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So Long, Stanford Stadium

Demo in ProgressImmediately after last Saturday’s Stanford – Notre Dame football game, old Stanford Stadium started coming down. I spent a lot of Saturday afternoons there as a kid, watching Plunkett and Bunce pass the Indians to Rose Bowls in ’71 and ’72. But the stadium was also the site of the most wondrous sporting event I’ve ever had the privilege to see in person — the 1994 World Cup soccer match between the United States and Brazil, played on a warm, sunny July 4. The place was absolutely packed with soccer fans — Americans, Brazilians, Dutch, Swedes, Irish, Cameroons — you name it, they were there that Independence Day. The color, the movement, and the positive energy and international goodwill were incredible. And that was just in the stands. A soccer game broke out on the field, and both teams, mostly, acquitted themselves well. With no apologies to Disney (or to American fans, since Brazil won, 1-0), it was the happiest place on earth.