February 21, 2008
Then and Now: The day the stadium addition fell
This school year, University Week, the UW campus newspaper for faculty and staff, turns 25. To note the occasion, throughout the year we’ll revisit some stories from our past, in no particular chronological order, and then provide a brief update on how things have changed over our quarter-century.
“Stadium addition collapses” read the headline across the first two columns of the Feb. 26, 1987, edition of University Week. The story began “The entire structure of the north stadium stands addition to Husky Stadium collapsed Wednesday morning about 10:07 a.m.”
The pages of University Week were already being built that Wednesday morning, in the style of the time. But this was breaking news worth remaking the front page to include.
Uweek’s editor was Tom Griffin, now editor of the Alumni Association magazine Columns, and current editor Nancy Wick was assistant editor. Wick tells the story of that newsworthy morning.
“It was an ordinary morning of what we called in those days ‘paste-up’ for University Week. Publications Services was at that time in the Communications Building, and we would go there to supervise the printers as our files were waxed and laid on the page according to our layout diagrams.
“Suddenly we heard a loud bang, and we looked questioningly at each other, then shrugged and went on with our work. A few minutes later Kay Rodriguez, who was then director of health sciences news, called to tell us that the stadium addition, which was then under construction, had collapsed.
“Tom said, ‘We have to do something on this,’ and went racing off to the stadium to see what he could find out. I looked at our page one layout and tried to figure out how we could alter it to fit in a story about the collapse.
“Tom said that when he arrived there were three TV news helicopters hovering over the site and construction workers were all standing together to one side. Fire and police officials were there, and the media were beginning to arrive. There was a brief news conference on site, giving basic information about what had happened. Tom took notes and rushed over to a phone at Hec Ed. He called me in the back shop and dictated a brief story, which one of the printers then typed into the system.
“When the story was ready to be waxed, I directed the printers on how to rearrange the page. By that time Tom had returned, and together we proofed the remade edition. The story appeared at the top of page one, unfortunately without a photo — no quickie digital shoots in those days. But we followed up the next week with photos and a longer story, which carried the memorable headline, “Erection sequence errors implicated in collapse.” The language had been dictated to us by officials worried about legal issues.
It was certainly one of the more exciting experiences we had with University Week, especially at that time when everything took longer to do. To get information about a major and unexpected event that happened the day before the issue came out and get it on the front page was a real coup.”
Husky Stadium was built in 1920, and had an initial seating capacity of 30,000. It has been worked on and expanded over the years (the addition that collapsed was rebuilt), and now has a seating capacity of 72,500.
In 2007 and this year, the stadium has been in the news again. The UW is seeking help from the state Legislature to renovate the aging stadium and bring it into compliance with current disability access requirements. The UW is asking the Legislature for $150 million — half the cost of proposed $300 million improvements — from existing revenue sources that have been used for sports facilities in the past. The balance would come from donors.
