It's interesting that, at least according to the stats in the media guide, the crowds we complain about now would have been considered big crowds in the old days.
Would you go and see the 1959 team play? They had five home games and drew 151,000, 30,200 per game. The opener, Kansas, had the least with 25,000. West Virginia, (yes the game was played here, not in Morgantown like the movie), was the most with 35,000. The big rivalry game with Colgate drew 31,000. Archbold held 41,000 in those days. We were coming off an 8-1 regular season in 1958 and an Orange Bowl appearrance and the Kansas game was the debut of Ernie Davis, who was already being touted as the next Jim Brown.
The thing is, the things I read about crowds in those days suggest a much greater degree of enthusiasm. Competing cheering and card sections, bonfires, pranks, parades to the game. Now it's like were' going to see a movie. I think that if one of the 1959 fans showed up at the Carrier Dome, he'd be dazzled by the building but puzzled by a crowd that cheers only when there's a play worth cheering about and leaves in the third quarter. There are more of us but there are less of us.
