Josh Brodesky: You don't need a giant scoreboard to make UA football memorable

Fans know that game.

Arizona stadium was packed that night, and the atmosphere was electric. I was with my dad in the cheap seats. He couldn't care less about football, but he took me anyway.

That's just what fathers do, right?

Here's what I remember: The sunset was a vivid mix of September pink and orange, and the stadium rocked with anticipation - just like it did for the recent Oklahoma State game.

We all hoped for an upset, but no one, including Illinois, expected the fumblerooski.

What a great September surprise.

Hard to believe that was 22 years ago - or that the replay of that classic moment sticks with me even though the University of Arizona didn't have a jumbo scoreboard to show it over and over from multiple angles, at volumes befitting a rock concert.

Ah, the scoreboard that UA Athletic Director Greg Byrne once said he could see from his Foothills home. The scoreboard that you can hear in Florence and see from the moon. The scoreboard the old stadium simply has to have for Arizona football to be competitive - because, let's face it, recent upsets and Nick Foles aside, the players lately have not been enough.

This is all a big windup to say that I returned to the south end zone for last weekend's Oklahoma State game to experience the athletic department's multi-million-dollar monument to fan experience. Some people call this a scoreboard.

Section 12, Row 34, is right beneath the megaboard. It is a great place to feel the noise. As we all know, the UA's scoreboard has made a lot of noise since it went up last season. Fans in Section 12 have the earplugs to prove it.

Rusty Jackson, a longtime season-ticket holder in Section 12, told me he now takes aspirin before going to the games. At the season opener, he wore earplugs and headphones, but that didn't stop his bones from rattling.

"There were a few times where it's kind of like a weapon that should be used in Afghanistan," he told me during halftime of the Oklahoma State game.

The University of Arizona took a number of steps to turn down the volume for the OSU game, and Jackson and others noticed because, well, sometimes they could hear themselves think.

"It seems like it's a little better," he said. "It isn't as sustained."

It wasn't so, so bad - or maybe I just expected really, really bad. The band and students often drowned out the scoreboard. It took about two quarters for my wife to put in her earplugs, and that might have been because I kept talking about the Dick Tomey years.

But whenever feedback shot through the jumbo board, which was every time the UA did a live shot with a sideline personality, everyone in Section 12 stuffed their fingers in their ears and bowed their heads. Do you know what feedback sounds like coming from a scoreboard that is 112 feet wide and 47 feet tall? It sounds like someone is trying to suck life out of your ear canal. It is the audio equivalent of that critter from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" that crawls into ears and takes over brains.

Anyway, I digress: Life in Section 12 can actually be a lot of fun.

When the ball is kicked through the uprights and lands in 12's cheap seats, the fans grow jovial and raucous. They do their best to pass the ball up the section until someone tosses it over the edge of the stadium before security can take the ball away. Then everyone cheers!

When the game has moved to the other end of the field, inching toward the north end zone, everyone turns around and stares at the jumbotron above them, twisting and straining in discomfort.

Often, fans in Section 12 look at the north end zone, which is under construction, and pine for it. It is so far away from the new scoreboard.

"Send it back to China," Court Seger told me. "It's too loud. It's way too loud."

"We love it," said another fan, Jeanne Mayhall.

"Except for the noise," piped in Jeff Cox, who was sitting next to Mayhall. No, Mayhall insisted she loved it. She said the scoreboard was "fun."

And sometimes it is.

Every once in while, the words "make some noise" pulsate on the screen, and everyone cheers.

One thing Byrne and Co. have managed to build is a massive symbol of our discontent. After numerous complaints that the scoreboard was too loud in Week 1, the athletic department dialed the sound back for Week 2. They cut way down on the samples of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and tried to mix up the music for all generations. The UA even asked people to email tech crews about noise complaints.

And people from other parts of the stadium did! They told Byrne it was … too quiet. They couldn't hear the scoreboard.

"You do your best to create entertainment for a wide variety of audiences," Byrne told me, adding that "other schools" have built similar monuments to noise.

So, the scoreboard stays.

All it took to make that fumblerooski game special was a pretty sunset, my dad and a thrilling upset. Talk about a winning combo.

This column was supposed to run Thursday, but life has a way with plans; read more about that in my column on Sunday. Bear down. Contact Josh Brodesky at 573-4242 or jbrodesky@azstarnet.com