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Eagles To Land At Albi Eastern Will Entertain Idaho In Nov. 1 Football Showdown

Eastern Washington University will bring its college football show to Spokane this fall. And, in an effort to pique local interest, the Eagles have cast the University of Idaho in the role of opponent.

EWU officials announced Tuesday that the two teams will meet Saturday, Nov. 1, in a 1:05 p.m. game at Joe Albi Stadium. It will be the first home game the Eagles have played at Albi since 1990.

Eastern is staging the game at Albi as part of a two-year association with Brett Sports and Entertainment. Under the agreement EWU will also play its Oct. 3, 1998, game against Montana in the stadium.

The Idaho-EWU game will be the 17th in a series that dates back to 1942 and favors Idaho 13-3. It will also serve as one of seven home games on Eastern’s 11-game 1997 schedule. The others will be played at Woodward Stadium on the EWU campus.

EWU opens at home Sept. 6 against Rocky Mountain College. Other home-game are against Eastern Oregon, Weber State, Cal State Sacramento, Idaho State and Cal State Northridge in the Nov. 15 regular-season finale.

The Eagles, who are expected to improve on last year’s 6-5 record and perhaps challenge for the Big Sky Conference title, will play road games at Portland State, Montana State, Montana and Northern Arizona.

Coach Mike Kramer said his team’s schedule “couldn’t be laid out better,” and he added that he is excited about playing the Vandals at renovated Albi Stadium.

“It’s great, because of the fact that both Eastern and Idaho have such a large number of alumni residing in Spokane,” Kramer explained. “Hopefully, we can get them off their couches and into a venue where they can watch a great football game.

“I’m predicting that both teams are going to come in with quality records and quality teams and that it’s going to be an event.”

Last year, the City of Spokane, the Greater Spokane League and Brett Sports and Entertainment provided funds to renovate Albi Stadium by widening the sidelines and replacing the worn artificial turf surface. The changes apparently made the stadium more enticing for EWU, which played all of its home games at Albi Stadium from 1983-89.

Kramer, an outspoken critic of artificial turf in the past, said he has no qualms about the playing surface at Albi, which was the site of Tuesday’s press conference announcing the UI-EWU site change.

, DataTimes