Husky Stadium
by AutumnSpectacle.com staff   E-mail

Football at the University of Washington means a visit to one of the most distinctive and scenic venues in the country. Husky Stadium offers a view of the Cascade Mountains across Union Bay, the Space Needle, the floating bridge on Lake Washington and Mount Ranier, rising in the distance.

courtesy UW SID

The horseshoe-shaped stadium is accessible by water, and more than 5,000 “sterngaters” take advantage at each home game, arriving in over 400 vessels of all sizes – from small cabin cruisers to 65-foot yachts. Moored and anchored, the boats create a unique and festive tailgating area.

As game time approaches, the Husky Band belts out the fight song, “Bow Down to Washington,” and Spirit, the Alaskan malamute live mascot, roams the sidelines as the Huskies take the field.

Built in 1920, with a seating capacity of 72,500, Husky Stadium is the largest stadium in the Pacific Northwest, and one of the loudest in college football.  During the 1992 Nebraska game, ESPN measured the noise level at 135 decibels.  The structure features cantilevered upper-deck roofs on the north and south sides, which protect about 6,000 seats from Seattle’s frequent showers, and serve to increase the noise level, when UW fans are letting the Huskies know how they feel.

A “moat” surrounds three-fourths of the stadium’s inside perimeter. Small ramps cross the moat for access to the field from the stands.  The moat is 8 feet wide by 5 feet deep, and was installed to collect and drain runoff water. On Halloween 1992, the moat became a proud part of Husky lore, when the Stanford Tree mascot fell in.

All in all, Husky Stadium provides a magnificent and unique setting for Washington Huskies football and fun, on Saturdays in the fall.