After the first weekend of major college football, there were a number of takeaways. It appears that OSU and OU will be pretty good again after their openers. Alabama and Georgia both won their games and are likely headed for the postseason playoffs. Ohio State was another winner and it appears that Oregon isn’t as good as originally thought.

I saw one Facebook post from a University of Kansas fan-- “Undefeated for 2022” it said. KU had a big day topping Tennessee Tech 56-10. But it isn’t likely that the Jayhawks will remain unbeaten for any length of time.

I also took note that Pittsburgh defeated West Virginia of the Big 12. Not necessarily a surprise there, but there was part of the story that caught my eye. The story noted that the crowd to watch the game (70,622) was the largest crowd to witness a sporting event in Pittsburgh history.

My mind started doing flip flops thinking about that topic -- largest crowds on record. I knew that the 70,622 registered in Pittsburgh wasn’t anything close to being the biggest crowd at a sporting event in this country. But what have been the biggest?

I remember when I was a student at KU way back when. There was a lot of hoop-la preceding the final game of the season against archrival Missouri. The campus officials were gearing up for a huge crowd at KU’s Memorial Stadium. Extra security was hired, including trained dogs to keep unruly fans from storming the field after the game was finished. I didn’t get to see the game, because it was over Thanksgiving weekend and I went home rather than stay on campus. I gave away my ticket, which I was told later was foolish. Other students had sold theirs for as much as $50. But there was a big crowd for the game, which at the time amounted to the biggest ever to watch a football game in the State of Kansas. I don’t remember the capacity of KU’s stadium at the time, but it wasn’t much more than 40,000 if it was even that much. I’m sure that record has been smashed many times over. Kansas State’s stadium now seats almost 60,000 and there have been capacity crowds to watch the Wildcats play.

Anyway, I really didn’t know where to go when researching large crowds at sporting events. One source said that the largest crowd to witness a sporting event in the United States was 400,000 at the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. The information I had was not specific as to a year, but simply said that that is an average number for the race. I lived only 100 miles from Indianapolis back in the 1970s. At that time, it was said that there were usually 200,000 in attendance for the 500.

According to one source, the highest number of fans on hand for a Kentucky Derby in Louisville was recorded in 2015 when 170,513 came to watch. In February of 2008, 170,802 fans attended the FBR Open Golf Tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the golf world contends that total to be a record of sorts.

Frustration settled in. I had found lots of conflicting information about large crowds. What to believe?

Yet another source that had more documentation than I had found other places said that the 2012 Kentucky Derby drew 165,000 and is the nation’s largest crowd. The second largest, according to this source was the 150,000 that attended the Battle of Bristol football game between Tennessee and Virginia Tech. The game was played at the Bristol, Tenn., NASCAR track and Tennessee won the game 45-24. In third place was the Army-Notre Dame game played in Yankee Stadium 1928. A similar total had been recorded at the Notre Dame-USC game in 1927 played at Chicago’s Soldier Field. A baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers drew 115,000 to the Memorial Coliseum in 2007. The occasion was a 50th anniversary celebration denoting the date the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to LA. Boston won, by the way, 7-1. AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas was the site of the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. Approximately 112,000 fans were in attendance for this event. A college hockey game merits mention in this space-- a game between Michigan and Michigan State, played in Michigan’s Stadium. There was approximately 109,000 on hand to watch this event.

Speaking of the Michigan Stadium, I knew that when I was in college, it was the largest football facility in the country, seating more than 100,000. Looking it up, it still is the largest in the U.S. with a capacity of 107,601. What comes next?

2. Beaver Stadium, State College, Pa., 106,572; 3. Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, 104,944; 4. Kyle Field at Texas A&M, 102,733; 5. Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, Tenn., 102,466; 6. Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, La., 102,321; 7. Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, Ala., 101,821; 8. Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas, 100,119; 9; Sanford Stadium, Athens, Ga., 92,746; 10. Rose Bowl, Pasadena, Calif. (home of UCLA), 90,888; 11. Memorial Stadium, Chapel Hill, N. C., 90,000; 12. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, Fla., 88,548; 13. Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, Ala., 87,451; 14. Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Norman, 86,112; 15. Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisc., 80,321; 16. Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, Fla., 79,560; 17. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (home of USC), 78,467; 18. Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Ind., 77,622; 19. Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville, Ark., 76,000; 20. Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, Mich.,75,005; 21. Husky Stadium, Seattle, Wash., 70,083; 22. Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa, 69,250; 23. Lane Stadium, Blacksburg, Va., 66,233; 24. Vaught Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, Miss., 64,176.

I’m told that the seating capacity of Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater is 55,509, by the way.

If we were to take this discussion out of the United States, the information is staggering.

According to my sources, the largest attendance for a sporting event is usually the 10 to 12 million spectators that line the course of the Tour de France each year. But other sources say to include the Tour’s numbers isn’t really fair. The spectators are spread out over miles of course. A more interesting number is that associated with events in which the spectators are in one location.

After the Tour, here are some numbers put forward: 1. Indianapolis Speedway -350,000 (the 400,000 number quoted earlier is in dispute); 2. Ascot Racecourse, Ascot, UK, 280,000; 3. Circuit de la Sarthe, LeMans, France, 263,000 (motor racing); 4. Strahov Stadium, Prague, Czech Republic, 250,000, soccer match; 5. Tokyo Racecourse, Japan, 223,000 horse race; 6. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, 221,011, motor racing; 7. Nurburgring-Nordschleife, Nurburg, Germany, 220,000, motor racing; 8. TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course, Scottsdale, Ariz., 216,818, golf tournament; 9. Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, 212,585, motor racing; 10. Adelaide Street Circuit, Australia, 210,000, motor racing.

It appears that it is motor sports, or horse racing, that draws the biggest crowds worldwide. The largest crowd recorded at Michigan Stadium was 115,109 which is good for only No. 72. As much as American football draws our interest, it apparently doesn’t come close to commanding the interest of a good car or horse race.

The older I get, the more I dislike mingling with huge crowds. The den in our house, where the TV is, is very comfortable, thank you.