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CSU super fan remembers Hughes Stadium

CSU super fan remembers Hughes Stadium as Rams get ready to play their last home game there. Next season will be played at the new on-campus stadium. 

<p>Courtesy: CSU Athletics</p>

It's time to say farewell to the Colorado State University's Hughes Stadium.

Saturday the Rams football team will play their last game there against the University of New Mexico.

One Rams "superfan" has been following the team since the beginning.

"I went to games at the old stadium when it was on college avenue here, where the track is right now. It held like 12,000 people and we called it the lumberyard because it was all wooden bleachers," said Dick Wiedeman. "In fact, I've got part of the wooden bleachers at home from that old stadium."

The Fort Collins native has been to more than 260 home games over the past 50 years.
He was actually part of the concrete crew that helped build Hughes Stadium back in 1967.

"I'd come off the farm and went to work for a company here in Fort Collins that had concrete bid on this stadium. I drove ready mix truck hauling concrete here on the stadium," he said.

Wiedeman tells us he will always remember watching his first game at Hughes Stadium.
"It was a feeling of pride, of excitement, and knowing that I had something to do with what was transpiring on the field," he said. "Just to know that I was here when that first football was thrown down the field and that first football was kicked down the field was just a neat, neat experience."

Naturally, Wiedeman turned his son into an avid Rams fan.
"I used to take him to the games when he was barely able to walk," Wiedeman said.

He has made lots of memories at Hughes. We asked about one of his favorites.

"The favorite memory I have is the game we call the Wyoming Brawl," said Wiedeman.

"That was in 1978. That's the one that really sticks in my mind. It was exciting at the time, kind of foolish but exciting. There was one punch thrown out by a Wyoming player and that's all it took and it was like about 20 minutes worth of brawl out there where they tried and did everything they could to get the teams separated. So finally they got everything all calmed down and after about 20 minutes and so CSU got an unsportsman like 15 yard penalty and after all of that we still lost the game," said Wiedeman.

For him, saying goodbye is going to be bittersweet.

"It's going to be sad also, the last game to know that there will never be another game played here. You know, because there's been a lot of friendships, a lot of memories and that type of stuff made here," said Wiedeman."It's going to be exciting, but yet I know that I'll probably have a tear in me eye."

He will be sitting in the stands at tomorrow's game against UNM.
"Oh you couldn't keep me away, absolutely," he said.

He and his wife would like to own a piece of what they call their second home.
"We're hoping to buy our seats that we've sat in all of these years," he said.

But they are also looking forward to future Rams football at the new on-campus stadium.

"I'm excited about it because it's a new chapter in the CSU football tradition that we have and I think it's going to be something that is going to really propel us to the next level," Wiedeman said.

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