Michigan Stadium - Welcome to the Big House

Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on University of Michigan Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Here it is: Michigan Stadium, the Big House, the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere. Its official capacity is 107,601, and the record crowd, 115,109, came for a night game against Notre Dame in 2013. Every home game since November 8, 1975, has drawn more than 100,000 fans.

From outside, though, it looks surprisingly modest. That's because most of the seats sit below ground level, set into a bowl dug from a soggy site full of springs. Coach and athletic director Fielding Yost pushed for the stadium, and when it opened in 1927 it held 72,000, but Yost insisted on footings that could carry an expansion past 100,000. He was right.

Campus legend says a crane sank into the soupy ground during construction and is still buried under the field. The alumni magazine went looking and found no record of it, so enjoy it as a good story. From here, the Diag is about a 20-minute walk back north.

Getting here: Head west from Ferry Field past the athletic buildings toward the huge bowl, and follow the sidewalks to the stadium's northeast corner.

Did you know?: The Big House was modeled on the Yale Bowl, and in 1930 it became the first stadium in the country to keep official game time on electronic scoreboards.

Photo op: Frame the stadium's brick outer wall and gates with the press box and light towers rising behind, and wear maize and blue for the full effect.

More on Wikipedia: Michigan Stadium · Fielding H. Yost · Yale Bowl

Michigan Stadium - Welcome to the Big House

Stops on this tour