Posen students painstakingly create a model of Tiger Stadium
In making a model of Tiger Stadium, the details were important to wood shop students Nick Goupell and Robert Romel. Using only pictures from wood shop teacher Howard Madsen, who still has a love of the former home of the Detroit Tigers, the students started their project at the beginning of the second marking period. If something didn’t look right, it was changed. For example, the light towers that majestically stood above the ball park were too big, so Goupell and Romel made new ones. The boys went to great lengths to make sure it looked as close to the real deal as possible.
The stadium’s trademark rightfield overhang was reproduced, along with all of the scoreboards, the dimension signs on the outfield walls, and every single steel pole in the lower and upper decks. The obstructed views from the poles were one of the reasons the Tigers moved from the corner of Michigan and Trumbull to Comerica Park at the beginning of the 2000 season.
MADSEN’S WOOD SHOP students build model homes to half-inch scale. They take architect drawings, learn how to read the prints, and then construct them. The first year students learn construction techniques that are used in the field. “I found over the years that by sitting down and doing it, it’s the same exact mental process as when I was building houses,” said Madsen, a former contractor. Goupell had constructed his model home and wanted to do something more.
Madsen told Goupell he always had wanted a model of Tiger Stadium, the place where he grew up watching baseball. The longtime Huron baseball coach and member of the high school Baseball Coaching Hall of Fame has a real passion for the stadium.
HE LIVED only 20 minutes away when he attended Eastern Michigan University and made it to 60 games when bleacher seats cost only 50 cents apiece. Madsen points to the spot in the model where he sat in the upper deck bleachers. Goupell said he started with the outside walls, decided how big it was going to be, and went from there. Later, Romel was encouraged by Madsen to help out.
“The bleachers, I would say, was the most time consuming,” said Goupell. “I like it. I’m impressed. I didn’t think it was going to come out that good.” Romel said, “It came out really nice.”
“WE ACTUALLY had the roof on the stadium. We had it all painted and completed. I looked at it and it just wasn’t right. They were very patient with me, because I was pretty emphatic about what I wanted. I wanted it to be realistic and accurate and I think we did that.” Do the students want to give up the stadium replica to their teacher?
“Not really, but since he is the one who wanted me to do it,” said Goupell. “…We’ve got visitation rights.” Former Tiger great Kirk Gibson, who has a second home in Presque Isle County, has heard about the model and is interested in looking at it as well. Both students said they learned patience from working on the stadium model and will need more of it when they work on their next project: Michigan Stadium, which is better known across the country as “The Big House.”