Fuzzy Seahawks Memories: The Husky Stadium Days

Back in 2000-2001, I went to four Seahawks games at Husky Stadium. They went 3-1 in those games, and my future wife Amy passed a big early-in-the-relationship test by going to a Seahawks game with me and enjoying it. Even so, I think about these days as the absolute dark ages of Seahawks football.

First of all, to the extent that I care about college football (which isn't that much), I'm a Wazzu fan. Being an Eastern Washington native, any time spent in Husky Stadium was too much for me. On top of that, it felt like every time I went to a game there the weather was 39 degrees with 40 mph winds and sideways needle rain. This wasn't true of course, but I'll never shake how miserably wet and cold it could get at Husky Stadium.

My season ticket seats were down near ground level in the closed end of the horseshoe, with awful sightlines and total exposure to the elements... which meant that by the end of the 1st quarter I always moved up to one of the nearly empty upper deck sections under the roof.

We think of the Kingdome and Qwest Field as giving the Hawks an amazing home field advantage, but in 00-01 the Hawks only went 9-7 at home. Of course, that was partly because the team was mediocre, but it was also because Husky Stadium never came close to capacity during this era. Overall, Husky Stadium provided one of the blandest, most depressing fan experiences I've ever witnessed, and I praise the ghost of Pete Rozelle that I'll never have to go to a game there again.

Here's my specific memories of those four games:

9/10/00: Rams 37, Seahawks 34

A nice day out and an exciting game against the defending World Champion Rams (who we didn't all hate yet)... I've rarely felt better about a loss; My girlfriend Amy seemed to have fun (thank god the game was exciting), and a three point loss to the mighty Rams gave us SOME reason to be optimistic after an embarassing shutout loss at Miami the week before

9/17/00: Seahawks 20, Saints 10

A boring, forgettable affair. At least it was nice out, and I got to kick it with my friend Kris.. Other than that, my mind's a blank about this one.

12/16/00: Seahawks 27, Raiders 24

The peak of the Husky Stadium days. Despite a 5-9 record at the time, we gave the AFC West Champion Raiders all they could handle. Y'all might remember this: trailing 24-17 in the 4th quarter, Ricky Watters broke off a huge run, but was caught near the goal line and fumbled. However, the Raiders rolled back into the end zone with the ball and it was ruled a safety! The legions of Oakland fans in attendance bitched and moaned like Dino Rossi, but the Hawks had the ball down by 5... Jon Kitna had his last memorable moment as a Seahawk when he drove Seattle the length of the field for the winning score and 2-point conversion.

It was a rare moment of joy in a lost season, and the sweet lamentations of all those Raider rooting assfucks still echo in my brainpan. :-]

1/6/02: Seahawks 21, Chiefs 18

A pretty damn somber win.

A) This game was rescheduled from right after the 9/11 attacks, so that was on everyone's minds of course

B) It was the most intolerable weather I've ever sat through at an NFL game. Heavy rain, wind gusts, temps in the 30s... WAY worse than simple cold or snow. brrrrrr!

C) Late in a fairly boring Seattle win, we found out that John Hall had hit a 50+ yard FG to beat the Raiders and almost certainly kill Seattle's playoff hopes.

D) We decided to do the park & ride thing to and from the game. Big mistake that day.... Wet, cold and depressed, it took almost two hours on the bus to get back to the parking lot.

In conclusion... Good riddance, Husky Stadium.