Here's a photo from the Courant. View from the grandstand in 1980. I remember the first time driving up over the hill on 195 coming off of I-84, about 5 miles from campus, you could see a brand new and shiny Gampel dome, and everybody and their mother complained what an eyesore it was for a long time.
We owe everything we are as a university right now, so different from from our former university partners in the northeast, because of the big east conference and Jim Calhoun's successful installment of the will to win and be the best into the leadership at the university.
Otherwise, we'd probably still be playing Maine, UNH, URI, Richmond, Delaware, Villanova, etc.....right there on that same field.