Bowl in 2001, and the New Mexico Bowl in 2008 and 2013.
They have no players in the College Football Hall of Fame, but one in the Pro Football Hall, 1940s star Jack Christiansen, who played safety for the Detroit Lions and helped them win 3 NFL Championships in the 1950s and coached Stanford in the 1970s. Other than Christiansen, CSU's most notable football player is late 1990s linebacker Joey Porter, an All-Pro for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Jack Christiansen
The Buffaloes don't have a team hall of fame, but the Rams have a Hall of Champions under the west stand of Canvas Stadium.
The Buffaloes-Rams rivalry, known as the Rocky Mountain Showdown, began in 1893, and the Broncos' Mile High Stadiums have hosted it since 1998. The Buffaloes lead, 66-22-2, including a 13-0-1 stretch to begin the rivalry, 12 straight from 1934 to 1947, 8 straight from 1987 to 1998 (not played every season), and the last 4 games. The trophy for the winner is called the Centennial Cup, in honor of Colorado's 1876 admission to the Union as "the Centennial State."
It could be argued, though, that each school is not the other's biggest rival. Due to Colorado's rise in the late 1980s to challenge neighboring Nebraska for Big 8 supremacy, and the nastiness that developed, they see the Cornhuskers as their biggest rival. As Oklahoma dropped in success at that time, Colorado replaced Oklahoma as Nebraska's day-after-Thanksgiving nationally-televised opponent. However, Nebraska dominates the rivalry, 49-19-2.
And Colorado State fans might rather beat another next-door school, Wyoming. Certainly, Wyoming looks at CSU as their biggest rival. The matchup is called the Border War, and is played for a trophy called the Bronze Boot. CSU leads it, 58-47-5. But since the introduction of the Boot in 1968, sponsored by the ROTCs of each school (hence the soldiers in this photo), Wyoming leads 27-24.
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Colorado leads Colorado State 67-22-2, but trails Nebraska 49-20-2. Colorado State leads Wyoming 58-48-5.)
Stuff. The Buffs Team Store is at 2150 Stadium Drive, outside the northeast corner of Folsom Field. The University of Colorado Bookstore is at 1669 Euclid Avenue, about 4 blocks southwest of Folsom Field. The CSU Ram Zone is in the northwest corner of Canvas Stadium. The CSU Bookstore is in the Lory Student Center at 1101 Center Avenue Mall.
Books and videos about the teams are few. David Plati published the Colorado edition of the Football Vault series in 2008, and Folsom Field has an entry in the Fields of Glory DVD series. There appear to be no Colorado State footbal videos. In 2009, John Hirn and Steve Fairchild published Aggies to Rams: The History of Football at Colorado State University.
The Golden Buffalo Marching Band forms a block CU at midfield before the game, and plays the fight song, with the rather unimaginative title of "Fight CU." Since 1966, the mascot has been Ralphie the Buffalo, always a female because a male would be too difficult for the "Ralphie Handlers" to control. The current version, Ralphie V, debuted in 2007.
Ralphie IV and her Handlers
She appears at all home games, but for away games, including bowl games, the Handlers appeal to the hosts for permission to bring her. If turned down, they take no for an answer and leave her home.
Colorado State also has a live mascot, CAM the Ram, named for the school's former name, Colorado A&M. Sheep don't live as long, and the current version is CAM 25. Each school also has a costumed mascot, CSU's being named CAM and CU's being named, in a play on buffalo poop, Chip.
CAM 25 and his handlers
After the Game. As long as you don't antagonize anyone, you should be safe. If you're looking for a place to get a postgame meal, you'll have to walk a ways from Folsom Field: Either north to Arapahoe Avenue, east to Denver Boulder Turnpike, or west to Broadway. In the case of Canvas Stadium, places to eat and drink are a little closer, to the southeast, centered along Prospect Road.
Perhaps the most famous sports-themed restaurant in Denver is Elway's Downtown, a steakhouse at 1881 Curtis Street. Several downtown buses will place you within a block of it. It's owned by the same guy who owns John Elway Chevrolet in the southern suburb of Englewood.
If your visit to Colorado is during the European soccer season, it might be hard to find a place to watch the game in either Boulder or Fort Collins. You'd be better off heading to The British Bulldog, 2052 Stout Street, just north of Downtown Denver.
Sidelights. Obviously, the closest major league sports teams to either Boulder or Fort Collins are in Denver: MLB's Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Lower Downtown or "LoDo"' the NFL's Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium, west of downtown; the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center, west of downtown; and MLS' Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, east of downtown in Commerce City. (UPDATE: In 2020, the Pepsi Center was renamed the Ball Arena.)
The Beatles played Red Rocks Amphitheatre in suburban Morrison on August 26, 1964. It is still in business, and a Colorado Music Hall of Fame is a short walk away. 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, 10 miles west of downtown. Sorry, no public transportation.
Elvis played 2 shows at the Denver Coliseum on April 8, 1956, and 1 each on November 17, 1970 and April 30, 1973. Built in 1951, it still stands, seating 10,500, and is best known for concerts and the National Western Stock Rodeo. 4600 Humbolt Street at E. 46th Avenue, off Interstate 70, 3 miles northeast of downtown. Apparently, no public transportation to there, either.
Theoretically, it is possible to get there via public transportation. You'd have to take Greyhound from Denver to Vail, and then a local bus for over an hour to Leadville. And I can't find a source that lists the name of the fight's venue, or its address. So, unless you're a fanatic about boxing history and have to see the sites of every heavyweight title fight, I'd say skip this one.
Denver has some renowned museums, including the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (their version of the Museum of Natural History) at 2001 Colorado Blvd. at Montview Blvd. (in City Park, Number 20 bus), and the Denver Art Museum (their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History), at 100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway at Colfax Avenue (across I-25 from Mile High Stadium, Auraria West station on the C-Line and E-Line).
Denver's history only goes back to a gold rush in 1859 – not to be confused with the 1849 one that turned San Francisco from a Spanish Catholic mission into the first modern city in the American West. The city isn't exactly loaded with history.
There's no Presidential Library – although Mamie Doud, the eventual Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, grew up there, and her house is now a historic site. Mamie and "Ike" were married there, their son John (a future General, Ambassador and military historian) was born there, and the Eisenhowers were staying there when Ike had his heart attack in 1955. The house is still in private ownership, and is not open to the public. However, if you're a history buff, or if you just like Ike, and want to see it, it's at 750 Lafayette Street, at 8th Avenue. The Number 6 bus will get you to 6th & Lafayette.
After his heart attack, Ike was treated at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in nearby Aurora, 12 years after Senator John Kerry, nearly elected President in 2004 and now Secretary of State, was born there. It's not a Presidential Birthplace, because Kerry narrowly lost. It is now the University of Colorado Hospital. The Fitzsimmons Golf Course is across Montview Boulevard – it figures that Ike would be hospitalized next to a golf course! 16th Avenue & Quentin Street. Number 20 bus from downtown.
The U.S. Air Force Academy is outside Colorado Springs, 60 miles down I-25 from downtown Denver. As with Fort Collins, you'd need Greyhound. Unlike CSU, you might not be able to just go there: Some of the area is restricted. It is, after all, a military base.
Colorado Springs was also home to the Broadmoor Ice Palace, which hosted what's now called the Frozen Four every year from its inception in 1948 until 1957, and again in 1969. The 3,000-seat arena at The Broadmoor Resort & Spa was home ice to Colorado College from 1938 to 1994. 1 Lake Avenue, across Cheyenne Lake from the main hotel. Its 7,750-seat 1998 replacement, the Broadmoor World Arena, is 4 miles to the east, at 3185 Venetucci Blvd.
A few TV shows have been set in Denver, but you won't find their filming locations there. The old-time Western Whispering Smith and the more recent one Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman were set in old Colorado, but filmed in Southern California. And Greendale, the setting of Community, is fictional.
Probably the most famous show set in Colorado is South Park, and that's a cartoon, so forget seeing anything from that. Not quite as cartoonish was Mork & Mindy, set in Boulder. The McConnell house actually is in Boulder, at 1619 Pine Street.
The most famous show ever set in Colorado was Dynasty, ABC's Excessive Eighties counterpart to CBS' Dallas, starring John Forsythe as Blake Carrington, an oilman and a thinly-veiled version of Marvin Davis, who nearly bought the Oakland Athletics from Charlie Finley in 1978 with the idea of moving them to Mile High Stadium, but the deal fell through.
Right, you don't care about Blake, all you care about is the catfights between the 2nd and 1st Mrs. Carringtons: Krystle (Linda Evans) and Alexis (Joan Collins). The Carrington mansion seen in the opening credits is in Beverly Hills, but the building that stood in for the headquarters of Denver Carrington is at 621 17th Street, while the one that stood in for Colbyco is at 1801 California Street.
Movies set in Denver or its suburbs include The Unsinkable Molly Brown, the original Red Dawn, and, of course, Things to Do In Denver When You're Dead. Films involving skiing often take place in Colorado towns such as Aspen or Vail. City Slickers, a film with loads of baseball references, has a cattle drive that ends in Colorado, but there's no indication of how close that ranch is to Denver. Flashback takes place on the Pacific Coast, but Denver's Union Station stands in for a train station in San Francisco.
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Coloradans love their football, as they've proven with Broncomania. So seeing the State's 2 largest universities go at it should be quite an experience.
Sidelights. Obviously, the closest major league sports teams to either Boulder or Fort Collins are in Denver: MLB's Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Lower Downtown or "LoDo"' the NFL's Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium, west of downtown; the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center, west of downtown; and MLS' Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, east of downtown in Commerce City. (UPDATE: In 2020, the Pepsi Center was renamed the Ball Arena.)
The Beatles played Red Rocks Amphitheatre in suburban Morrison on August 26, 1964. It is still in business, and a Colorado Music Hall of Fame is a short walk away. 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, 10 miles west of downtown. Sorry, no public transportation.
Elvis played 2 shows at the Denver Coliseum on April 8, 1956, and 1 each on November 17, 1970 and April 30, 1973. Built in 1951, it still stands, seating 10,500, and is best known for concerts and the National Western Stock Rodeo. 4600 Humbolt Street at E. 46th Avenue, off Interstate 70, 3 miles northeast of downtown. Apparently, no public transportation to there, either.
On June 5, 1897, the Heavyweight Championship of the World was contested in Colorado. The British-born Champion, Bob Fitzsimmons – supposedly, in response to being told he was too small to fight heavyweights, the originator of the saying, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall" – knocked Lew Joslin out in the 2nd round. The fight happened in Leadville, 100 miles southwest of Denver.
Denver has some renowned museums, including the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (their version of the Museum of Natural History) at 2001 Colorado Blvd. at Montview Blvd. (in City Park, Number 20 bus), and the Denver Art Museum (their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History), at 100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway at Colfax Avenue (across I-25 from Mile High Stadium, Auraria West station on the C-Line and E-Line).
Denver's history only goes back to a gold rush in 1859 – not to be confused with the 1849 one that turned San Francisco from a Spanish Catholic mission into the first modern city in the American West. The city isn't exactly loaded with history.
There's no Presidential Library – although Mamie Doud, the eventual Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, grew up there, and her house is now a historic site. Mamie and "Ike" were married there, their son John (a future General, Ambassador and military historian) was born there, and the Eisenhowers were staying there when Ike had his heart attack in 1955. The house is still in private ownership, and is not open to the public. However, if you're a history buff, or if you just like Ike, and want to see it, it's at 750 Lafayette Street, at 8th Avenue. The Number 6 bus will get you to 6th & Lafayette.
After his heart attack, Ike was treated at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in nearby Aurora, 12 years after Senator John Kerry, nearly elected President in 2004 and now Secretary of State, was born there. It's not a Presidential Birthplace, because Kerry narrowly lost. It is now the University of Colorado Hospital. The Fitzsimmons Golf Course is across Montview Boulevard – it figures that Ike would be hospitalized next to a golf course! 16th Avenue & Quentin Street. Number 20 bus from downtown.
The University of Denver's Newman Center for the Performing Arts hosted a 2012 Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. 2344 East Iliff Avenue, about 5 miles south of downtown. The University's Magness Arena hosted the Frozen Four in 1961, 1964 and 1976. 2250 E. Jewell Avenue. Both can be reached via H Line light rail to University of Denver Station.
Byron "Whizzer" White was a star football and basketball player at the University of Colorado in the late 1930s, a Rhodes scholar, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions, a Bronze Star-winning Navy officer in World War II, one of Colorado's finest lawyers, the chairman of John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in the State, and one of the longest-serving Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is buried at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, 1350 N. Washington Street at 14th Avenue. Bus 6.
Denver doesn't have as many tall buildings as the nation's bigger cities, nor are they as interesting, architecturally. The tallest building in the State of Colorado is Republic Plaza, 714 feet high, at 17th Street & Tremont Place downtown.Byron "Whizzer" White was a star football and basketball player at the University of Colorado in the late 1930s, a Rhodes scholar, a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions, a Bronze Star-winning Navy officer in World War II, one of Colorado's finest lawyers, the chairman of John F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign in the State, and one of the longest-serving Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is buried at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, 1350 N. Washington Street at 14th Avenue. Bus 6.
The U.S. Air Force Academy is outside Colorado Springs, 60 miles down I-25 from downtown Denver. As with Fort Collins, you'd need Greyhound. Unlike CSU, you might not be able to just go there: Some of the area is restricted. It is, after all, a military base.
Their football facility, Falcon Stadium, hosted an NHL Stadium Series game on February 15, 2020, before COVID shut everything down. The Avalanche hosted, but lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1.
Colorado Springs was also home to the Broadmoor Ice Palace, which hosted what's now called the Frozen Four every year from its inception in 1948 until 1957, and again in 1969. The 3,000-seat arena at The Broadmoor Resort & Spa was home ice to Colorado College from 1938 to 1994. 1 Lake Avenue, across Cheyenne Lake from the main hotel. Its 7,750-seat 1998 replacement, the Broadmoor World Arena, is 4 miles to the east, at 3185 Venetucci Blvd.
A few TV shows have been set in Denver, but you won't find their filming locations there. The old-time Western Whispering Smith and the more recent one Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman were set in old Colorado, but filmed in Southern California. And Greendale, the setting of Community, is fictional.
Probably the most famous show set in Colorado is South Park, and that's a cartoon, so forget seeing anything from that. Not quite as cartoonish was Mork & Mindy, set in Boulder. The McConnell house actually is in Boulder, at 1619 Pine Street.
The most famous show ever set in Colorado was Dynasty, ABC's Excessive Eighties counterpart to CBS' Dallas, starring John Forsythe as Blake Carrington, an oilman and a thinly-veiled version of Marvin Davis, who nearly bought the Oakland Athletics from Charlie Finley in 1978 with the idea of moving them to Mile High Stadium, but the deal fell through.
Right, you don't care about Blake, all you care about is the catfights between the 2nd and 1st Mrs. Carringtons: Krystle (Linda Evans) and Alexis (Joan Collins). The Carrington mansion seen in the opening credits is in Beverly Hills, but the building that stood in for the headquarters of Denver Carrington is at 621 17th Street, while the one that stood in for Colbyco is at 1801 California Street.
Movies set in Denver or its suburbs include The Unsinkable Molly Brown, the original Red Dawn, and, of course, Things to Do In Denver When You're Dead. Films involving skiing often take place in Colorado towns such as Aspen or Vail. City Slickers, a film with loads of baseball references, has a cattle drive that ends in Colorado, but there's no indication of how close that ranch is to Denver. Flashback takes place on the Pacific Coast, but Denver's Union Station stands in for a train station in San Francisco.
*
Coloradans love their football, as they've proven with Broncomania. So seeing the State's 2 largest universities go at it should be quite an experience.
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