The day the buffalo got loose...

[letsgostate]

I was a student at Iowa State in 1972 when we played Colorado. Normal proceedure was to get to the gate of Clyde Williams Stadium around 7:30 am (this was before tailgating was popular) and drink beer and get in the stadium first to sit on the 50 yard line. The entire west side was open seating. Before the team came on the field, students would form a human tunnel for the players to run through. After they ran on the field, CU ran on the field with their buffalo. A number of students (including me) were armed with oranges and apples and started pelting the live buffalo. It went crazy, got lose and pandmonium broke out. It ran all over the field until security people, and the CU people could subdue it. We went back to our seats on the 50 to watch the game. Two years later, they did not bring the live buffalo along.

 

[DMBclone]

Wow that is classic!

 

[clones_jer]

I was a student at Iowa State in 1972 when we played Colorado. Normal proceedure was to get to the gate of Clyde Williams Stadium around 7:30 am (this was before tailgating was popular) and drink beer and get in the stadium first to sit on the 50 yard line. The entire west side was open seating. Before the team came on the field, students would form a human tunnel for the players to run through. After they ran on the field, CU ran on the field with their buffalo. A number of students (including me) were armed with oranges and apples and started pelting the live buffalo. It went crazy, got lose and pandmonium broke out. It ran all over the field until security people, and the CU people could subdue it. We went back to our seats on the 50 to watch the game. Two years later, they did not bring the live buffalo along.

I think I had a dream like that ... awesomely unexpected story. You were saving this for the credit system weren't you? :wink:

 

[MaxPower57]

thats awesome, i am a current student and have heard a lot of awesome stories about back in the day, you could get away with a lot more back then it seems

 

[Flag Guy]

Last time CU played here we had a Cyclone get lose and go all over...



Great story though, I like hearing about how much fun school was before people got all uptight

 

[letsgostate]

I think I had a dream like that ... awesomely unexpected story. You were saving this for the credit system weren't you? :wink:

The boys from Baker House started tailgating at Iowa State. Always first at the stadium gates and 12 packs of Schlitz were 99 cents. Unfortunately, they blew up our dorm Storms Hall. Good news was it was so soaked full of alcohol, they did not need any explosives.

 

[Clone9]

I was a student at Iowa State in 1972 when we played Colorado. Normal proceedure was to get to the gate of Clyde Williams Stadium around 7:30 am (this was before tailgating was popular) and drink beer and get in the stadium first to sit on the 50 yard line. The entire west side was open seating. Before the team came on the field, students would form a human tunnel for the players to run through. After they ran on the field, CU ran on the field with their buffalo. A number of students (including me) were armed with oranges and apples and started pelting the live buffalo. It went crazy, got lose and pandmonium broke out. It ran all over the field until security people, and the CU people could subdue it. We went back to our seats on the 50 to watch the game. Two years later, they did not bring the live buffalo along.

I'm calling PETA.



Great story.....can someone do it again this week please.

 

[letsgostate]

I'm calling PETA.



Great story.....can someone do it again this week please.

One other note, very popular was passing people up the stadium. Students would get grabbed in a lower level of the stadium (cooperatively of course) and were passed up to the top of the stadium. It was amazing how far they would go getting passed above everyone. Is that still done in the student section?

 

[Clone9]

One other note, very popular was passing people up the stadium. Students would get grabbed in a lower level of the stadium (cooperatively of course) and were passed up to the top of the stadium. It was amazing how far they would go getting passed above everyone. Is that still done in the student section?

I don't think I ever saw it when I was in school (98-02), but sounds like fun.

 

[Flag Guy]

One other note, very popular was passing people up the stadium. Students would get grabbed in a lower level of the stadium (cooperatively of course) and were passed up to the top of the stadium. It was amazing how far they would go getting passed above everyone. Is that still done in the student section?

Nah, people are too lazy.


I'd say Per Mar (security) would stop us from doing it, but they are too lazy as well. I mean I saw someone throw a shoe off the balcony into the section below and the Per Mar guy didn't do a damn thing about it

 

[hiltonisheaven]

I was a student at Iowa State in 1972 when we played Colorado. Normal proceedure was to get to the gate of Clyde Williams Stadium around 7:30 am (this was before tailgating was popular) and drink beer and get in the stadium first to sit on the 50 yard line. The entire west side was open seating. Before the team came on the field, students would form a human tunnel for the players to run through. After they ran on the field, CU ran on the field with their buffalo. A number of students (including me) were armed with oranges and apples and started pelting the live buffalo. It went crazy, got lose and pandmonium broke out. It ran all over the field until security people, and the CU people could subdue it. We went back to our seats on the 50 to watch the game. Two years later, they did not bring the live buffalo along.

Sweet mother of Jesus! My father-in-law tells that exact story ALL THE TIME! I'm glad it could finally be substantiated by another human being. I've never heard anyone else talk about that day and I was beginning to wonder if the old man was making crap up!

 

[EggMcClone]

One other note, very popular was passing people up the stadium. Students would get grabbed in a lower level of the stadium (cooperatively of course) and were passed up to the top of the stadium. It was amazing how far they would go getting passed above everyone. Is that still done in the student section?

On occasion it still is. For some reason my friends decided they were going to put me up every time we scored in one of the Nebraska games. I think it was the home game before the one we finally beat them a few years ago. I was pretty hammered and people kept dropping me but it was still a pretty good time and a couple of people in my dorm recognized me a few days later.

 

[Wesley]

Ralphie I Courtesy: CUBuffs.com
Release: 08/23/2003
Ralphie I - CUBuffs.com—Official Athletics Web site of the University of Colorado

Photo Album

Courtesy: CUBuffs.com

Ralphie I




(1966-1978)

In 1966, John Lowery, the father of a CU freshman from Lubbock, Texas, donated to the school a six-month old buffalo calf from Sedgewick, Colo. For a while, she was billed as “Rraalph,” the name given by the student body after sounds she allegedly made while running and snorting (original handlers will tell you something else). An astute fan soon discovered that the buffalo was in fact a female, thus the name alteration to Ralphie.
The initial tradition was for CU’s five sophomore class officers to run the buffalo around the stadium in a full loop. They would pick her up from caretaker William “Bud” Hays at the Green Mountain Riding Stables, and would run her for two hours in the morning to tire her a bit to keep her under control by the time the game started. At the conclusion of the run, the fans would break into the “Buffalo Stomp,” which would literally shake the stadium in deafening fashion as the team took the field. But CU officials soon had the tradition stopped because of the actual physical damage it was causing.

Around that same time, head coach Eddie Crowder was approached with the idea the charging buffalo running out on the field before the game with the team behind right her. Crowder thought it was a great idea, and the debut of this great tradition took place on Oct. 28, 1967, CU’s homecoming game against Oklahoma State. Though OSU won the game, 10-7, the tradition was here to stay, though those who had some training in such an endeavor as working with a wild animal eventually replaced the sophomores. The five sophomores appointed themselves as the board of directors of a fundraising effort to bring Ralphie to the ’67 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, raising the necessary money through selling stock.
Ralphie attended every CU home football game for 13 years (including all bowls), and retired at the end of the 1978 season. CU’s first Ralphie achieved nationally celebrity status, and was even kidnapped in 1970 by some Air Force Academy students as well as being named the school’s 1971 Homecoming Queen at the height of the anti-establishment era.

 

[yCy]

yCy and I were students at that game, too. The security guards weren't exactly comfortable having to face a crazed buffalo. We had a lot of good times in Clyde Williams stadium.
Mrs. yCy

 

[Erik4Cy]

Should we bring a tranquilizer gun or let this guy handle it:

 

[Wesley]

Submitted for Dirty Jobs:

http://www.cubuffs.com/pdf7/59646.pdf?SPSID=4460&SPID=274&DB_OEM_ID=600

 

[Wesley]

Clyde Williams Stadium was an outdoor stadium on the campus of Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa. It was the home of the football and track and field teams.
It was originally built in 1914-15, just south of the recently completed State Gym. It originally held 5,000 spectators, but expansions in 1925, 1930, 1932, 1961 and 1966 brought the final capacity up to approximately 35,000. It was the home of the Cyclones football team from its inception until 1975, when Jack Trice Stadium opened in the newly built ISU Center south campus complex. Williams Stadium was razed in 1978, and the site is now occupied by Martin and Eaton Halls, two residence halls constructed in 2002 and 2004, respectively.
The stadium was named for Clyde Williams, alumnus, coach and athletic director at the school in the early 20th century.

 

[letsgostate]

yCy and I were students at that game, too. The security guards weren't exactly comfortable having to face a crazed buffalo. We had a lot of good times in Clyde Williams stadium.
Mrs. yCy

The buffalo deserved it. He was on our field.

 

[ketelmeister]

Clyde Williams Stadium was an outdoor stadium on the campus of Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa. It was the home of the football and track and field teams.
It was originally built in 1914-15, just south of the recently completed State Gym. It originally held 5,000 spectators, but expansions in 1925, 1930, 1932, 1961 and 1966 brought the final capacity up to approximately 35,000. It was the home of the Cyclones football team from its inception until 1975, when Jack Trice Stadium opened in the newly built ISU Center south campus complex. Williams Stadium was razed in 1978, and the site is now occupied by Martin and Eaton Halls, two residence halls constructed in 2002 and 2004, respectively.
The stadium was named for Clyde Williams, alumnus, coach and athletic director at the school in the early 20th century.

Nice job fixing the road there, or was that the dung from the Colorado Buffalo they were spreading?

 

[MaxPower57]

I remember back during my freshmen year in 05 after we beat Colorado the Per Mar guys were trying to keep the students from rushing the field. One of the first guys to go on the field got grabbed by the Per Mar. As more and more students went on the field it became apparent that the field rush wasn't going to be stopped, but he wouldn't let the guy go.....then he pulled the old "hey look over there" trick and shoved the Per Mar guy on his @ss. He then proceeded to dance what I would describe as the "Charleston" in a group of Colorado players kneeling on the field praying. By the time the Per Mar guy got up too many people were on the field for him to find him.

Also one crazy @ss climbed the goal posts and grabbed the orange flag on top of one of the posts. The thing was swaying bigtime with the huge winds that night. Gotta love this place.