July 22, 2025 • 34 mins
Seahawks Legends Paul Moyer and Dave Wyman host this episode of Seahawks Stories 50th Edition and discuss the original home of the franchise, the Kingdome. Today's show: The Uniqueness of the Kingdome – 1:26, uncomfortably loud – 2:58, so loud, you feel like you could lift a car – 8:27, Kingdome parking lot and tailgating with fans – 10:00, shared use, facility between the Sonics, Seahawks, Mariners – 15:00, Paul’s favorite moment – first playoff games in 1983 – 21:30, and Largent’s revenge hit vs. Harden – 24:36.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Seahawks Stories fiftieth season edition presented by Emerald
City Athletics.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to another edition of Seahawks Stories, this being the
fiftieth season. I'm Paul Moyer along with Dave Wyman, broadcasting
from the Seahawks Podcast Studio, presented by Sony, an official
partner of the Seattle Seahawks. A lot of people don't
remember the Kingdom. Dave, you're going to be talking about
the Kingdom right now.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It blew it up.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's you know, some interesting things about the king Let
me read some stats for you. It was born in
nineteen seventy six March of nineteen seventy six, and was
imploded in March almost to the day, March twenty six
of two thousand, so March twenty seventh it was born,
(00:50):
and it was no longer in March twenty six. It
was the originally located on almost thirty six acres. Due
to construction of the new parking the garage and events center,
now it is it's only twenty four acres. It was
the It contained fifty two eight hundred cubic yards of concrete,
which at the time was the largest concrete structure you
(01:11):
know for a roof in the world. I remember one
time being in an earthquake there for a Mariner game,
and all I can remember being in California is I go,
earthquakes are bad. Concrete above us is probably bad. We
should leave, which we did. But it was really unique.
(01:31):
A couple things for me that I remember there. We'll
talk about some stories, our most memorable stories, because it
was a magical place. It was unique. But I think
it was magical and unique for the home team players.
I don't think it'd be great magical for opposing team players.
I remember one thing that, you know, the locker rooms were.
(01:53):
They weren't small, but they were just they were they were.
It was spartan, spartan, thank you. Yeah, very straightforward, like yeah,
this is the locker it does. It's not a lot
of style. There's concrete and wood. Some would mostly concrete. Yeah,
showers were okay, Stalls could have been a few more,
(02:14):
especially for guys like Dave Wyman and bigger and soundproof.
But here's what I remember. Here's what I remember. I
remember going out on the field, coming going out during
warm ups, and you know, the crowd would get there
early and they would start clapping you know they when
we started doing our calsonics and stretching as a team,
(02:36):
they would clap with us, and I always thought that
was kind of cool. But it was cold and they
kept it a constant temperature. I wanted to say it
was like seventy two degrees sixty eight degrees, but it
felt like I was in my house with the air
conditioning on and I would say, crank, crank, that heat
up a bit. And I think the big thing that
(02:56):
I remember before we share some your stories too, Dave,
is it was uncomfortably loud at times. I mean it hurts.
And when I tell people the experience for a player,
it was awesome because it was so loud. It was
such an amazing home field advantage, particularly as a player.
And I think, you know ninety five Mariner season, you
(03:18):
know they finally got something rolling on that too. But
the experience now at Luminfield, it's so much better for fans,
for players. It's really loud, but it's not uncomfortably loud.
And I described the difference is it's loud and at
Lumen you have to get close to somebody to talk,
(03:41):
but you can talk, you can hear them. You could
not hear anything inside the Kingdom, and they had it,
you know those decimal levels. It would like see what
the highest one was. It was like a jet engine,
truly a jet engine, and it hurt. And so it's
just a different type of peer seeing loudness to it.
(04:02):
But it was some There was some great memories, Dave.
I mean, I was a good home for us for
for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, well you grew to love that, especially for me.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So Stanford Stadium or where I went to college, was
kind of down, sort of dug out, so you could
see the trees growing up, you know, around the stadium
and the beautiful green natural grass and you know, the
sun and every I don't think we had. I think
we had maybe one or two rainy days or games
(04:35):
at Stanford. And then I get there and it was
really kind of like you know, we mentioned the word
spartan like it was just very basic. It was like
being in an office building, you know that somebody just
slapped together with concrete and fluorescent lights and that's and
so in the beginning my rookie year, I hated it,
(04:57):
I really and I wasn't playing. I had a terrible season,
and you know that was the other strike and so
there was a lot of things that were going wrong.
But then also I just didn't really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
The next year I came back and I was a
starting linebacker, and all of a sudden, I realized, like, Wow,
this is this is a whole new level of as
far as adrenaline goes for me. And one of the
things I remember, I think the loudest that I remember,
was we played the Buffalo Bills in a Monday night
(05:31):
game in nineteen eighty eight, and so this is back
when I could brush the passer and they would have
me come off the edge every once in a while.
So I'm rushing Jim Kelly and so I decide to
dive over the top of the guy was gonna cut me.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I should have.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Hopped over him, Paul, I remember that, Yeah, But I
dove and so I looked like I was Superman. So
photographer Corky Truan got a perfect picture of it where
actually me and Jim Kelly are like our hands are
like interlocked, like I'm reaching out and he's kind of
like trying to push me away. I don't end up
getting the sack, but it was just a pressure, you know.
(06:08):
And then I think Boogie sacked him, Jeff Bryant. But yeah,
I was like, you know, horizontal, probably about five feet
in the air, and I landed on that turf, which
wasn't super soft, and I did not feel a thing
because of the adrenaline. I mean, you wouldn't. You couldn't
feel big hits, You couldn't. I mean, I remember having
(06:30):
one time I jammed my finger and it was pointing
the wrong way and somebody had to, you know, relocate it.
I think Jim Whitzel came over and put my finger
back in, and it was like, didn't hurt, you know,
because the adrenaline that those fans created there. And then
you know, you came to appreciate the fact that it
had a concrete roof because the sound would echo off
(06:51):
of that and just make it louder. And I mean
that was I remember the they what year was it,
I think it was eighty nine where they tried to
penalized teams for noise, and I think it was that
year and they finally just gave up on the whole
thing the way I remember it.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Anyway, But that kind.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Of all started because teams coming into Seattle, you know,
they couldn't hear anything, so you know, for defense, I
mean we had to communicate and we had to get
you know, the hand signals down, but you couldn't hear
somebody if you were standing right next to.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Them, couldn't do it. And I'll elaborate on you that
the turf for those now with the field turf, it's
almost light grass. Back then we had about a quarter
inch of carpet and it was carpet, and then they
had a one sixteenth of an inch of padding underneath
that carpet, and then it was concrete. So it was
(07:47):
very fast. But we used to get these rugburns, so
you would slip and we would try and tape our
elbows and knees, but you never completely because they would
roll up on you. Yeah, and we would get these
huge red spots, you know, just your skin has been
peeled off. And then we'd have to go into the
shower and screaming it hurts so bad. And then you
(08:14):
mentioned the turf and what was the other part of
the noise. I was going to comment on on something
on the noise, but I don't remember now.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, just the echo off of the roof and yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, now I remember you're it would be so loud
and you really you couldn't hear each other defensively. I
remember my experience and said, well, what's that? What's that experience? Like,
I go, you feel like you can lift a car.
You know, you're just you're so jacked up because of it.
But I remember as a dB at time, I felt
like I was in a Madden game just watching the
(08:50):
game from this. It was so weird because our pass
rust was so good because of the crowd, and the
quarterbacks would complain, oh, this was it. And because of
that noise. They literally had an NFL rule that if
you didn't quiet down, they would penalize the defense five
(09:10):
yards and we would have to tell the crowd to
be quiet. Now can you imagine that today you have
to be quiet? I mean, it's just it's unheard of.
I remember John Elway. He would work it. He would
get up there and the play clock is starting to
wind down. It's getting you know, five six seconds, and
he would turn to the rest like I can't hear.
(09:31):
And then they had to make a decision. Do I say,
get back under the center and go do they stop
the clock? Do they warn the crowd that didn't play
out very long. I mean, they didn't really call that
on us, it was just it really slowed the game down.
All it did was it made the crowd louder and
they would just they would turn on it. Let's talk
(09:54):
about a couple of things as well. I'd mentioned that
it was on thirty nine and a half acres, so
part of that was the parking lot. So today you
go to Loomenfield, there's really no there's a parking structure
on the south side. There's a small area obviously on
the north side, but it's not very big. But back
then the parking lot was pretty big on both sides.
(10:16):
And so we used to park there with the fans,
the twelves, and we would walk into the stadium and
they would greet us. Today they'd come into a nice
secure spot, and it's a different world. We get it.
The fans don't get to interact with the players like that.
And something that was fun that we used to do
is we would tailgate with them. After the game. We
(10:37):
would go out, our families would wait for us in
the tunnels and we would greet them and if sometimes
they would go out to the parking lot with us,
and you know, we might share a few beverages of
water or whatever choice you have, but we really I
want to say that was a big part of the
connection to the twelves is that they had access to us,
(10:58):
and a lot of it was in that parking lot,
coming to and from the from the game. What do
you remember about that?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, that was the thing that The The other thing is, yeah,
I used to always say about the fans in the Kingdom,
they don't come there for leisure. They come there to work.
They would go to work because they truly could affect
the outcome of the game. And they knew that. And
you know, we saw that at Loomenfield when they started
keeping track of you know, offside penalties or false start
(11:28):
penalties and they just you know, they're just it's just
it's a defiant group of fans here. I think that
there's no way you were going to shut them up,
first of all, and you know then if you.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Try to, they're just going to get louder, as you mentioned.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So yeah, that was But then also like you said,
I mean I don't remember anybody coming up and you know,
I don't remember having to sign fifty or one hundred
you know, autographs or anything like that. I remember one
time I walked out of the Kingdom and I met
one of my friends and we went across the street
(12:05):
and got a beer and then I think, you know,
I had made a play or something, and it was
the highlight. You know, We're playing on TV and everybody's
like looking at it, but nobody was looking at me.
I could just walk right out of there, and I
thought that was cool, you know. And you know, and
I think that the times when the fans did come
up to you and recognize you, they are always super respectful.
(12:26):
They're just a there's just a culture here in Seattle
of like I said, sort of defiance and stubbornness, and
that's what makes them such great fans. But also you know,
they always just treated you, treated me anyway, just like
a normal person, you know. And yeah, it was it
was a really different and like I said, coming from Stanford,
(12:48):
you know, it was just such a different environment. But
I just grew to absolutely love the Kingdom. I love
going and anytime, you know, we had a home game,
I always felt like a I don't care who it is,
we got a chance to win.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
It was definitely a multi purpose stadium. The Mariners obviously
played there. The Sonics played there for many years. We
had soccer, the Sounders previous Sounders, huge NCAA tournaments there,
for basketball, volleyball, I mean everything, concerts. I remember going
(13:22):
there for a bunch of different things. But one thing
I do remember about the Kingdom as we shared it
with the Sonics, the Mariners, and obviously the Seahawks, and
we would go sometimes we would go to the Kingdom
to practice if the weather was really bad. We didn't
have an indoor facility back in eighty three through eighty
(13:42):
six or five, and so when the weather would get
really bad before they got the Bubble and certainly before
the facility they have here at vMac, we would have
to go to the Kingdom. We'd go across five twenty
paint in a neck, but we would have to time it.
And often the Sonics were coming off the practice court,
so they still they had their basketball arena in the middle,
(14:04):
so we would have the other side of the stadium
to do or whatever we're going to do from a
practice standpoint. I remember going to a bunch of Mariner games.
It was like no big deal. I mean, first of all,
about five six thousand people showed up from Marina games
back then. But you know, guys like Dave Valley and
Harold Reynolds and you know, still good friends were playing.
(14:25):
And I remember Kurt Warner and I going there and
we were like celebrities. I mean, they were like they
couldn't believe we were at the game. I remember Dave Henderson,
God rest his soul too, there's a great athlete. When
we would get in their locker room, he goes, man,
I can't believe you guys are here, and he was
trying to show off how great an athlete he was.
(14:46):
And I just remember they had a little box behind
home plate that we could go there. They had the
radar guns and stuff, and Kurt and I would go
back there and the crowd would start hearing that, you know,
some Seahawks are at the game. There'd be a murmur going.
But we shared that. And so back then, all the
basketball players, all the football players, all the baseball but
we all knew each other, you know, and so we
(15:08):
all shared that. For a couple of years, probably two
or three years, that stadium was shared by all three
of the professional sports teams. So I thought that was
pretty good.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I remember Junior coming in the locker room one time
and everybody's like and I'm like, who's this guy? And
they're like, yeah, he's supposed to be really good. Yeah,
Randy Johnson. He used to take pictures. And you know,
another thing I wanted to mention. You know, you mentioned
the bubble. That bubble looked like a maggot that laying
(15:41):
on the ground.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
It was. It was really pretty ugly.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh gives some share where that was and what that looks.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, it was in Kirkland, in a really nice neighborhood.
So and my point is, I think this is another
thing why Seahawks fans are so loyal. Like a lot
of people in that that neighborhood with the homeowners association
and things like that, would be like why do I
want to look at that thing? Or you know, I
think it was up for three months, four months, maybe
(16:09):
a year, just during the season, but you know, I
feel like the the neighborhood, the people there knew that.
Oh that was so the Seahawks can practice indoors. So
I'm not going to worry about it, you know. And
if that was probably in any other NFL city, I
think people would have complained about it and I think
the Seahawks made concessions and everything, but that that that
(16:33):
bubble was really unsightly.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
It wasn't it was.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
A white tent. It was a white tent. So since
we're on that, I was at the first facility, which
was at Caroll One Point in downtown in Kirkland. Today,
they have that's pretty expensive real estate, really expended. They got.
They got the marina there, they got the restaurants, they
got the Woodmart hotel there. I mean, it's really nice,
(16:57):
but back when we were there, it was kind of
two grass fields. It was right on the water. We
had a structure that was probably I'd love to actually
go back and see what the I bet it wasn't
more than four or five thousand square feet where we
had our locker rooms, all the management and coaches office
(17:17):
were there, and then we had little portable trailers that
they had for the players for the meetings outside. I
remember being cold too, man, it would get really really cold.
Snowed a little bit more back then, and then they
had those willows so it was even hard to see
by the water. It was hard hard to see the water.
So our locker room and our weight room we shared
(17:40):
the same room. So if you ever go and see
the Seahawks rock that video that we did back in
like nineteen eighty four, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Push anybody to that. The Seahawks ll type of thing.
Yeah good good, good acting well Paul Moyle an acta.
But we shared our locker room with the weights in there,
I mean, and again we'd go pump some you know,
chest press stuff and say, okay, I got my exercise.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Then it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Nearly as big. And then the Seahawks went up to
Northwest College and Northwest College wasn't using part of their
their their acreage there and so they built in least
a structure and built and it was so nice at
that time. It was like, wow, we actually have our
own lockers and we have our own weight room, even
though it was still pretty small and much nicer upstairs
(18:36):
for all the administration and things, which, by the way,
you could take that big building, which I thought was
big at the time, and you could put that probably
in the indoor practice facility and put two of them.
That's how big where we are here at vMac now is.
(18:56):
And so I got to see that, and then obviously
when they built this new one here on Lake Washington.
It was just, uh, yeah, this is this is as
good as it gets. But some some memories, Dave, I'll
hit you first. What I mean, yeah, one or two.
Let's just say favorite, not memorable, but favorite Kingdom memories.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, I think I think that Monday night football game
against the Bills, because remember the Bills were pretty dominant
at that point. I remember they had Cornelius Bennett and
Jim Kelly and Jane Conlin. They had some really good Bruce.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Waltons Thurman or not Walter thurm but uh they're running
back yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Blank too, but yeah, and they came in there and
I think that, Yeah, it was a Monday night game
that was really that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Thomas, thank you great, really good running back. They had
good wide receivers, Davy. That was one of my more
memorable interceptions where I laid out across the fe on
that one.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Then I remember that, Yeah, I turned around out of
my hook zone. I look and there's Paul Mooy. It
looked like he was Superman diving for that.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
That that's because I saw you, Superman, and I said,
you were diving towards Jim Kelly. I said, I'm gonna
do the same thing, but I'm gonna intercept it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, you know what, I felt bad for Corky Truan
because he took that picture and it should have been
like NFL Photo of the Year, but they don't do
indoor photos. I guess the outdoor photos are better. But
I mean he did such a great because it wasn't
just on like the sports page. It was on the
front page of either the Post Intelligence or Seattle Times.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
And but yeah, that that was.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
One where I had a lot of friends that were
because you couldn't just dial up any football game back then.
One of the one of the things I did, I
bought my parents a big dish. This dish was like
ten feet in diameter, and that in order to get
all the Seahawk games. But yeah, I mean it wasn't
very often that you were that you were on TV,
(21:02):
and so Monday Night Football I was then that was huge.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I mean I was still Howard Cosell and Dandy Don
and all those guys, Frank Gifford. I mean, that was
a huge production. And then it switched obviously to John Madden,
which was another huge production. And if you got your
name mentioned by one of them. You were you were
really impressive. I'll throw a couple memorable ones or look,
(21:28):
the best moment probably it was honest. It was the
first playoff game in nineteen eighty three against the Denver Broncos.
It was just so electric. We were playing well, we
destroyed him, so the crowd really got to celebrate with us.
And I remember going into the locker room and the
crowd didn't leave. Give me a little goosebumps here, because
(21:51):
we came back out and we would ran through the
whole around the whole kingdom, and we're high five and
all the fans and uh, you know, and obviously is
I mentioning. We end up going to the SC championship game.
So that was that was really really cool. The one
that I don't like, but it played so much, is
one bo Jackson had that ninety six yard touchdown run.
(22:14):
Unfortunately I was on the field at that time. Boogie
jeff Ryant still thinks I got in his way. Well,
you were gonna catch him, You was gonna catch him.
And I'm watching Terry Taylor and Kenny easily with an
angle in bo Jackson. I mean talking about another freak,
freak athlete What I do remember about that game, though,
(22:34):
is that was nineteen. I want to say it was
eighty eight, eighty seven. It was next year in eighty
eight when Chuck Knox said, that's never happening again, and
we got look, you guys have heard this. I've apologized.
I feel terrible. I cursed bo Jackson out every play
I was in his ear. I figured, look, I am
(22:57):
not as fast as big, but I got to get
it into mentally. And yeah, not proud of those moments,
but you know, at the time, you do what you
gotta do to win. Let me let me throw down
with the top ten moments are voted on by the
fans back in nineteen ninety nine. The first home win
was in versus Atlanta back in nineteen seventy six. It's
(23:18):
a long time ago. First regular season win over the
Chargers after eight straight losses was nineteen eighty one. First
home playoff win versus Denver. So mentioned that one four
pick six games versus Kansas City in nineteen eighty four
as part of that. That was again, that was just
a wild game.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Four interceptions for a touchdown or touchdowns, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, that was that was again that was that eighty
four season. Was me clinching a playoff Berth versus Detroit
in eighty four. That one I don't remember, but I
don't remember that. One interesting being the defended Super Bowl
champ Raiders in asc wildcard game in nineteen eighty four.
That was a memorable game. Was that again?
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Well, thirteen to seven game, just a slugfest. You know,
they were Super Bowl champs and so that was a
nice win for US. Largin breaks NFL record for consecutive
games with a pass reception. That was nineteen eighty six.
I remember that Carmichael from Philadelphia had the record, and
I remember it was a big deal. I think they
(24:23):
even timed that up. I'm wonder if that was a
Monday night game also because they knew that was coming.
But I remember it being somewhat of a national game.
You remember this one, and it was Largent's revenge hit
on Mike Harden And I remember that because I don't
think I was even playing that. I think I was
(24:44):
hurt and maybe it was my last year was that
in nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It was eighty eight eighty Well then.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I was playing. Never mind, I have a love hate
relationship with that play. For those who don't remember Steve
first game of the season there, you know, Harden catches
them right here, breaks pretty much everything in Steve Largent's face,
who probably had just one bar at the time. I
(25:12):
think he ended up going to two after And you know,
we get them towards the end of the year and
we throw an interception and Harden's running around and Steve
Largent decleats them, causes a fumble and jumps on the ball.
And the reason I have a love hate relationship is
it's it's such a great play. I mean, it's such
(25:33):
a good and it's one of those it's just it's
a movie script, right, I mean, you got your Hall
of Fame, great human being who gets sucker punched, sucker play,
you know, dirty play. You know today you had been fine,
kicked out of the game, suspended for that kind of play.
I mean, that's just not even tolerated. That was just
a I think it was a fifteen yard penalty. I
(25:54):
don't even know if it was, because back then, I
don't know if that was illegal. The love part is, God,
I'm so happy that it happened to him. I'm like
all the hits I've had in my life, and everybody
talks about that hit or all our defensive I mean,
we get paid to hit people, right, and Steve's had
one hit in his life and it's played over and
(26:15):
over and over. So that's my love hate. But I
was really happy for him on that well.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
It was just so poetic that he got revenge. I
mean it was such a Steve largent thing because he
wasn't going to do anything illegal to get back at him.
I'm sure that Steve in his mind had forgiven Mike
Harden for the hit that he took. But yeah, I
remember that was the hit in Denver.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Was that was my.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Very first start the first game of the year.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, it was the first game.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
We we end up beating on him there, but I
remember him being in bad shape and then you know,
and I would say that was the moment where it
got the loudest in the Kingdom was when Steve got
the revenge hit, I think for sure, and everybody knew
what was going on, and you know what was on
the line, and you know that that whole dirty hit,
(27:06):
like you said, he put his elbow right in Steve's face.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
I mean it was I mean it's it was nasty.
I mean it was knockout city. I mean it's concussion. Yeah,
all kinds of yea, that was. That was That was crazy.
Pete Gross Ring of Honor, first ring of honor, Pete
Grow the great, great play by play. And you know
Steve Rabel has taken that and honored him and they
(27:29):
worked together for a long time. I remember that was
November thirtieth, nineteen ninety two. It was the ninety two
season I was coaching. You were playing at the time, Dave,
And do you remember much about that?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, I just you know, I always had an affection
for from Pete Gross. He was just the nicest guy
and just did such a great job. And I just
I remember, you know, actually talking to those guys a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I don't know that a lot of the players.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Maybe I didn't know, you know, he used to talk
to Rabel on the on the plane, and I don't
know if he was like one of the trainers or
maybe he was I don't know what he was doing.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh they broadcast the games on the radio. Did I
didn't know that?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
But uh, yeah, I remember getting really close with Steve
back in like nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine. We talked
the whole way home from a trip to Cincinnati after
a game, and but no I knew who he was.
But Pete Gross. Everybody knew who Pete Gross was. And
you know, I talked to him a number of times.
And I remember right before he died, he was there,
(28:34):
and I think it was like two days before he passed.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
He was there.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Doing interviews and I remember him interviewing me and I
was just looking at him, going, oh man, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I mean, it was just he was he was so sick.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, yeah, and you know, he just he's there dutifully
doing his job, you know, getting interviews, and then I
think it was two or three days later he passed.
So yeah, I mean he he was such a huge
part of our team. And you know, everybody, everybody knew
Pete Gross. I mean his his voice. And now Rabes
(29:09):
is that guy the voice of the Seahawks.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah. I was fortunate. It was one of the last
road games.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Back then.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I was coaching at the time, and the coaches sat
up in first class rightfully, So I guess I don't
know nowadays, I think they probably switched that around. But
I remember Pete was like you guys do, flying the
team plane, and they brought him up the first class.
They sat him next to me and we went somewhere
back east. It was a pretty long trip, and I'd
(29:41):
known Pete for a long time, but it was you know,
in passing. You know, it was nothing where we hung
out before I got spend you know, four hours or
so with him, and I asked him so many questions,
you know, just about his life and how he got
into this and his passions and so. Yeah. So that
was a real blessing. And as you mentioned, a we
on a Monday night the first ring of honor. I mean,
(30:02):
what a tradition that has become. And two days later,
you know, he had passed away. I was a very
memorable moment. So so those are some of the fan ones.
I'll give you my the one, the loudest back. They
remember the old you know Ghostbuster signs that were always
going around Epic. One of them was when we played
(30:24):
nineteen eighty eight. They had a boss Buster once, but
they had a Raider Busters that we had and I
want to say it was nineteen eighty six, but for
those who are listening, I might be wrong. In the
year and we were playing the Raiders on Monday night
and we shut them out. We blew them out. It
was so loud, and everybody had their Raider buster shirts,
(30:46):
you know, use there. I think there was kind of
a white out, you know t shirt. Matter of fact,
another thing in the Kingdom, do you remember when they
used to make the kind of paper sign they had
the rat patrol for the special teams Rusty Rusty. Yeah,
and I remember, and they would have all the Special
Team guys on there and like created characters. It was
(31:07):
really cool and again huge pride on that. And you know,
I mean Seahawks have been you know, a lot of
it because of Rusty. It was because a Rusty, great
tradition on special teams. But I remember this, I'm gonna
call it eight nineteen eighty six, and we're we shut
them out. We just we blow them that. It was
so loud. It was one of those days where this
(31:28):
is where Dave goes, that doesn't work, Paul. But it
was so that we would tape the little ear hoolds
because it would be like you muffled your put your
hands over your ear so Dave can understand it. Which,
by the way, I just saw one of the Seahawk guys.
They did that inside theirs too, but it was so
loud you tried to put something over just to get
(31:49):
that type of noise that hurt you. I mean it
hurt you. I almost want to put your fingers in
your ears. And it was it was. The Raiders were
the most hated team by the Twelves, and when we
were in the ac Denver was a close second. Kansas
City was never any good, even though we couldn't beat
them in Kansas City. They had really good teams. I mean,
(32:11):
they great defenses back then. But what I remember, again,
my biggest memories of that kingdom was just how loud
it was, how much passion the Twelves had in it.
I mean, as you said, Dave, they came to work.
I remember going to again concerts there. I remember going
to all kinds of sporting events. So it was a
(32:32):
good home for a very long, long long time.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, well it's a weird memory, but I remember when
we would stretch and you'd do the one where you
go on your back, and I remember looking up and
there was like a little door up there in the
very middle of the kingdom, and I'm like, what would
that be like if you were up there and you
just like opened that door and looked down and I
(32:57):
just remember thinking, and that would be a long ways
to fall, but I just would always it got in
my head, so like every time I stretch, I would
look up at that little door and think of something.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I think of more and more about it, because funny
they I remember looking up there too, going, MAT's really
high up there? What's up there?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah, we're right in the middle. Weird, weird, there was
a door. Weird, weird, weird moments. Forgot my train of
thought on this last one. But some good memories, obviously,
and you know it treated us right. A lot of
great wins were there. You know, our first AC championship
in eighty eight was there. We gravitated to I remember
(33:42):
one remember when the tiles fell you might have been gone.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
You were probably gone by then. And then that's when
we had to move to Husky Stadium for half the season,
which was really odd. And I remember how great it
was just to get back into the Kingdom, even though
that was like ninety four and you know, we couldn't
win a game anymore. But some great memories and I
(34:08):
appreciate everybody listening to those memories of the Kingdome this
NFL season. Feel every play, every hit, every moment with
the Sony one thousand XM five noise Canceling headphones, the
official headphones of the Seattle Seahawks. With premium noise cancelation,
you're in the zone, no distractions, just pure football. Whether
(34:29):
you're in the living room or on the go, You'll
never miss a beat with Sony Headphones. Again, thank you
for hanging out with us in this edition of the
Seahawks Stories on the fiftieth season.
This is Seahawks Stories fiftieth season edition presented by Emerald
City Athletics.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to another edition of Seahawks Stories, this being the
fiftieth season. I'm Paul Moyer along with Dave Wyman, broadcasting
from the Seahawks Podcast Studio, presented by Sony, an official
partner of the Seattle Seahawks. A lot of people don't
remember the Kingdom. Dave, you're going to be talking about
the Kingdom right now.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It blew it up.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's you know, some interesting things about the king Let
me read some stats for you. It was born in
nineteen seventy six March of nineteen seventy six, and was
imploded in March almost to the day, March twenty six
of two thousand, so March twenty seventh it was born,
(00:50):
and it was no longer in March twenty six. It
was the originally located on almost thirty six acres. Due
to construction of the new parking the garage and events center,
now it is it's only twenty four acres. It was
the It contained fifty two eight hundred cubic yards of concrete,
which at the time was the largest concrete structure you
(01:11):
know for a roof in the world. I remember one
time being in an earthquake there for a Mariner game,
and all I can remember being in California is I go,
earthquakes are bad. Concrete above us is probably bad. We
should leave, which we did. But it was really unique.
(01:31):
A couple things for me that I remember there. We'll
talk about some stories, our most memorable stories, because it
was a magical place. It was unique. But I think
it was magical and unique for the home team players.
I don't think it'd be great magical for opposing team players.
I remember one thing that, you know, the locker rooms were.
(01:53):
They weren't small, but they were just they were they were.
It was spartan, spartan, thank you. Yeah, very straightforward, like yeah,
this is the locker it does. It's not a lot
of style. There's concrete and wood. Some would mostly concrete. Yeah,
showers were okay, Stalls could have been a few more,
(02:14):
especially for guys like Dave Wyman and bigger and soundproof.
But here's what I remember. Here's what I remember. I
remember going out on the field, coming going out during
warm ups, and you know, the crowd would get there
early and they would start clapping you know they when
we started doing our calsonics and stretching as a team,
(02:36):
they would clap with us, and I always thought that
was kind of cool. But it was cold and they
kept it a constant temperature. I wanted to say it
was like seventy two degrees sixty eight degrees, but it
felt like I was in my house with the air
conditioning on and I would say, crank, crank, that heat
up a bit. And I think the big thing that
(02:56):
I remember before we share some your stories too, Dave,
is it was uncomfortably loud at times. I mean it hurts.
And when I tell people the experience for a player,
it was awesome because it was so loud. It was
such an amazing home field advantage, particularly as a player.
And I think, you know ninety five Mariner season, you
(03:18):
know they finally got something rolling on that too. But
the experience now at Luminfield, it's so much better for fans,
for players. It's really loud, but it's not uncomfortably loud.
And I described the difference is it's loud and at
Lumen you have to get close to somebody to talk,
(03:41):
but you can talk, you can hear them. You could
not hear anything inside the Kingdom, and they had it,
you know those decimal levels. It would like see what
the highest one was. It was like a jet engine,
truly a jet engine, and it hurt. And so it's
just a different type of peer seeing loudness to it.
(04:02):
But it was some There was some great memories, Dave.
I mean, I was a good home for us for
for quite a while.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, well you grew to love that, especially for me.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So Stanford Stadium or where I went to college, was
kind of down, sort of dug out, so you could
see the trees growing up, you know, around the stadium
and the beautiful green natural grass and you know, the
sun and every I don't think we had. I think
we had maybe one or two rainy days or games
(04:35):
at Stanford. And then I get there and it was
really kind of like you know, we mentioned the word
spartan like it was just very basic. It was like
being in an office building, you know that somebody just
slapped together with concrete and fluorescent lights and that's and
so in the beginning my rookie year, I hated it,
(04:57):
I really and I wasn't playing. I had a terrible season,
and you know that was the other strike and so
there was a lot of things that were going wrong.
But then also I just didn't really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
The next year I came back and I was a
starting linebacker, and all of a sudden, I realized, like, Wow,
this is this is a whole new level of as
far as adrenaline goes for me. And one of the
things I remember, I think the loudest that I remember,
was we played the Buffalo Bills in a Monday night
(05:31):
game in nineteen eighty eight, and so this is back
when I could brush the passer and they would have
me come off the edge every once in a while.
So I'm rushing Jim Kelly and so I decide to
dive over the top of the guy was gonna cut me.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I should have.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Hopped over him, Paul, I remember that, Yeah, But I
dove and so I looked like I was Superman. So
photographer Corky Truan got a perfect picture of it where
actually me and Jim Kelly are like our hands are
like interlocked, like I'm reaching out and he's kind of
like trying to push me away. I don't end up
getting the sack, but it was just a pressure, you know.
(06:08):
And then I think Boogie sacked him, Jeff Bryant. But yeah,
I was like, you know, horizontal, probably about five feet
in the air, and I landed on that turf, which
wasn't super soft, and I did not feel a thing
because of the adrenaline. I mean, you wouldn't. You couldn't
feel big hits, You couldn't. I mean, I remember having
(06:30):
one time I jammed my finger and it was pointing
the wrong way and somebody had to, you know, relocate it.
I think Jim Whitzel came over and put my finger
back in, and it was like, didn't hurt, you know,
because the adrenaline that those fans created there. And then
you know, you came to appreciate the fact that it
had a concrete roof because the sound would echo off
(06:51):
of that and just make it louder. And I mean
that was I remember the they what year was it,
I think it was eighty nine where they tried to
penalized teams for noise, and I think it was that
year and they finally just gave up on the whole
thing the way I remember it.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Anyway, But that kind.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Of all started because teams coming into Seattle, you know,
they couldn't hear anything, so you know, for defense, I
mean we had to communicate and we had to get
you know, the hand signals down, but you couldn't hear
somebody if you were standing right next to.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Them, couldn't do it. And I'll elaborate on you that
the turf for those now with the field turf, it's
almost light grass. Back then we had about a quarter
inch of carpet and it was carpet, and then they
had a one sixteenth of an inch of padding underneath
that carpet, and then it was concrete. So it was
(07:47):
very fast. But we used to get these rugburns, so
you would slip and we would try and tape our
elbows and knees, but you never completely because they would
roll up on you. Yeah, and we would get these
huge red spots, you know, just your skin has been
peeled off. And then we'd have to go into the
shower and screaming it hurts so bad. And then you
(08:14):
mentioned the turf and what was the other part of
the noise. I was going to comment on on something
on the noise, but I don't remember now.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, just the echo off of the roof and yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, now I remember you're it would be so loud
and you really you couldn't hear each other defensively. I
remember my experience and said, well, what's that? What's that experience? Like,
I go, you feel like you can lift a car.
You know, you're just you're so jacked up because of it.
But I remember as a dB at time, I felt
like I was in a Madden game just watching the
(08:50):
game from this. It was so weird because our pass
rust was so good because of the crowd, and the
quarterbacks would complain, oh, this was it. And because of
that noise. They literally had an NFL rule that if
you didn't quiet down, they would penalize the defense five
(09:10):
yards and we would have to tell the crowd to
be quiet. Now can you imagine that today you have
to be quiet? I mean, it's just it's unheard of.
I remember John Elway. He would work it. He would
get up there and the play clock is starting to
wind down. It's getting you know, five six seconds, and
he would turn to the rest like I can't hear.
(09:31):
And then they had to make a decision. Do I say,
get back under the center and go do they stop
the clock? Do they warn the crowd that didn't play
out very long. I mean, they didn't really call that
on us, it was just it really slowed the game down.
All it did was it made the crowd louder and
they would just they would turn on it. Let's talk
(09:54):
about a couple of things as well. I'd mentioned that
it was on thirty nine and a half acres, so
part of that was the parking lot. So today you
go to Loomenfield, there's really no there's a parking structure
on the south side. There's a small area obviously on
the north side, but it's not very big. But back
then the parking lot was pretty big on both sides.
(10:16):
And so we used to park there with the fans,
the twelves, and we would walk into the stadium and
they would greet us. Today they'd come into a nice
secure spot, and it's a different world. We get it.
The fans don't get to interact with the players like that.
And something that was fun that we used to do
is we would tailgate with them. After the game. We
(10:37):
would go out, our families would wait for us in
the tunnels and we would greet them and if sometimes
they would go out to the parking lot with us,
and you know, we might share a few beverages of
water or whatever choice you have, but we really I
want to say that was a big part of the
connection to the twelves is that they had access to us,
(10:58):
and a lot of it was in that parking lot,
coming to and from the from the game. What do
you remember about that?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, that was the thing that The The other thing is, yeah,
I used to always say about the fans in the Kingdom,
they don't come there for leisure. They come there to work.
They would go to work because they truly could affect
the outcome of the game. And they knew that. And
you know, we saw that at Loomenfield when they started
keeping track of you know, offside penalties or false start
(11:28):
penalties and they just you know, they're just it's just
it's a defiant group of fans here. I think that
there's no way you were going to shut them up,
first of all, and you know then if you.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Try to, they're just going to get louder, as you mentioned.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So yeah, that was But then also like you said,
I mean I don't remember anybody coming up and you know,
I don't remember having to sign fifty or one hundred
you know, autographs or anything like that. I remember one
time I walked out of the Kingdom and I met
one of my friends and we went across the street
(12:05):
and got a beer and then I think, you know,
I had made a play or something, and it was
the highlight. You know, We're playing on TV and everybody's
like looking at it, but nobody was looking at me.
I could just walk right out of there, and I
thought that was cool, you know. And you know, and
I think that the times when the fans did come
up to you and recognize you, they are always super respectful.
(12:26):
They're just a there's just a culture here in Seattle
of like I said, sort of defiance and stubbornness, and
that's what makes them such great fans. But also you know,
they always just treated you, treated me anyway, just like
a normal person, you know. And yeah, it was it
was a really different and like I said, coming from Stanford,
(12:48):
you know, it was just such a different environment. But
I just grew to absolutely love the Kingdom. I love
going and anytime, you know, we had a home game,
I always felt like a I don't care who it is,
we got a chance to win.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
It was definitely a multi purpose stadium. The Mariners obviously
played there. The Sonics played there for many years. We
had soccer, the Sounders previous Sounders, huge NCAA tournaments there,
for basketball, volleyball, I mean everything, concerts. I remember going
(13:22):
there for a bunch of different things. But one thing
I do remember about the Kingdom as we shared it
with the Sonics, the Mariners, and obviously the Seahawks, and
we would go sometimes we would go to the Kingdom
to practice if the weather was really bad. We didn't
have an indoor facility back in eighty three through eighty
(13:42):
six or five, and so when the weather would get
really bad before they got the Bubble and certainly before
the facility they have here at vMac, we would have
to go to the Kingdom. We'd go across five twenty
paint in a neck, but we would have to time it.
And often the Sonics were coming off the practice court,
so they still they had their basketball arena in the middle,
(14:04):
so we would have the other side of the stadium
to do or whatever we're going to do from a
practice standpoint. I remember going to a bunch of Mariner games.
It was like no big deal. I mean, first of all,
about five six thousand people showed up from Marina games
back then. But you know, guys like Dave Valley and
Harold Reynolds and you know, still good friends were playing.
(14:25):
And I remember Kurt Warner and I going there and
we were like celebrities. I mean, they were like they
couldn't believe we were at the game. I remember Dave Henderson,
God rest his soul too, there's a great athlete. When
we would get in their locker room, he goes, man,
I can't believe you guys are here, and he was
trying to show off how great an athlete he was.
(14:46):
And I just remember they had a little box behind
home plate that we could go there. They had the
radar guns and stuff, and Kurt and I would go
back there and the crowd would start hearing that, you know,
some Seahawks are at the game. There'd be a murmur going.
But we shared that. And so back then, all the
basketball players, all the football players, all the baseball but
we all knew each other, you know, and so we
(15:08):
all shared that. For a couple of years, probably two
or three years, that stadium was shared by all three
of the professional sports teams. So I thought that was
pretty good.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I remember Junior coming in the locker room one time
and everybody's like and I'm like, who's this guy? And
they're like, yeah, he's supposed to be really good. Yeah,
Randy Johnson. He used to take pictures. And you know,
another thing I wanted to mention. You know, you mentioned
the bubble. That bubble looked like a maggot that laying
(15:41):
on the ground.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
It was. It was really pretty ugly.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh gives some share where that was and what that looks.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Well, it was in Kirkland, in a really nice neighborhood.
So and my point is, I think this is another
thing why Seahawks fans are so loyal. Like a lot
of people in that that neighborhood with the homeowners association
and things like that, would be like why do I
want to look at that thing? Or you know, I
think it was up for three months, four months, maybe
(16:09):
a year, just during the season, but you know, I
feel like the the neighborhood, the people there knew that.
Oh that was so the Seahawks can practice indoors. So
I'm not going to worry about it, you know. And
if that was probably in any other NFL city, I
think people would have complained about it and I think
the Seahawks made concessions and everything, but that that that
(16:33):
bubble was really unsightly.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
It wasn't it was.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
A white tent. It was a white tent. So since
we're on that, I was at the first facility, which
was at Caroll One Point in downtown in Kirkland. Today,
they have that's pretty expensive real estate, really expended. They got.
They got the marina there, they got the restaurants, they
got the Woodmart hotel there. I mean, it's really nice,
(16:57):
but back when we were there, it was kind of
two grass fields. It was right on the water. We
had a structure that was probably I'd love to actually
go back and see what the I bet it wasn't
more than four or five thousand square feet where we
had our locker rooms, all the management and coaches office
(17:17):
were there, and then we had little portable trailers that
they had for the players for the meetings outside. I
remember being cold too, man, it would get really really cold.
Snowed a little bit more back then, and then they
had those willows so it was even hard to see
by the water. It was hard hard to see the water.
So our locker room and our weight room we shared
(17:40):
the same room. So if you ever go and see
the Seahawks rock that video that we did back in
like nineteen eighty four, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I don't want to.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Push anybody to that. The Seahawks ll type of thing.
Yeah good good, good acting well Paul Moyle an acta.
But we shared our locker room with the weights in there,
I mean, and again we'd go pump some you know,
chest press stuff and say, okay, I got my exercise.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Then it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Nearly as big. And then the Seahawks went up to
Northwest College and Northwest College wasn't using part of their
their their acreage there and so they built in least
a structure and built and it was so nice at
that time. It was like, wow, we actually have our
own lockers and we have our own weight room, even
though it was still pretty small and much nicer upstairs
(18:36):
for all the administration and things, which, by the way,
you could take that big building, which I thought was
big at the time, and you could put that probably
in the indoor practice facility and put two of them.
That's how big where we are here at vMac now is.
(18:56):
And so I got to see that, and then obviously
when they built this new one here on Lake Washington.
It was just, uh, yeah, this is this is as
good as it gets. But some some memories, Dave, I'll
hit you first. What I mean, yeah, one or two.
Let's just say favorite, not memorable, but favorite Kingdom memories.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, I think I think that Monday night football game
against the Bills, because remember the Bills were pretty dominant
at that point. I remember they had Cornelius Bennett and
Jim Kelly and Jane Conlin. They had some really good Bruce.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Waltons Thurman or not Walter thurm but uh they're running
back yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Blank too, but yeah, and they came in there and
I think that, Yeah, it was a Monday night game
that was really that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Thomas, thank you great, really good running back. They had
good wide receivers, Davy. That was one of my more
memorable interceptions where I laid out across the fe on
that one.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Then I remember that, Yeah, I turned around out of
my hook zone. I look and there's Paul Mooy. It
looked like he was Superman diving for that.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
That that's because I saw you, Superman, and I said,
you were diving towards Jim Kelly. I said, I'm gonna
do the same thing, but I'm gonna intercept it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Yeah, you know what, I felt bad for Corky Truan
because he took that picture and it should have been
like NFL Photo of the Year, but they don't do
indoor photos. I guess the outdoor photos are better. But
I mean he did such a great because it wasn't
just on like the sports page. It was on the
front page of either the Post Intelligence or Seattle Times.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
And but yeah, that that was.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
One where I had a lot of friends that were
because you couldn't just dial up any football game back then.
One of the one of the things I did, I
bought my parents a big dish. This dish was like
ten feet in diameter, and that in order to get
all the Seahawk games. But yeah, I mean it wasn't
very often that you were that you were on TV,
(21:02):
and so Monday Night Football I was then that was huge.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
I mean I was still Howard Cosell and Dandy Don
and all those guys, Frank Gifford. I mean, that was
a huge production. And then it switched obviously to John Madden,
which was another huge production. And if you got your
name mentioned by one of them. You were you were
really impressive. I'll throw a couple memorable ones or look,
(21:28):
the best moment probably it was honest. It was the
first playoff game in nineteen eighty three against the Denver Broncos.
It was just so electric. We were playing well, we
destroyed him, so the crowd really got to celebrate with us.
And I remember going into the locker room and the
crowd didn't leave. Give me a little goosebumps here, because
(21:51):
we came back out and we would ran through the
whole around the whole kingdom, and we're high five and
all the fans and uh, you know, and obviously is
I mentioning. We end up going to the SC championship game.
So that was that was really really cool. The one
that I don't like, but it played so much, is
one bo Jackson had that ninety six yard touchdown run.
(22:14):
Unfortunately I was on the field at that time. Boogie
jeff Ryant still thinks I got in his way. Well,
you were gonna catch him, You was gonna catch him.
And I'm watching Terry Taylor and Kenny easily with an
angle in bo Jackson. I mean talking about another freak,
freak athlete What I do remember about that game, though,
(22:34):
is that was nineteen. I want to say it was
eighty eight, eighty seven. It was next year in eighty
eight when Chuck Knox said, that's never happening again, and
we got look, you guys have heard this. I've apologized.
I feel terrible. I cursed bo Jackson out every play
I was in his ear. I figured, look, I am
(22:57):
not as fast as big, but I got to get
it into mentally. And yeah, not proud of those moments,
but you know, at the time, you do what you
gotta do to win. Let me let me throw down
with the top ten moments are voted on by the
fans back in nineteen ninety nine. The first home win
was in versus Atlanta back in nineteen seventy six. It's
(23:18):
a long time ago. First regular season win over the
Chargers after eight straight losses was nineteen eighty one. First
home playoff win versus Denver. So mentioned that one four
pick six games versus Kansas City in nineteen eighty four
as part of that. That was again, that was just
a wild game.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Four interceptions for a touchdown or touchdowns, that's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, that was that was again that was that eighty
four season. Was me clinching a playoff Berth versus Detroit
in eighty four. That one I don't remember, but I
don't remember that. One interesting being the defended Super Bowl
champ Raiders in asc wildcard game in nineteen eighty four.
That was a memorable game. Was that again?
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Well, thirteen to seven game, just a slugfest. You know,
they were Super Bowl champs and so that was a
nice win for US. Largin breaks NFL record for consecutive
games with a pass reception. That was nineteen eighty six.
I remember that Carmichael from Philadelphia had the record, and
I remember it was a big deal. I think they
(24:23):
even timed that up. I'm wonder if that was a
Monday night game also because they knew that was coming.
But I remember it being somewhat of a national game.
You remember this one, and it was Largent's revenge hit
on Mike Harden And I remember that because I don't
think I was even playing that. I think I was
(24:44):
hurt and maybe it was my last year was that
in nineteen eighty nine?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It was eighty eight eighty Well then.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I was playing. Never mind, I have a love hate
relationship with that play. For those who don't remember Steve
first game of the season there, you know, Harden catches
them right here, breaks pretty much everything in Steve Largent's face,
who probably had just one bar at the time. I
(25:12):
think he ended up going to two after And you know,
we get them towards the end of the year and
we throw an interception and Harden's running around and Steve
Largent decleats them, causes a fumble and jumps on the ball.
And the reason I have a love hate relationship is
it's it's such a great play. I mean, it's such
(25:33):
a good and it's one of those it's just it's
a movie script, right, I mean, you got your Hall
of Fame, great human being who gets sucker punched, sucker play,
you know, dirty play. You know today you had been fine,
kicked out of the game, suspended for that kind of play.
I mean, that's just not even tolerated. That was just
a I think it was a fifteen yard penalty. I
(25:54):
don't even know if it was, because back then, I
don't know if that was illegal. The love part is, God,
I'm so happy that it happened to him. I'm like
all the hits I've had in my life, and everybody
talks about that hit or all our defensive I mean,
we get paid to hit people, right, and Steve's had
one hit in his life and it's played over and
(26:15):
over and over. So that's my love hate. But I
was really happy for him on that well.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
It was just so poetic that he got revenge. I
mean it was such a Steve largent thing because he
wasn't going to do anything illegal to get back at him.
I'm sure that Steve in his mind had forgiven Mike
Harden for the hit that he took. But yeah, I
remember that was the hit in Denver.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Was that was my.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Very first start the first game of the year.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Yeah, it was the first game.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
We we end up beating on him there, but I
remember him being in bad shape and then you know,
and I would say that was the moment where it
got the loudest in the Kingdom was when Steve got
the revenge hit, I think for sure, and everybody knew
what was going on, and you know what was on
the line, and you know that that whole dirty hit,
(27:06):
like you said, he put his elbow right in Steve's face.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
I mean it was I mean it's it was nasty.
I mean it was knockout city. I mean it's concussion. Yeah,
all kinds of yea, that was. That was That was crazy.
Pete Gross Ring of Honor, first ring of honor, Pete
Grow the great, great play by play. And you know
Steve Rabel has taken that and honored him and they
(27:29):
worked together for a long time. I remember that was
November thirtieth, nineteen ninety two. It was the ninety two
season I was coaching. You were playing at the time, Dave,
And do you remember much about that?
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, I just you know, I always had an affection
for from Pete Gross. He was just the nicest guy
and just did such a great job. And I just
I remember, you know, actually talking to those guys a lot.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
I don't know that a lot of the players.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Maybe I didn't know, you know, he used to talk
to Rabel on the on the plane, and I don't
know if he was like one of the trainers or
maybe he was I don't know what he was doing.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Oh they broadcast the games on the radio. Did I
didn't know that?
Speaker 1 (28:12):
But uh, yeah, I remember getting really close with Steve
back in like nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine. We talked
the whole way home from a trip to Cincinnati after
a game, and but no I knew who he was.
But Pete Gross. Everybody knew who Pete Gross was. And
you know, I talked to him a number of times.
And I remember right before he died, he was there,
(28:34):
and I think it was like two days before he passed.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
He was there.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Doing interviews and I remember him interviewing me and I
was just looking at him, going, oh man, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
I mean, it was just he was he was so sick.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, yeah, and you know, he just he's there dutifully
doing his job, you know, getting interviews, and then I
think it was two or three days later he passed.
So yeah, I mean he he was such a huge
part of our team. And you know, everybody, everybody knew
Pete Gross. I mean his his voice. And now Rabes
(29:09):
is that guy the voice of the Seahawks.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah. I was fortunate. It was one of the last
road games.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Back then.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
I was coaching at the time, and the coaches sat
up in first class rightfully, So I guess I don't
know nowadays, I think they probably switched that around. But
I remember Pete was like you guys do, flying the
team plane, and they brought him up the first class.
They sat him next to me and we went somewhere
back east. It was a pretty long trip, and I'd
(29:41):
known Pete for a long time, but it was you know,
in passing. You know, it was nothing where we hung
out before I got spend you know, four hours or
so with him, and I asked him so many questions,
you know, just about his life and how he got
into this and his passions and so. Yeah. So that
was a real blessing. And as you mentioned, a we
on a Monday night the first ring of honor. I mean,
(30:02):
what a tradition that has become. And two days later,
you know, he had passed away. I was a very
memorable moment. So so those are some of the fan ones.
I'll give you my the one, the loudest back. They
remember the old you know Ghostbuster signs that were always
going around Epic. One of them was when we played
(30:24):
nineteen eighty eight. They had a boss Buster once, but
they had a Raider Busters that we had and I
want to say it was nineteen eighty six, but for
those who are listening, I might be wrong. In the
year and we were playing the Raiders on Monday night
and we shut them out. We blew them out. It
was so loud, and everybody had their Raider buster shirts,
(30:46):
you know, use there. I think there was kind of
a white out, you know t shirt. Matter of fact,
another thing in the Kingdom, do you remember when they
used to make the kind of paper sign they had
the rat patrol for the special teams Rusty Rusty. Yeah,
and I remember, and they would have all the Special
Team guys on there and like created characters. It was
(31:07):
really cool and again huge pride on that. And you know,
I mean Seahawks have been you know, a lot of
it because of Rusty. It was because a Rusty, great
tradition on special teams. But I remember this, I'm gonna
call it eight nineteen eighty six, and we're we shut
them out. We just we blow them that. It was
so loud. It was one of those days where this
(31:28):
is where Dave goes, that doesn't work, Paul. But it
was so that we would tape the little ear hoolds
because it would be like you muffled your put your
hands over your ear so Dave can understand it. Which,
by the way, I just saw one of the Seahawk guys.
They did that inside theirs too, but it was so
loud you tried to put something over just to get
(31:49):
that type of noise that hurt you. I mean it
hurt you. I almost want to put your fingers in
your ears. And it was it was. The Raiders were
the most hated team by the Twelves, and when we
were in the ac Denver was a close second. Kansas
City was never any good, even though we couldn't beat
them in Kansas City. They had really good teams. I mean,
(32:11):
they great defenses back then. But what I remember, again,
my biggest memories of that kingdom was just how loud
it was, how much passion the Twelves had in it.
I mean, as you said, Dave, they came to work.
I remember going to again concerts there. I remember going
to all kinds of sporting events. So it was a
(32:32):
good home for a very long, long long time.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, well it's a weird memory, but I remember when
we would stretch and you'd do the one where you
go on your back, and I remember looking up and
there was like a little door up there in the
very middle of the kingdom, and I'm like, what would
that be like if you were up there and you
just like opened that door and looked down and I
(32:57):
just remember thinking, and that would be a long ways
to fall, but I just would always it got in
my head, so like every time I stretch, I would
look up at that little door and think of something.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I think of more and more about it, because funny
they I remember looking up there too, going, MAT's really
high up there? What's up there?
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Yeah, we're right in the middle. Weird, weird, there was
a door. Weird, weird, weird moments. Forgot my train of
thought on this last one. But some good memories, obviously,
and you know it treated us right. A lot of
great wins were there. You know, our first AC championship
in eighty eight was there. We gravitated to I remember
(33:42):
one remember when the tiles fell you might have been gone.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
You were probably gone by then. And then that's when
we had to move to Husky Stadium for half the season,
which was really odd. And I remember how great it
was just to get back into the Kingdom, even though
that was like ninety four and you know, we couldn't
win a game anymore. But some great memories and I
(34:08):
appreciate everybody listening to those memories of the Kingdome this
NFL season. Feel every play, every hit, every moment with
the Sony one thousand XM five noise Canceling headphones, the
official headphones of the Seattle Seahawks. With premium noise cancelation,
you're in the zone, no distractions, just pure football. Whether
(34:29):
you're in the living room or on the go, You'll
never miss a beat with Sony Headphones. Again, thank you
for hanging out with us in this edition of the
Seahawks Stories on the fiftieth season.
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