The last time Air Force and Colorado played in football, they represented campuses that were diametrically opposed on the political spectrum and clashes ensued in the heated environment as the Vietnam Era was in its final stages.

As the in-state schools prepare to play again, Colorado chancellor Philip DiStefano says the Boulder campus has evolved beyond where it stood in those firebrand days in 1973 when CU students apparently tossed eggs and beer cans, with one can hitting World War II veteran and German internment camp survivor Lt. Gen. Albert Clark.

DiStefano notes that CU has dropped off of lists of top party schools in the United States. But more poignantly, he notes that the academic neighborhoods established on the Boulder campus to provide places where students can study together in a supportive environment and modeled them after the school’s ROTC programs.

“When I use that example, people say the Boulder campus has really changed,” DiStefano said during a trip to The Gazette’s office last week. “Because back in the ’70s, our ROTC was not looked upon as being anything positive on the Boulder campus. Today, it’s a model for how our students are educated. I’d say that’s the major change.”

Air Force travels to Colorado on Sept. 14 for the first meeting between the programs since a game at Falcon Stadium on Oct. 5, 1974.

“We thought it was important that we renew that,” Buffaloes athletic director Rick George added. “I think it’s good for the Front Range.”