100 years reborn, Ryan Field opens to wows and a deafening din

As the sun set over Evanston on Friday, a golden glow emanated from the limestone exterior of Ryan Field, which was mobbed for the first time by the Wildcat faithful.

Inside, a montage of moments from Northwestern University's long path to rebuilding its football stadium played across the video screens. It featured Pat Ryan Sr., the benefactor behind the new stadium, and other Northwestern stalwarts extolling how the "most user-unfriendly" college arena had become the very opposite.

The video closed with two poignant words, especially for a school that's used a temporary lakeside stadium for two years: "Welcome home."

Soon, the lights turned down, and the speakers blasted "Thunderstruck." A deafening roar, from the standing-room-only student section no less, seized Ryan Field when the football team made its entrance. The Wildcats had, at last, come home to their new home.

The explosive entrance was the culmination of a centurylong journey which began when the former stadium hosted its first game exactly a hundred years prior, on Oct. 2, 1926.

It hadn't always been a smooth one. When the university pitched the new stadium, which it also plans to use as a concert venue, some nearby residents in this leafy northern corner of Evanston revolted.

That rumpus went unmentioned by Friday's montage, of course, but the video did remind fans that Northwestern has weathered tougher challenges before — certainly in the early '80s, when the football team's ignominious winless streak threatened to put Northwestern's future as a Big Ten member in question.

Now, on a most beautiful day in Evanston, those worries were history. The new $875 million Ryan Field, long hyped to become America's best place to watch football, had opened. And Ryan himself saw the opening as a challenge to all new stadiums to come.

"We set a new standard," Ryan told the Tribune ahead of the game.

Demolition of the old Ryan Field began in February 2024. Aiming to make way for a stadium opening in little more than two years, crews soon made the Wildcats' hulking citadel vanish, starting with the rust-ridden structure beneath the bleachers.

The old stadium opened on Oct. 2, 1926, and "the Purple," as the Tribune called the team, blanked South Dakota. It got its first name, Dyche Stadium, a month later. And it seemed to have an auspicious future, since the university had once dreamed of building Dyche into a massive, triple-deck stadium.

Yet even as built, the stadium rarely reached capacity, a challenge eventually compounded by the foundering product on the gridiron. And Dyche, too, decayed. So in 1995 — which wound up being the Wildcats' watershed Rose Bowl season — Northwestern started to envision a big renovation.

The touched-up stadium opened in 1997 with a new name: Ryan Field, in honor of the man who had spearheaded the project.

A couple of decades later, however, Ryan Field gamedays often seemed sparse. The age of the place revealed itself in the discolored bleachers where sometimes few people sat. It felt empty.

Enter Ryan and his wife, Shirley Ryan, once again.

In 2021, the couple donated $480 million to the university, including money for Ryan Field's redevelopment. The next year, Northwestern revealed its design for a smaller but more comfortable stadium that could also host commercial, non-NU events.

Nearby residents soon became incensed about the prospect of massive concerts that could funnel sound into their backyards. The decision on whether to enable Northwestern's plans came down to Evanston's City Council, which in October 2023 tied at a preliminary vote.

Mayor Daniel Biss broke that tie in favor of the university. Weeks later, the council gave its final approval along similar lines. It also approved a pact with Northwestern, which promised $150 million in benefits to Evanston residents.

"In politics it is always easier to say no," Biss said Friday, when he briefly visited the stadium. "And I'm really glad that we didn't fall prey to that here, because this is a beautiful facility. And I think it's one that's going to bring a lot of joy to people across Evanston for a long time."

Biss, who said he would not stay for the game, hurried toward the exit after he cut the ribbon alongside the Ryan family.

Northwestern's Dave Davis, the longtime liaison between the university and residents, stuck around and mingled with the big names who had gathered there. He insisted that he talks to the neighbors "every day" and that Northwestern's benefits pact will bolster the city.

It's a contention that one neighbor, Matthew Grayson, disputed as he stood, hands on his hips, looking toward the other side of the new stadium. Music echoed from Ryan Field. Many of his neighbors had left their homes Friday to avoid the game, he said.

"It's an example of how Northwestern does whatever it wants to do," he said with a pronounced dismay.

Another neighbor stood on Asbury Avenue with a more opportunistic stance. Christian Piekos, a former WLS-Ch. 7 reporter who moved into a home near Ryan Field six months ago, held a cardboard sign hawking gameday parking.

He's excited about the new stadium. He'd gotten one taker for parking thus far. And he planned to attend the game.

Back on the other side of the stadium, people streamed toward the gates. Mustard's Last Stand, the hot-dog stand right next to Ryan Field, tried to entice some of them with a food cart by the sidewalk.

"I've been worried and nervous," said the stand's co-owner, Lonnie Starkman. "We've been doing this for so long that we know what we're doing. But you never know, you know. It's opening day after two years of not having a game."

It succeeded mightily. "Extremely well," he said, as fans packed into Mustard's small building.

Oh, and Starkman shares his birthday with Ryan Field.

Next to Mustard's is the parking lot where the longest-tenured Northwestern fans tailgate. Some donned sequin-embroidered purple hats and Willie the Wildcat T-shirts.

They were all excited about the new stadium, marveling at its cornucopia of amenities.

"It's worth the cost," Park Ridge resident Darryl Krall said.

Krall said he's been a Northwestern tailgater for the better part of 45 years. He plans to be here for the next 45.

Bob Guth, a class of 1972 graduate and a 44-time season ticket holder, thinks that attending the game is just as much of a "social experience" as it is one to watch semi-decent football.

And surviving the team's 34-game losing streak from 1979 to 1982 was no easy feat, he added with a laugh.

"We've got four or five guys here that I went to school with back in the '70s," he said. "We don't see each other often, so it's more about the renewal of relationships."

There was plenty more food behind the gates. Mustard's now has an outpost inside Ryan Field, too, part of an all-out effort by Northwestern to attract Chicago, Evanston and North Shore restaurants to the new stadium.

One member of what's billed as the "Great Chicago Food Festival" is Frontera, an extension of chef Rick Bayless' restaurants. He runs the original Frontera Grill and the Michelin-starred Topolobampo in Chicago, among others.

Ahead of the game, Bayless reclined in a seat as he took in the new arena's cavernous but comfortable confines. "One of the most stunning stadiums in the world," he said. Especially because of the dining options.

"It's very egalitarian," he told the Tribune. "You could come here and enjoy food that is from all of these great chefs in town, and you don't have to spend an arm and a leg. That, sort of, is the Chicago way. That we're regular people."

Much of Frontera's menu was not available, however, since the stand didn't have heat yet. Bayless said he would hand out guacamole and chips instead. "We decided to just be very magnanimous," he added, chuckling.

Construction on the stadium had not been entirely completed by gameday, with a few of the finer details remaining on the to-do list. It was still easy for many fans to marvel at everything the crews had accomplished in the span of two years.

The NFL-style stadium's white canopy hangs over all 35,000 fans (around 12,000 fewer than the old stadium could fit), sitting in actual seats instead of bleachers. Except, that is, for the newly ferocious student section, in which fans physically cannot sit.

Students must stay standing, ready at any moment to back-kick the metal plates behind them. And as they discovered at a student preview event the week before, under the instructions of hypeman Joe Spivak, the Wildcat Wall can produce a terrifying din, loud enough to confound the foe.

When the lights turned low and "Thunderstruck" began blasting, the Wildcat Wall knew exactly what to do.

And perhaps they did vex the once-formidable Penn State Nittany Lions.

Northwestern got off to a hot start in the first quarter. First, a field goal. Then a touchdown. The Wildcat Wall erupted into "Go U Northwestern" for the first time.

In the second quarter, Penn State notched its first touchdown, but the Wildcats' ground game quickly clapped back. That didn't faze the Penn State fans in attendance, yet.

"I feel like they have the momentum right now, but eventually it's going to wear off," said Keith Landberg, who had traveled from Florida to watch the game. "And Penn State will win."

And would Ryan Field beat out the Nittany Lions' home? "Not even close." He allowed that the "loudness is there" at the new stadium. But he saw little comparison to Beaver Stadium, whose 100,000-plus capacity makes it one of the largest stadiums of any kind in the world.

Indeed, because Northwestern finished the first half up 24-7. The Wildcats and the Wildcat Wall were not finished.

"You give them something easy to do like the wall, and they're all gung-ho for it," said Sam McLain, a senior at Northwestern, referring to his fellow students. "But I also think making a bunch of people stay standing for the game also really helps that. Northwestern has a bad habit historically of being game-sitters."

McLain is a diehard Wildcat, but in an unorthodox way: He became well-known on campus as the "Highlighter Kid" for wearing neon-colored outfits to basketball games.

But on Friday, he wore a purple-and-white shirt. It was too important an occasion.

Northwestern announced the game had sold out, but many tickets ended up on the resale market. It seemed that some of the upper reaches of the stadium had empty rows.

And in any case, as Northwestern kept padding its lead, the seats started to empty.

Not so for the Wildcat Wall, which stayed put until the end.

The Wildcats ran up the scoreboard to 34-13. A line of security guards stood below the Wildcat Wall, apparently expecting to hold back any students who wanted to storm the field.

When the game finally wrapped, the football players rushed toward the Wildcat Wall, giving high-fives to the students in the front row.

Fireworks exploded over Ryan Field, and a light smoke filled the stadium as the celebration continued.

At the press conference afterward, in the underbelly of the new stadium, coach David Braun spoke, awe-struck, of gratitude for the Ryan family, the student section and countless others.

And of manifesting dreams, "the best dream of my life."

"I'm telling you right now," Braun said. "Nights like tonight are nights that you pray for."