This piece is written by GTom, longtime Big Ten marching band correspondent for Off Tackle Republic and its predecessor. A Northwestern alumnus, he is a part-time resident of the Upper Peninsula and college football enthusiast. He files this report.
MARQUETTE, Mich. – Greetings from the beautiful Upper Peninsula!
In the days of Empire, I long-promised to one day share information on a stadium that I know holds fascination for many of you: the Superior Dome of Marquette, Michigan, home of the Northern Michigan University Wildcats.
Well, the Empire may have died, but I’m still here, and life circumstances are such that I finally got to carry through on my promise. Here is a little peek into the experience of attending a football game near the shores of Lake Superior.
Marquette Background
Just to give you a little flavor for the community, Marquette (population 20,629), with its “sprawling suburbs” of Ishpeming (6,140) and Negaunee (4,627), is the commercial and cultural heart of the UP. The city is located toward the center of the northern edge of the peninsula on the shore of Lake Superior. Like many communities in the area, the city is located in glacial moraine, which results in many 100-400 foot hills (some of which can become quite interesting when roads get icy) and basically surrounded by forest and Lake Superior. It’s got kind of a traditional multi-block small-building downtown area, with lots of interesting specialty stores for things like art, but the hospital is probably the only building over four stories. Most of the retail is off of US 41, which runs through the edge of the city.
Marquette's origins in the late 1800s, as well as its continuing industry, mostly stems from nearby rich deposits of iron ore, which have historically been loaded and shipped from special railway tresses — one of which used to run directly through downtown, but is currently abandoned for a second site a bit further outside of the city.
The town was also home of KI Sawyer, a major Strategic Air Command Air Force base charged with, if it ever came to it, launching B-52s over the polar ice cap and nuking Moscow. (I have many memories as a child of being practice-bombed on the beach.) With the end of the Cold War, the base closed down, leaving the airport as pretty much the only commercial airport remaining in the UP. The legacy of the Cold War, though, looms: there is still a little park with a variety of aircraft, including a B-52 Stratofortress, or a BUFF, that you can literally walk right up to.
Northern Michigan University is small-to-mid-sized, with an enrollment of around 7,000. A lot of the students do come from the UP, but the school offers a pretty broad curriculum similar to the other cardinal Michigan schools. The campus itself doesn’t dominate the city, but it plays an important role in supporting local housing and businesses. There seems to be a healthy town-and-gown relationship, with locals embracing the school and its sports teams: in fact, the Friday night Big Ten football games on the local FOX affiliate are often preempted by NMU or rival Michigan Tech's football, basketball, or hockey contests.
Given these influences, Marquette's vibe is a unique combination of youth, academics, patriotic retirees, mining industry folks, and commercial business. It's slightly different from the outdoor tourism focus of most of the rest of the region, although most residents are still heavily outdoors-oriented, as are all Yoopers. Its central location in the UP makes it a hub for where many in the region live, work, or shop, and it gives Marquette a bit more buzz and energy than you typically find in the other Upper Michigan towns.
Pre-Game
Not necessarily by plan, I ended up attending the Northern Michigan Wildcats' early afternoon game against Ferris State University. The Bulldogs are an absolute D-II national powerhouse, ranked number one in the nation after having won four national titles since 2021, including the past two seasons.
It didn't bode well for NMU on the field, but we know there's more to college football than the score on the board at the end of the game. So, I set out to the Superior Dome.
Getting there was super easy. The stadium itself is located on campus north of downtown, not too far from Lake Superior. Used to big city parking restrictions, I pulled into a lot right by the dome itself with literally nobody directing traffic at the entrance or collecting any fees. I knew parking was free before I came in, but I almost got paranoid about getting towed and literally tried to check every sign to figure out if it was really OK to park. I should have known better, but as much time as I spend up here, my Chicago belief that a tow truck is around every corner had me more worried than I needed to be.
There wasn’t much of a tailgating scene, but there was a nice little get-together right next to the home side of the stadium.
I got to talk to a few folks there and found out that this was mostly former players, coaches, parents, and band parents.
The one thing that absolutely came through was great pride in the program's history, but sadness that football has fallen on difficult times. A lot of folks I talked to had roots to the program in the 1970s and 1980s: the 1975 team won a national title, and teams in the ‘80s made deep playoff runs. Unfortunately, the ‘90s were the last era when the team posted a winning record: since 2020, the Wildcats have plummeted to a .196 winning percentage, including an 0-4 start leading up to this game.
Several folks told me the old recipe for success was basically to lock down recruits from Wisconsin, given that there aren’t many football programs there outside the Badgers and Wisconsin's Division III schools. Many still want to run that playbook (and today's roster is still chock-full of Wisconsin players), but as they looked across to their friend and rivals for the day, Ferris State, they see a team able to recruit nationally and don’t quite know how to compete with that.
I was surprised to hear that NIL and transfer portal concerns weighed heavily on NMU fans' minds. One of the heads of the booster club (a former 20+ year GLIAC conference referee who had some good stories about coaches calling him up during the week to ask for advice on a few plays) said they were working hard to raise $40,000 this year to support the team, and were hoping to get that up to $100,000 next year. (Toward that end, he was raffling off a beautiful golf bag at the tailgate.) A lot of the old-timers know they really need to attract and keep players in the program for four years to develop them if they're going to build their way out of this hole, but that seems to be getting tougher every year. No player is ever going to get rich playing for the Wildcats, so they’re stuck hoping that they can do a bit better around the edges to help build up and retain talent.
I wish I could tell you that there was a good party atmosphere, but most of the folks were keenly aware that the game was not likely to go their way, so the mood was a bit more subdued. Most of the folks seemed to think the program was pointed in the right direction under new coach Matt Janus (who's new to NMU after six strong seasons at D-III UW-La Crosse), but they know they are in a hole and still figuring their way out while the college landscape continues to shift around them. The prior coach apparently ran some variation of the option or veer, where the consensus seemed to be that the team didn’t quite have the skill or smarts to make it work. Another coach was fired for hitting a player before that, so they feel like they have had a rough go, recently, when it comes to head coaches. Most have been pretty happy, then, with a return to a more traditional running and passing attack.
As a NUMBalum and former band column contributor, it did warm my heart a bit to see that the former players, player families, and marching band parents were very close. Fundraising efforts were targeted at both groups, and little speeches prior to the game were just as band-oriented as football-oriented. The band stopped by to play a pre-game tailgate performance, and the whole thing was well received. There's still a culture of college football that many of us would recognize.
Of course, folks were sure to let me know that hockey is king when it comes to NMU. Wildcats hockey competes at the Division I level, and I've come to understand that those games get more resources and crowd support. (At one point, I actually thought that all sports were somehow played in the Superior Dome, but that notion was quickly disabused.) Although folks at the game definitely wanted to see more resources put into football – and were willing to work to raise those resources on their own – they were still quite proud of the hockey program. Many even made it clear that the football game served as a warmup: the real show was the Wildcats hockey game against Miami-Ohio that evening.
Nonetheless, even it was the appetizer, it was time for some football in the Superior Dome.
The Building
I was a bit worried stepping into the dome, as the lower transition to the ground seemed to require at least a healthy coat of paint. Once I stepped inside, though, I actually really liked the way it looked.
The interior and roof has this cool wooden beam focus representing the interior of the shell, which has kind of a warm, natural feeling to it.
The concourse wraps around the entire exterior of the building, although there were only one or two concession stands open, plus a small souvenir shop that I never did quite find. It had a walking track painted the whole way around, as well as a lot of signs for walking schedules in the building, which I’m sure come in handy when snow is five feet deep. The Superior Dome is for more than just athletics – it's a community hub.
Getting food was a reminder, too, that money hasn't completely subsumed college football. Concessions were very simple and pretty much contained the normal football staples, but unlike what I’m used to, everything was reasonably priced: $2 for a water, $4 for a hot dog.
When you get into the stadium area, the dome – the largest wooden dome in the world – continues that wooden theme, including a nice natural light oculus that I think gives it a really cool look.
I’ve been in some fieldhouses before, particularly both the old and new Northwestern indoor practice area spaces, and they can feel a bit constrained when it comes to space. This whole venue, though, felt very open and airy, almost to the point that you didn’t feel like you were indoors.
Stands were traditional sideline bleachers that stretched almost endzone to endzone – my guess is about 30 rows on the home side and maybe 20 on the opposite side. The turf is apparently new this year, but because they play other sports in the building (soccer, lacrosse, and some variation of softball that uses a rigged ball to reduce hitting distance), it looked a bit stiff. Several of the fans lamented that the turf is a bit of an issue, as they blame it for injuries, particularly concussions induced by a player’s head hitting the ground.
The rest was pretty simple: the stadium had kind of a video board on one side that was functional, but not really of a size I’m used to. Frankly, I barely looked at it the whole game, so I’m not even sure if it showed replays. The scoreboard was only on one side of the field, and there were no ribbon monitors or anything like that to convey information.
One thing that cracked me up about the Superior Dome is that I – and much of the college football internet – see it as this cool, comfortable venue that makes a ton of sense given the surrounding environment. However, just about everybody who I talked to acts like it is cursed and holding the team back: the dome opened in 1991, which unfortunately corresponds to the start of the downfall of the program. A lot of folks seem to think that the dome has made the team “soft” (I’m summarizing, and they were more kind in their comments), and that playing outdoors would somehow build more character.
The Game
Tickets are general admission and only $15. The guy who I sat next to was a season ticket holder, who said he only paid $50 for the season. I settled in between the 35 and 40 yard lines, in memory of my old Ryan Field seat that I will never see the likes of again. The crowd filled in comfortably, but my guess is that there were maybe 3,000 people in a stadium that holds 8,000. Given the team's struggles, I’m told this was actually considered good attendance for the season.
The crowd had a good mix of ages, but there wasn’t much student presence. I’m told they normally sit on the opposite side of the field with the band, but that ended up pretty much being the Ferris State visiting section (which was not robust…it is a long drive from Big Rapids, about halfway up the Lower Peninsula, to Marquette).
When the game started, I had a little bit of hope that the Wildcats would put up a fight, and early on it appeared that might actually be the case. NMU couldn’t really move the ball on offense very well, but a combination of penalties and miscues on the part of Ferris State, including a 4th down failure to convert, had the game looking a bit like a traditional rock fight for much of the first quarter.
However, I left for the restroom and a bottle of water at one point and came back from what had been a 7-0 score to find the Bulldogs had widened their lead to 21-0. The floodgates at that point were well-and-truly open, and Ferris State built a 35-0 lead through some incredible speed at the running back, a decent QB (this is where Ole Miss’s Chambliss came from, after all), and quick receivers who frequently found themselves wide open. Chunk plays happened with alarming regularity. NMU seemed to be able to defend a bit up the middle, but the absence of any good run defense at the OLB and DB levels meant that sweeps to the outside felt like taking candy from a baby; when the Wildcats committed to the run, Ferris State aired it out to their receivers at will. The Wildcat defense firmed up a bit in the second half, nabbing a couple turnovers, but things never really got closer, despite the Ferris State sending in the second string.
Most of the crowd held out hope for a score deep into the game, and it looked like they were going to be rewarded with a Wildcat touchdown in the last five minutes...
...but NMU fumbled out of the end zone, and the only real scoring threat of the game was over. Final score: Ferris State 42, Northern Michigan 0.
I wish I could tell you that the crowd was rowdy and vocal, but I think I was actually the loudest person in the stadium at times cheering for a tackle or a good play. Expectations seemed to be muted and Yoopers are actually fairly reserved people in general. It’s a shame that the game wasn’t more competitive, so I could see just how excited folks could get and how loud the Superior Dome could become.
Still, it was an interesting window into the community and univeristy. I pretty much talked with my neighbors throughout the game, and got to meet some cool people, like an Entrepreneurship professor who had something like 20 of the players on the team in her class and a veteran with some cool stories who lived right by my great uncle’s old farm by the military base. There is interest and support for NMU football, but the program seems to be still trying to find its way.
The Band
You know that there was no way that I was going to write this article and not cover the band. The “Pride of the North” seemed to be maybe 100-130 strong, with a good sousaphone count of 7 and full percussion section. All normal instruments were included. They do perform a unique show for every game. They played a traditional pre-game that would fit right in as part of the Big Ten, with a good fanfare entrance, fight songs while spelling out school name, and a healthy dose of honoring ‘Merica. The drum majors did the same exact back bend touching their heads to the ground as Northwestern.
Halftime had a nautical theme that included such tunes as the theme from “Spongebob Squarepants” and “Baby Shark”. Drill was good with only a bit of Park N’ Bark and I thought their sound was excellent (especially a trumpet solo during the performance). The members that I talked to really seemed to be enjoying the camaraderie and overall experience, and were very supportive of the football team and other sports programs at the school, despite the recent record. Stand music was a bit less than what we see at most Big Ten games, but it was there and the band more than anyone seemed to be adding spirit to the occasion.
The uniforms looked pretty sharp, and included spats – thanks to this band member, who let me grab a photo:
Bring on the SEC!
I tried my best to bait folks into what exactly they would do if asked to host an SEC team, but most people don’t quite share our historical hatred of that conference. Yoopers are far more easy-going than the standard comment section of the Republic.
Winter in the UP would be a rude awakening for our southern adversaries. Snow in general can start becoming a problem in late November and last through May (the last bit of snow on my property literally melted on Memorial Day). Marquette was hit by two huge storms this past winter, including one a couple of days before New Year and one on St. Patrick’s Day, but Yoopers tend to take a perverse pride and enjoyment of some of the worst snows in the area and don’t quite understand why others wouldn’t want to partake. In fact, the professor that I was talking to was originally from the Chicago area, and flat-out told me that there wasn’t enough snow in Chicago to keep her happy!
If you mention a bad storm, most Yoopers (myself included) will pull out their phones and show you pictures the same way that parents and grandparents pull out baby pictures. One photo that I saw basically showed the entire first floor of the campus library covered with snow. I wasn’t here for the March storm, but my propane delivery guy told me that I also had a full floor of my out-building buried in snowdrifts, and my house and others had problems with snow blowing into the attics and melting. I was here for the December storm, though, and lived through three days of power outages with my parents and sister clinging to the main room with a fireplace. That storm was vicious.
You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t pay good money to watch LSU or Florida or Tennessee fans live through something like that!
Hey… at least the game will be inside! And the Yooper Dome's not a bad place to catch a game.
