Alumni feel wronged by P1FCU Kibbie Dome name change

The university plans to recognize the financial contributions of former students to build the Kibbie Dome by erecting a “Joe Vandal” statue in front of the stadium.

Some alumni believe that doesn’t go far enough to acknowledge the millions of dollars students paid through a special student fee in the 1970s to help construct the $7 million dome, which accounting for inflation today, would be around $41 million. 

Losing “ASUI” from the current official name—P1FCU Kibbie Dome—doesn’t sit all that well with alumni, either. 

To help build the dome, a $37 fee per student (equivalent to about $285 in 2024) was put in place from 1969-1975 to help fund it when the construction was complete. A $5 roof fee was added to student fees around 1972, according to Argonaut archives. 

Despite the fees being a vital part of the dome’s construction, students had mixed feelings about an athletic complex at the time. 

“The student body was divided,” Kenton Bird, a UI alumnus who was a freshman at UI in 1972, said. “In part because there was a strong segment of the community who were opposed to any student fees for intercollegiate athletics.” 

Bird said that students were won over by administrators with the promise of a multipurpose stadium that would not just be used for football. Track, tennis, concerts and more were promised at the facility. 

“The stadium is not just a football stadium,” Athletic Director Ed Knecht said in a February 1971 edition of the Argonaut. “It is designed to be used for graduations, intramural sports and many other activities. I hope it can be in use 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.” 

Tom La Pointe, a UI alumnus who attended in 1972, stated that his support of the stadium was a due to a promised ice hockey rink. 

“There was a great deal of sensitivity to the student fees that were being paid at the time,” Bird said. “There was considerable suspicion by a series of ASUI presidents that the administration was not being transparent where the money was going.” 

A protest against paying student fees was organized in 1975 where students wrote on their checks “paid under protest” after new fees were instituted, including the ones for the roof of the dome. 

David Warnick helped organize this protest and, in the fall of 1976, won the ASUI election for president. 

At the time, UI was not allowed to charge tuition or any money for instructional materials which included faculty pay, books and more. Students suspected that some of the fees they were paying were for instructional materials that the university was not disclosing. 

“They would try to get around [not charging tuition] by coming up with fees for various add-ons beyond academics,” Warnick said. “I think the message was clear to the administration.”  

The dome construction began in 1969 when Neale Stadium, an outdoor field and track, burned down that same year. Many suspected arson as the cause of the bleachers burning down, but the theory was never proven. 

“There was no reason other than that for a fire to start in the old wooden structure,” Moscow Fire Chief Ralph E. McAllister said in an Argonaut article published November 1969. In the end, student fees paid for most of the dome. The estimated cost with the roof was around $5 million, but the total construction up to now has been around $7.8 million.  

“This is the beginning of the much needed, long delayed athletic complex,” Frank P. McCreary, the Director of University Relations in 1971, said in an edition of the Argonaut. “We are finally off the drawing boards and into the ground.” 

When the complex was first being built, it was designed to have a roof over it and the artificial turf wasn’t designed for rainfall. Putting the roof over the dome became a vital part of the construction, but the estimated cost for it at the time was over $2 million. 

“They were always talking about a roof,” La Pointe said. 

The Kibbie Dome, along with the roof and an East end addition, was completed in the summer of 1975, just in time for the first home game. 

Despite the vast history the dome has had with students, in summer 2023, the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center’s name was changed to the P1FCU Kibbie Dome. The naming rights were purchased by Potlach No. 1 Financial Credit Union for $5 million. 

“To some of us, that feels like the great injustice that now, 50 years later, Kibbie’s name stays on the building and ASUI’s name goes off,” said an alumnus from the ‘70s who asked not to be identified. “Even though the ASUI contribution was slow and steady over the years.” 

The dome is still named after William H. Kibbie, a UI alumnus, who donated $300,000 to the dome. There is speculation among alumni that he never donated the full amount after his death—allegedly, after he died, the full amount was never paid by his heirs, only the down payment of $50,000. 

This claim was addressed in the September 1975 edition of the Argonaut by Kibbie’s lawyer Robert S. Campbell. There was controversy over a previous article that said that Kibbie had not yet fulfilled his pledge to the school. 

“The timing of a pledge and a gift of this magnitude is of great importance to the donor,” Campbell said at the time. Campbell said that the full amount would be paid by March 1, 1976. 

According to all records, there is no official documentation that Kibbie paid this amount. However, the athletic complex’s page on the UI website acknowledges Kibbie’s donation. 

“I’m disappointed,” Warnick said. “I understand the pressures of sponsorship and so on, but it seems to me that you could have made it a joint name.” 

To compensate for the name change and to recognize students, ASUI has proposed a monument in students’ honor in front of the dome. The proposal for the statue is an 8-foot-tall Joe Vandal statue. 

“The idea that a statue of any kind would be adequate enough to somehow denote the contributions of students who for 10-15 years paid student fees is something I heartily disagree with,” La Pointe said. “The building itself was our monument.”  

The Argonaut’s archives can be found here. 

Andrea Roberts can be reached at arg-news@uidaho.edu.