Memorial Stadium, also known as the "Brick House", was an outdoor athletic stadium in the north central

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, located on the campus of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. It was the home of the

Minnesota Golden Gophers football The Minnesota Golden Gophers football team represents the University of Minnesota in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Founded in 1882, Minnesota has been a member of the Big Ten Conference since its ince ...

team for 58 seasons, from 1924 through

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. Prior to 1924, the Gophers played at

Northrop Field Northrop Field was the on-campus stadium of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team from 1899 to 1923. The original field had seating of around 3,000 and was named for University President Cyrus Northrop. After the 1902 season, the playing f ...

. Starting in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, the Gophers played their home games in the new

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League ...

, and Memorial Stadium was demolished a decade later. After 27 seasons indoors, the Gophers returned to campus in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

at the new

TCF Bank Stadium Huntington Bank Stadium (formerly known as TCF Bank Stadium) is an outdoor stadium located on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The stadium opened in 2009, after three years of construction. It i ...

, a block from the site of Memorial Stadium.

History

Opened on October 14, 1924, the stadium was dedicated to the 3,527 students, graduates, and workers who served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which had ended six years earlier. It sat on approximately . While Memorial Stadium was its home, the football team won six

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

, including three consecutive (1934–1936). The championship years were

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

, 1935,

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

, 1940,

1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...

, and 1960. The official capacity of the stadium during the 1970s was listed as 56,652. From the 1940s onward, temporary bleachers were occasionally brought in to boost capacity to approximately 66,000, though many of the seats were far away from the field. The stadium's attendance record was 66,284, set in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

against

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

on November 18. Memorial Stadium also served as the university's track and field venue, and was an occasional back-up venue for professional football and soccer. In 1969, the NFL's

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

played a regular season game on October 5 against the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

at Memorial Stadium. It was due to a conflict with a

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

playoff game at

Metropolitan Stadium Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met", "Met Stadium", or now "the Old Met" to distinguish from the Metrodome) was an outdoor sports stadium in the north central United States, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneap ...

, game three of the 1969 American League Championship Series the following day. The Vikings also played a pre-season game at Memorial in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, its second season with

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

. The artificial Tartan Turf was removed after seven seasons and returned to natural grass in 1977. The

Minnesota Kicks The Minnesota Kicks were a professional soccer team that played at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, from 1976 to 1981. The team was a member of the now defunct North American Soccer League (NASL). Initia ...

soccer team of the NASL played once at Memorial Stadium, a 1981 playoff game on September 6 against the

Fort Lauderdale Strikers Fort Lauderdale Strikers may refer to: *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983), member of North American Soccer League from 1977 to 1983 *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994), member of American Soccer League from 1988 to 1989 and American Profes ...

and lost 3–0. The game was moved due to a schedule conflict with the

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

at Met Stadium. It was the last game in Kicks' history.

Ancel Keys Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces card ...

founded the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene underneath Memorial Stadium, on the ground floor accessed at Gate 27. Here thirty-six

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

s were confined during the yearlong

Minnesota Starvation Experiment The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, also known as the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Experiment, the Minnesota Starvation-Recovery Experiment and the Starvation Study, was a clinical study performed at the University of Minnesota between November 19, 1 ...

. Memorial Stadium served as the anchor for

Stadium Village Stadium Village is an area of Minneapolis, Minnesota near the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. While not an official neighborhood of Minneapolis, the area is an important commercial district that serves university students with man ...

, a small commercial area at the southeast portion of the Twin Cities campus.

Move to Metrodome 1982

Pressured by downtown Minneapolis business interests and athletic boosters, the school elected to move out of the stadium to the new Metrodome, about away, during the spring of 1982. Athletic director

Paul Giel Paul Robert Giel (February 29, 1932 – May 22, 2002) was an American college football and professional baseball player from Winona, Minnesota. He was an All-American in both sports at the University of Minnesota. Collegiate career Giel att ...

cited the advantages of recruiting by playing in a new NFL venue. Also, the attendance was expected to go up in the late fall with protection from harsh weather.Brackin, Dennis - emorial Stadium: An unfair end? Star Tribune, September 2, 2009 Memorial Stadium had been neglected by that time, and was badly in need of renovation. New head coach

Lou Holtz Louis Leo Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is an American former football player, coach, and analyst. He served as the head football coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the New York ...

gave an impassioned speech when the time came in 1984 to decide whether to remain at the Metrodome, and declared that "Athletes want to play at the Dome."

University Aquatic center

Following the move, the University of Minnesota proposed a new

natatorium A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

that would extend into the field at the open end of the horseshoe and ensure that there could be no return to Memorial Stadium. After legal challenges to halt construction of the natatorium failed, the Aquatic Center opened in 1990 and the stadium was torn down two years later. The original brick entrance arch was preserved, and when the

McNamara Alumni Center The McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Designed by Antoine Predock, it is one of the more architecturally striking buildings in the Twin Cities. The building, opened in 2000, con ...

was built on the same site it was installed in the interior atrium over the entrance to a small museum.

Aftermath

The move to the Metrodome proved to be a dismal failure in the long run, as Gophers home games lost the charm of being on a college campus. The Gophers had the lowest priority in scheduling, behind the Twins and Vikings, and had to move games if the Twins were in the baseball playoffs. The university also gave up most concession and parking revenue, although their portion of the rent was the lowest of the three Metrodome tenants. On May 20, 2006, the state legislature passed a bill providing funding for a new on-campus stadium. It opened in the fall of 2009 as

. The original Memorial Stadium site could not be used, due to the construction of the aquatic and alumni centers. The new stadium is located about a block from where the old stadium once stood, and was designed so that the alumni center on the old site is visible through the open end of the horseshoe. Memorial Stadium inscription

Attendance

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! style=";", Year !! style=";", Total !! style=";", Games !! style=";", Season highest !! style=";", Average , - , 1924, , 139,772 , , 6 , , Illinois (35,341) , , 23,297 , - , 1925, , 193,707, , 7 , , Notre Dame (49,009), , 27,672 , - , 1926, , 156,032, , 5, , Michigan (58,362), , 31,206 , - , 1927, , 166,848, , 5, , Wisconsin (48,443), , 23,126 , - , 1928 , , 146,185 , , 5, , Chicago (53,016), , 29,237 , - , 1929, , 204,083, , 6, , Michigan (58,160), , 34,014 , - , 1930, , 167,728, , 6, , Northwestern (50,225), , 27,955 , - , , 1931, , 115,631, , 5, , Wisconsin (48,443), , 23,126 , - , 1932, , 113,956, , 5, , Northwestern (52,426), , 43,557 , - , 1933, , 164,301, , 6, , Iowa (41,177), , 27,384 , - , 1934 , , 192,922, , 5 , , Michigan (59,362), , 38,584 , - , 1935, , 217,785, , 5, , Northwestern (52,426), , 43,557 , - , 1936, , 247,653, , 5, , Iowa (61,172), , 49,531 , - , 1937, , 254,188, , 5, , Notre Dame (63,237), , 50,838 , - , 1938, , 237,000, , 5, , Michigan (54,212), , 47,400 , - , 1939, , 229,954, , 5, , Northwestern (52,372), , 45,991 , - , 1940, , 234,990, , 5 , , Michigan (61,976), , 46,998 , - , 1941, , 239,227, , 5, , Northwestern (61,784), , 47,845 , - , 1942, , 231,307, , 6, , Michigan (52,351), , 38,551 , - , 1943, , 182,779, , 7, , Purdue (38,709), , 26,111 , - , 1944, , 179,979, , 6 , , Northwestern (39,997), , 29,997 , - , 1945, , 246,931, , 6, , Ohio State (55,789), , 41,155 , - , 1946, , 328,003, , 6, , Michigan (59,037), , 54,667 , - , 1947, , 289,612, , 5, , Purdue (61,087), , 57,922 , - , 1948, , 308,556, , 5, , Purdue (65,549), , 61,711 , - , 1949, , 305,200 , , 5, , Wisconsin (63,139), , 61,040 , - , 1950 , , 267,015 , , 5 , , Iowa (60,312) , , 53,403 , - , 1951, , 224,759, , 5, , Nebraska (54,573), , 45,152 , - , 1952, , 270,292, , 5, , Iowa (60,376), , 54,058 , - , 1953, , 293,313, , 5, , Michigan (62,795), , 58,663 , - , 1954, , 347,555, , 6, , Iowa (65,464), , 57,926 , - , 1955, , 305,581, , 5, , USC (64,074), , 61,116 , - , 1956, , 372,654, , 6, , Iowa (64,235), , 62,109 , - , 1957, , 314,769, , 5 , , Purdue (64,629) , , 62,954 , - , 1958, , 282,230 , , 5 , , Iowa (63,726), , 56,446 , - , 1959, , 256,039, , 5 , , Michigan (56,082), , 51,208 , - , 1960, , 342,199, , 6 , , Iowa (65,292), , 57,033 , - , 1961, , 361,929, , 6 , , Purdue (66,284) , , 60,322 , - , 1962, , 368,200, , 6 , , Iowa (65,061), , 61,367 , - , 1963, , 286,797, , 5, , Michigan (61,817), , 57,759 , - , 1964, , 268,908, , 5, , Iowa (62,514), , 53,782 , - , 1965, , 302,747, , 6, , Michigan (58,519), , 50,458 , - , 1966, , 248,248, , 5, , Iowa (62,631), , 49,600 , - , 1967, , 237,798, , 6 , , Michigan State (56,334), , 39,633 , - , 1968, , 312,806, , 6 , , USC (60,820), , 52,134 , - , 1969, , 272,449, , 6 , , Ohio State (52,972), , 45,417 , - , 1970, , 225,468, , 5, , Nebraska (52,539), , 45,093 , - , 1971, , 207,662, , 6 , , Michigan (44,412), , 34,610 , - , 1972, , 222,079, , 6, , Iowa (44,196), , 37,013 , - , 1973, , 252,917, , 6, , Nebraska (56,782), , 42,153 , - , 1974, , 226,127 , , 6 , , Ohio State (45,411), , 37,688 , - , 1975, , 220,081 , , 7 , , Wisconsin (37,578), , 31,440 , - , 1976, , 262,878, , 6, , Iowa (53,222), , 43,813 , - , 1977, , 247,118, , 7 , , Michigan (44,165), , 35,303 , - , 1978, , 231,411, , 6, , Ohio State (52,209), , 38,569 , - , 1979, , 241,952, , 6, , Purdue (47,281), , 40,325 , - , 1980 , , 265,105, , 6, , Iowa (58,158), , 44,184 , - , 1981, , 301,248, , 7 , , Michigan (52,875) , , 43,035

References

*
University of Minnesota 2006 Football Media Guide - Records

External links

Memorial Stadium
at the

.
Memorial Stadium
at the Minnesota Historical Society. {{University of Minnesota campus 1924 establishments in Minnesota 1981 disestablishments in Minnesota American football venues in Minnesota Defunct college football venues Defunct National Football League venues Demolished sports venues in Minnesota Minnesota Golden Gophers football venues Sports venues completed in 1924 Sports venues demolished in 1992 Sports venues in Minneapolis