GAME DAY FEATURE: FINALLY: Fans ready to pack new Tilleman Field

The Montana State University-Northern Lights have had ceremonies dedicating their brand new on-campus stadium. They've had ribbon-cuttings, they've honored the man it's named after (Mike Tilleman). They've even played two Frontier Conference games there. They've set foot on the turf many, many times now. IN fact, so many times so, that, the stadium isn't really brand new anymore.

But, what the Lights haven't done is, plain a Saturday afternoon, in the fall, in front of throngs of fans. The pandemic has kept that from being a reality for over a year now.

That however, is all about to change.

On Saturday afternoon, Northern will charge onto Tilleman Field, something many of the Lights, and head coach Andrew Rolin have already done a couple of times last April. But, those games were different. When they charged onto the field, there were no fans, there was little fanfare, and, it was April - not exactly a normal football scenario.

Saturday though, it will all finally return. For the first time since 2019, the Lights will play an official Frontier Conference home game in a regular scheduled season, and, for the first time ever, they'll do it in front of their fans who will be sitting, standing, and parking inside the stadium that has been, ultimately, a dream come true.

"Not having fans in the spring was just really a heartbreaker," head coach Andrew Rolin said. "It was tough to look up there and not have anybody there. It's a big part of the game so really excited, just really excited to have everybody back, the community and the Hi-Line out here watching us and seeing what we're all. about."

Now however, everybody will get to see what the Lights are about, and star linebacker Dylan Wampler can't wait.

"It's going to be great," Wampler, who earned All-American honors during the spring season where fans weren't allowed, said. "We're going to have the whole town here. Friends, family, classmates, everyone. We have a whole community behind our backs and it's going to be great."

It will be great. Wampler, like many of the current Lights, had to watch as the stadium came to life in the spring of 2020, at exactly the same time the pandemic was starting to take hold. And while spring ball that year was cancelled, the stadium continued to come to life.

And it went quickly. Massive amounts of dirt were moved to form the large bowl the stadium now sits in. By the start of summer ,2020 construction on the Phase I bleachers and press box was underway, and by late summer, the scoreboard was up, turf was being installed and, by September, even without games to play, the dream had become a reality.

That year, the stadium was even dedicated in Tilleman's honor. Tilleman, who was so instrumental in starting the program, and in the stadium project, was able to see it come together just before his passing last fall.

"It was such an honor to stand on the field with Mike Tilleman and his family, and for him to see the impact that he has had on this program and community," Rolin said of that August evening, not long before Tilleman passed away.

By that time the fall season had been officially cancelled, and the Lights turned their attention to 2021. They were allowed to have a fall camp, and used their new stadium for just that. They then spent the winter planning on being one of the Frontier teams to participate in a spring season - a season that kept getting altered by the continuing COVID issues. Northern would ultimately play a four-game schedule including back-to-back games in the stadium, but, there were no fans allowed inside, and b both of those April games were eerily quiet.

So again, the Lights had to dream. They had to wait to really see what Tilleman Field will look like on a fall Saturday, filled with adoring fans and, students who can now call a stadium on campus their own.

That dream though, is now a reality, as College of Idaho comes to Tilleman Field for the first game with real fans. It's going to be a special day, a day that has been so long in coming. It will be the real grand opening of Tilleman Field.

"The anticipation is pretty high I think town and just today we had a lot of people here today so it's cool. I think it's fun. It's what college football is all about. It's all about the fan experience. It's engaging with the players and the community and there's nothing in the world like college football," Rolin said.

No doubt. There's nothing like college football, and for the first time, there will be nothing like college football on the Montana State University-Northern campus.