Everything I Experienced Covering a Game at the New Ryan Field

This past Friday, I had the honor of covering Penn State in the first game played in Northwestern’s new Ryan Field, and it’s an experience I won’t soon forget.

The journey began with a morning flight to Chicago, which featured a healthy contingent of Big Ten influence. In addition to two Penn State fans and two Northwestern fans, I also spotted two Illinois supporters, along with fans from Maryland, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

I didn’t see any other conferences represented, which feels like a statistical anomaly, even when traveling to the Big Ten home base of Chicago.

After landing, deboarding, acquiring a rental car and checking in at the hotel, I had my first experience at Fry The Coop, which Google’s AI tells me is a “highly popular, Illinois-born Nashville hot chicken chain.” I picked it because it was within walking distance of the hotel.

Somehow, I paid 11.82% in tax on my chicken sandwich meal — at first, I thought I’d been scammed, but apparently there are extra taxes in the city.

I made my way to campus and spent about two hours wandering around, taking in the picturesque views of Lake Michigan and discovering why Northwestern’s tuition is over $70,000 a year.

Eventually, I took a shuttle from campus to the newly constructed Ryan Field, which lived up to the hype. Though small in capacity, nearly every aspect was state-of-the-art, including the video boards and sound system.

In my attempt to find the press box, I wandered around and got a look at the concourse and other areas. Most of the security workers, also in the stadium for the first time, didn’t know where it was either.

The student section, dubbed the Wildcat Wall, was slow to fill up but certainly got loud before, during and after the game. It was located directly above the visiting locker room, and students were encouraged to stomp on the metal bleachers and rattle the railings in front.

Two students in particular caught my attention during a wholesome pregame moment, helping a young Penn State fan gather high-fives from players and coaches departing the field.

After heading to the press box, the media members quickly noticed an issue in the otherwise-impressive venue: the press box sight lines of the field were obstructed. The near side was blocked from view while sitting, leading to some creative solutions.

Northwestern played up the occasion with a pregame flyover, fireworks, on-field pyrotechnics, colored stadium lights, light-up wrist bands for fans and the debut of a new bass drum announced as the biggest in the Big Ten (sorry, Purdue).

The sound system was cranked up (and sounded substantially better than Penn State’s newly installed one), with the DJ rotating through classics throughout the night. The Wildcats came out to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” and the Nittany Lions got a rare visitor’s entrance song of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”

Then, the game started, and we all know how that went.