Do You Know Faurot?

As home to one of the landmark symbols of our university, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who honestly doesn’t know what Faurot field is. Whether you could find anyone who knows the history behind the field is another matter.

Our typical horseshoe-shaped stadium has undergone many changes since it was erected in 1926 as Memorial Stadium. Original plans for the stadium were that it would initially hold 25,000, with expansion plans to follow. Since then the stadium has seen quite a few more bodies than that, including this past weekend when attendance was counted at 70,049, though the stadium can officially only hold 68,349 people.

Other renovations include new score boards, a medical facility for the athletes complete with an X-ray machine, a room set aside specifically for interviews that can fit up to 65 reporters at a time, and a fifteen-story press box with executive seats and a restaurant.

The biggest controversy involving the stadium deals with the material on which the game was played. Now maybe this isn’t news to any true followers of Missouri football, but I was certainly a little surprised to see that our home field was a part of an event that some would call “one of the top memorable moments and blunders in college football history”. Seventeen years ago from this past Saturday, the Tigers faced off against their Big Eight Rivals, the Colorado Buffaloes. With a score of 27-33 favoring Missouri, the Buffs were given possession of the ball with three minutes remaining. In between the first and the third down one of the players slipped due to “ the lousy turf” that was then OmniTurf. (The playing field was later changed to natural grass and was changed again in 2003 to what it is now, FieldTurf.) Because of this slip-up, Colorado called their final time-out for the game after the third down. For unknown reasons during that time-out, the number of downs was never changed and Colorado went on to complete two more plays in which they were able to score a touchdown. During this “Fifth Play Game” the judges discussed the situation for twenty minutes before deciding to give Colorado the win.

Now the next time you root on the Tigers at their home field you can gaze longingly at the press box knowing that somewhere in there you don’t have to pay three dollars for water and you can rush the field goal with the assurance that there’s a medical facility less than 100 yards away.