Field of dreams: Sun Devil Stadium turns 50

Fresh out of the U.S. Army and a stint coaching an Army football team, former 1st Lt. Frank Kush drove his clunker of a 1952 Plymouth the 1,800 miles from Fort Benning, Ga., to Tempe in August 1955 to become an Arizona State football assistant under Dan Devine.

He made it to the Tempe campus on a Sunday, but he wasn't going to stop until he found Goodwin Stadium.

So he drove by campus three times.

Never saw it.

Finally, he landed on 24th Street and asked a police officer, who directed him to campus.

Still couldn't find it.

So he stopped at a convenience store for directions to Goodwin Stadium.

A few minutes later, he pulled up next to the 15,000-seat building. His high school football stadium in Windber, Pa., was the same size.

"I thought, 'Holy crap, what have I gotten myself into?'" Kush said. "I came into Salt River Canyon and thought it was the Grand Canyon. God almighty, it was strange. Talk about a shocker."

Not to worry. Three years later, Devine left for Missouri, Kush was promoted and 30,000-seat Sun Devil Stadium was christened as the Sun Devils knocked off West Texas State, 16-13, in Week 2 of the 1958 season.

Five decades, 16.2 million ticket-holders, 36 Fiesta Bowls, four national championships, some blockbuster concerts, two massive expansions, two seasons of USFL, a Super Bowl, one pope, "Babs," a Coen brothers movie, $10 million in structural repairs and infinite memories later, the building between the Buttes is still an iconic East Valley landmark.

"We had no other competition in the community for the sports dollar," said former player Harold Slemmer, now the executive director of the Arizona Interscholastic Association. "There were no pro (teams). There was a lot of people, that was their only means of activity."

But what was once the home to every conceivable major event in the East Valley has lost a bit of its luster.

First, the Cardinals moved when University of Phoenix Stadium opened in 2006. Then the BCS (Fiesta and national championship) bowls followed suit.

So, too, did the Super Bowl, The Rolling Stones, high school football championships, and WrestleMania in 2010.

Barring a $300 million windfall that university officials don't foresee, the home of ASU football will remain.

But at some point in the coming years, it'll need a structural and aesthetic overhaul estimated to cost between $50 million and $60 million in repairs and renovations to keep the stadium safe.

The concrete and support beams weren't waterproofed during initial construction, and 50 years of rain and spilled drinks collected and eroded away parts of the structure.

The university spent $10 million in 2005 for immediate upgrades to keep the stadium safe for a few more years, but this grand old place ain't what it used to be.

"Nothing is, whether the cars we drive or places we went," ASU graduate and Fiesta Bowl president John Junker said. "Time takes its toll on everything and everybody."

Physically, it needs massaging. Emotionally, however, it still soothes.

"It hasn't changed much," former ASU tackle and Arizona's all-time winningest high school football coach Karl Kiefer said. "You still have the same feeling as the West Texas game. The buses, people, the fans, the enthusiasm. I still have the same admiration for it."

Pope John Paul II and 75,000 spectators were there. So were U2, the Rolling Stones, a USFL team and one of the greatest national championship games in history.

But for most Sun Devils fans, it's the football team that - sorry, Babs - lights the corners of their minds. So for whatever stadium memories ring most loud and clear for you since 1958, time (and money) will tell if you'll have a chance to do this all again in 2058.

"I think it's one of the best stadiums to view an athletic event," Kush said. "Any seat is a panoramic view of the entire field. If they need to fix it to take care of the fans, then do it."

Misty watercolor memories of the way we were ...

Fifty years ago Saturday, ASU christened the largest pit of steel in Tempe. In the ensuing years, Sun Devil Stadium has hosted countless football games, concerts, events and stars. From Frank Kush to Dennis Erickson; John Jefferson to Pat Tillman; Pope John Paul II to Barbra Streisand. From the epic 1996 win over Nebraska to the stunning 1999 loss to New Mexico State; from the Fiesta Bowl to the BCS national championship, the grand old stadium has seen it all. Today, we remember the past and wonder: If we had the chance to do it all again, would we? Could we?

1958: Arizona State says goodbye to Goodwin Stadium for good and moves into its new 30,000-seat home under first-year coach Frank Kush. The Sun Devils defeat West Texas State, 16-13, in the building's Oct. 4 unveiling, led by tackle Karl Kiefer, whose 308 career high school coaching victories are (for the moment) No. 1 in Arizona history.

1971: Led by Danny White and Woody Green, Arizona State outlasts Florida State, 45-38, in the first Fiesta Bowl before a crowd of nearly 52,000. After three fumbles in the first half had Green in tears on the sideline, he plunged in for the game-winning touchdown and his third score of the night with a little more than one minute remaining. It is the first of three memorable December nights for Green, who had 74 carries for 434 yards and 10 touchdowns in three Fiesta Bowls.

1975: The first NFL game is held at the stadium, a preseason matchup between the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.

1976: Though most of the film was shot in Tucson, do-everything diva Barbra Streisand has portions of her concert at Sun Devil Stadium used during her remake of "A Star Is Born," alongside Kris Kristofferson. Peter Frampton and Santana also play during the all-day concert before 55,000 fans. Tickets were $3.50.

1977: The last of two successive stadium expansions in consecutive years is completed, boosting capacity up to 57,722 in 1976, then 70,491. The $11 million for the project was raised privately.

1983:The Rolling Stones release "Let's Spend the Night Together," a 1981 concert filmed at Sun Devil Stadium.

1987: Portions of "Raising Arizona" with Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter are filmed in the stadium and a dozen other spots in Tempe and around the state.

1987: Up next on the musical showcase, U2stops in Tempe as part of its "Joshua Tree" tour, and two nights worth of footage is captured as part of the band's documentary, "Rattle and Hum," which is released the following year.

1987: Despite Sparky, his pitchforks and the venue being loyal to Devils, Pope John Paul II makes a rare appearance in the United States. Among the nine stops on tour is a speech before an estimated crowd of 75,000 at the stadium, as well as a couple of other quicker speeches around town. T-shirts, "muscle shirts" and sweatshirts were sold outside the stadium. "He was Polish, like me," Kush said. "I should change my name to Kushowski."

1988: A final stadium expansion is completed, which adds more than 1,700 additional seats and the $28million athletic complex on the south side of the stadium (now the Nadine and Ed Carson Student Athlete Center).

1988: The Cardinals move west, from St. Louis to Phoenix (the team was renamed the Arizona Cardinals in 1994), and the state's first NFL team takes up residence at Sun Devil Stadium for the next 18 seasons. The Cardinals lose their first regular-season game to Dallas on "Monday Night Football," and 79 more home games through 2005, a meager .440 winning percentage.

1996: Rod Tidwell demanded the world, "Show me the money!" Cuba Gooding Jr.'s loud-mouth, average-receiver character from "Jerry Maguire" put on a show in the Sun Devil Stadium end zone during a pivotal late-season game against the Dallas Cowboys. (He won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role.) The second coming of Jerry Rice, he was not, but the Cardinals showed him the money anyway the following week on "Up Close" with Roy Firestone. In the real world, the Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX at Sun Devil Stadium a few months later.

1996: "Frank Kush Field" is dedicated during halftime of the Arizona State-Nebraska rematch in late September. A year after being waxed by 49 points in Lincoln, the Sun Devils return the favor with a 19-0 whipping of the No. 1 Cornhuskers, who entered the stadium with a 26-game winning streak. "When confidence turns to arrogance, you lose that fear," ASU coach Bruce Snyder said after the game. "That's not good. I think a lot of guys on our team right now are saying, 'Damn, we're good.' Can you blame them?"

1996: A new ASU football attendance record is set and broken again in a three-week span. The Sun Devils host USC in mid-October, drawing 74,947, or 858 more fans than the ASU-Nebraska matchup. Three weeks later, ASU and California play before 74,963 fans, a stadium logjam surpassed only by the pope's visit nine years prior.

2003: Just as the calendar turns over another year, the last national championship game held at Sun Devil Stadium becomes a game for the ages. Miami and Ohio State leave a crowd of more than 77,000 speechless and dizzy in the fourth quarter and both overtimes. Miami forces overtime with a 40-yard field goal as time expires, allows a fourth-and-14 conversion to OSU in the first overtime, then endures a controversial pass-interference call against them on fourth-and-goal, which leads to the Buckeyes tying the score at 24-24 and forcing a second overtime. "I'll never forget how absolutely quiet 76,000 people were," Junker said of the interference call. "You could have heard a pin drop. It's never been so quiet and eerie." Maurice Clarett gives OSU the lead in the second overtime, and the Hurricanes can't score a touchdown on their subsequent chance. Ohio State 31, Miami 24.

2003: Deadly wildfires in California threaten Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, which temporarily houses residents forced to flee their homes. After a week of hand-wringing and waiting, the "Monday Night Football" game between San Diego and Miami moves to Sun Devil Stadium. Tickets are free, and Miami wins 26-10.

2005: The Cardinals play their final game at Sun Devil Stadium on Christmas Eve, a 27-21 victory against Philadelphia. For the previous 18 seasons it had been a hot, painful existence in Tempe for the Cardinals, who move west to University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale in fall 2005. One sign in the stands reads: "Thanks for the memories, both of them."

2005: Tempe signs an eight-year, $6.5 million deal to host the Insight Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium, luring it away from Chase Field. In 2006, Texas Tech stages the largest comeback in Division I-A postseason football by rallying from a 38-7 third-quarter deficit to beat Minnesota in overtime.

2005: Engineers stumble across a series of cracks in the stadium's infrastructure, most of which are the result of water damage accumulated over the years in a building that wasn't waterproofed during construction. It leads to $10 million in short-term stadium repairs and then comes the news that between $50 million to $60 million will be required in the next decade or two.