There was a tiny roar that erupted when the University of Washington officially announced some Game Day Engagements for the 2019 football season.  The biggest was that the “Go Huskies” chant would return to a north stands-to-south stands exchange…as it was until the end of the 2011 season. 

“It’s the single, simplest change that could have a huge impact on game day atmosphere,” says lifelong Husky fan Tom Crain, of Auburn, Washington.  He remembers when it was loud: “Jet plane loud. Shaking the stadium loud,” he remembers.  

He’s been going to games since Sonny Sixkiller’s senior season and ever since he can remember the chant started with the student section at the 50 in the north stands.  However, when the Dawg Pack moved to the west endzone after the renovation was completed in 2013 the chant went with them. 

Former Washington Marching Band member, Kevin White of Orcas Island, played the tuba in the band from 1993-95.  White says that the fans seemed to be a part of defense. “Non-stop noise,” he said. “The bigger the play the louder the stadium got”.

The stadium seemed to have a pulse in those days, he said.  “Not just the fans but Husky Stadium itself,” he said. “Fans were stomping, beating the seats.”  

And the stadium did move as the fans who didn’t make the journey to Montlake can attest when the camera wells off the facade of the old south deck before the remodel. Duncan Wilson, of Friday Harbor says, “When watching on TV the picture was all over the place.”  He continued, “I can hear Keith Jackson’s excited voice…like he was calling an earthquake.”

When Husky Stadium is rocking..

Kenny Martin says that he’s glad that the chant will, once again, utilize he built in acoustic advantage of the cantilevered steel roof.  He began attending Husky games in 1993 and remembers teams dreading a visit to the Greatest Setting in College Football and it began with the “Go Huskies” chant. 

“When the chant went side to side with the cover of the stands it got louder,” Martin said.  “With the chant in the uncovered end zone the noise was dispersed and out of synch.”

What Martin is referring to is what Husky Nation, as a whole, have felt since the students were moved to the end zone is that the chant was often dead before it got started.  

Getting Nerdy

The intent was to honor the passion the students bring on game day by keeping the chant with the student section when they were moved to the end zone.  But the unintended consequences is that physics weren’t in their favor. 

Light travels at a set rate but the speed of sound (technically a gas) will vary depending on the temperature.  With a temperature of 69 degrees at kickoff against Eastern Washington it means that sound will be traveling at around 770 mph.  By the end of the game the temperature is supposed to peak at 76 and the speed of sound will have sped up, fractionally, to 772 mph.  

Over the course of one game that won’t matter but by the time Washington State rolls into town on November 29th the sound waves will be traveling decidedly slower at around 740 mph with the temperature around freezing. 

What that means is what fans have been hearing all along is the brief lag where Husky Stadium almost seemed disengaged with the chant late in games.  As summer turns to fall and the game-time temperature drops the lag increases, then, after three or four chant cycles it was a discombobulated mess. 

Teams hated coming to Husky Stadium

25-year old Bothell resident, Chris Brown, began attending Husky games as a toddler with his dad.  He feels that it’s a big step forward to returning the Husky Stadium to being one of the toughest places to play in the country.  His dad told him of days when Washington fans were as unrelenting as the 1991 Purple Haze defense.  

“On paper it’s a small thing,” he said.  “That chant was one thing that really stuck with me as a young kid in the stands. The atmosphere in the stadium has been off the last couple years even though the team has had the most success I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Brown says that it’s “little” things like this and many others that had been watered down or all out ruined.  “It hurts the fan experience and stadium atmosphere in a time when attendance numbers are down across the country and universities need to do everything they can to give fans reasons to see games in person,” he feels. 

UW Athletic Director was a boisterous fan with her dad in Husky Stadium, herself, growing up.  She’s aware of the advantages that Husky Stadium has to offer the fans and the team…especially as the program’s profile continues to rise with each passing season.  Husky Stadium can once again be a factor in opponent’s false starts, unwanted time outs, and general chaos… or as former Don James assistant, Skip Hall says: The Roar Prevents the Score.