October 1, 1927: Michigan Stadium Opens

October 1, 1927: Michigan Stadium opens in Ann Arbor, 38 miles west of downtown Detroit. The University of Michigan defeats Ohio Wesleyan (not Ohio State), 33-0. At the time, it seated 72,000. By 1956, it would top 100,000. Today, officially, capacity is 107,601.

The Michigan Wolverines had previously played at the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds from 1883 to 1892; Regents Field from 1893 to 1906, winning the National Championship in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904; and Ferry Field from 1907 to 1926, winning the National Championship in 1918 and 1923.

Fielding Yost, Michigan's head coach from 1901 to 1926, and its athletic director from 1921 to 1940, had it set Michigan Stadium up so that the foundations could handle an expansion well beyond 72,000. He imagined as much as 150,000, since Soldier Field in Chicago could supposedly hold that many. A later Michigan coach, Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, resumed the Wolverines' winning tradition that Yost began. In 1969, athletic director Don Canham laid down the Big Ten Conference's 1st artificial turf field.

This led the school's radio broadcaster, Bob Ufer, to call the Stadium "The hole that Yost dug! Crisler paid for! And Canham carpeted!" It was switched back to real grass in 1991, and then to FieldTurf in 2003.

Michigan Stadium was built across the railroad from Ferry Field. Yost Ice Arena (formerly Yost Field House) was built next to Ferry Field in 1924, and Crisler Center (formerly Crisler Arena) was built next to Michigan Stadium in 1967.

Since moving in, the Wolverines have won 32 Big Ten Conference Championships, and 5 National Championships: 1932 and 1933 under head coach Harry Kipke; 1947 under Crisler; 1948 under Bennie Oosterbaan; and 1997 under Lloyd Carr. (UPDATE: In the 2023 season, they added a 6th under Jim Harbaugh. And their Conference Championship haul rose to 34.)

Originally, it was not an architectural marvel, just a very, very big stadium. A 2010 expansion gave it an outer brick shell that made it resemble many other 1920s-built stadiums, including the ones built as World War I Memorials, including other Big Ten stadiums like Ohio State's Ohio Stadium, Iowa's Kinnick Stadium, Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium, and the Memorial Stadiums in Illinois and the now-demolished one in Minnesota. The field was converted to artificial turf in 1969, back to natural grass in 1991, and to FieldTurf in 2003.

"The Big House" holds the following all-time single-game attendance records: College football, in any on-campus stadium, 115,109 (September 7, 2013, Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30); hockey, anywhere in the world, 105,491 (January 1, 2014, Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Detroit Red Wings 2 in the NHL Winter Classic); and soccer, anywhere in the United States, 109,318 (August 2, 2014, Manchester United 3, Real Madrid 1 in the International Champions Cup).

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October 1, 1927 was a Saturday. These other notable college football games were played that day:

* Army beat the University of Detroit, 6-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Navy beat Davis & Elkins University, 27-0 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Columbia beat Union College, 28-0 at Baker Field (now Wien Stadium) in Upper Manhattan.

* New York University (NYU) beat West Virginia Wesleyan (WVW), 29-13 at Ohio Field in The Bronx.

* Rutgers beat Manhattan College, 24-6 at Nielson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

* Princeton beat Amherst, 14-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

* Ohio State beat Wittenberg, 31-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

* Notre Dame beat Coe College, 28-7 at Cartier Field in South Bend, Indiana.

* Indiana beat rivalry Kentucky, 21-0 at McLean Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Oklahoma upset the University of Chicago, 13-7 at Stagg Field in Chicago.

* The University of Texas and Texas Christian University (TCU) played to a 0-0 tie at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. The day before, Babe Ruth had hit his record-breaking 60th home run of the season, and the Senators' legendary pitcher Walter Johnson had made his last big-league appearance. In this game, Ruth went 0-for-3 with a walk, while Lou Gehrig hit his 47th home run. At the time, that was the most of any player other than Ruth.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers (or the Robins, as they were known during Wilbert Robinson's managerial tenure, 1914-1931), 6-1 at Ebbets Field. Travis Jackson hit a home run. Rogers Hornsby went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Bill Terry went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Boston Braves swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-9 and 8-6 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox, 10-2 and 3-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-6 at Redland Field (later renamed Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. Paul Waner went 2-for-5, and Lloyd Waner went 3-for-5.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, in the 1st game of a doubleheader. The White Sox were leading the 2nd game, 5-3 after 5 innings, when it was stopped by rain.

* The Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers were rained out at Navin Field (later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day, the last day of the regular season. The Tigers swept, 11-5 and 5-4. Jack Warner doubled Bob Fothergill home in the bottom of the 11th inning, to win the 2nd game.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was never made up.

And in English soccer, London teams Arsenal (North) and West Ham United (East) played to a 2-2 draw at Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury.

Also on this day, Thomas Edward Bosley is born in Chicago. He won a Tony Award playing New York's Mayor LaGuardia in the 1960 musical Fiorello! But he became a legend as Howard Cunningham, the genial dad trying to understand the changes in the 1950s and '60s in the Milwaukee-based 1974-85 sitcom Happy Days. He was the 1st member of the main cast to die, in 2010.

Howard was once shown taking his son Richie, played by Ron Howard, to a Braves game at Milwaukee County Stadium, where he caught a home run ball hit by Hank Aaron. He also mentions having run away from home at age 15, and going to New York, and seeing Babe Ruth play.

On another episode, when Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) bemoaned his difficulty in teaching high school kids his automotive skills, Howard reminded him of Rogers Hornsby, the great hitter who couldn't win as a manager, because he had no patience with players who weren't as good as he was. Howard reminded The Fonz that the reason he's there to teach is that these kids aren't as good as he is, but they want to learn. The Fonz went on to become one of the most popular teachers as Jefferson High School.

(Milwaukee doesn't actually have a Jefferson High, but it has a Washington High, where exterior scenes for Jefferson were filmed.)