Ryan Field is a
stadium in the
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 territori ...
, located in
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...
, a suburb north of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. Near the campus of
Northwestern University, it is primarily used for
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
, and is the home field of the
Northwestern Wildcats
The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern ...
of the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
. It is the only
FBS stadium without permanent lighting, and its current
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
is 47,130.
Opened in
1926
Events January
* January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece.
* January 8
**Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz.
** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...
, it was named Dyche Stadium for William Dyche, class of 1882, Evanston mayor from 1895 to 1899 and overseer of the building project.
[Pope, Ben. "Football: Northwestern and Ryan Field’s near-ascendency into college football glory," ''The Daily Northwestern'' (Northwestern University), Tuesday, November 22, 2016.](_blank)
Retrieved March 10, 2022. The stadium was renamed Ryan Field in
1997 in honor of the family of
Aon Corporation
Aon PLC () is a British-American multinational financial services firm that sells a range of risk-mitigation products, including Commercial Risk, Investment, Wealth and Reinsurance solutions, as well as boutique strategy consulting through Aon ...
founder
Patrick G. Ryan, who was then the chairman of Northwestern's board of trustees. The renaming was made by the other members of the board in recognition of the Ryan family's leadership and numerous contributions to Northwestern, including the lead gift to the Campaign for Athletic Excellence, Northwestern's fundraising drive for athletic facilities.
History
At the time it was constructed, Dyche Stadium was considered one of the finest college football stadiums in the country.
The stadium originally consisted of two semi-circular grandstands on either sideline, with the west (home) sideline having a small, curved upper deck whose 2 ends abut in matching concrete towers. The purpose of the curved grandstands was to maximize the number of fans sitting close to the action.
A preliminary proposal featured both the west and east grandstands having symmetrical triple decks but was never realized because of cost overruns resulting from an accelerated construction schedule and average attendance figures that rarely approached 50,000.
End zone seating was later added in the south, and in 1952
McGaw Memorial Hall was built beyond the north end zone.
The stadium had a natural grass surface when it opened. It switched to
artificial turf in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: ...
and was used until
1996. Prior to the
1997 season, the natural grass surface was restored, and the playing surface was lowered approximately to improve sight lines from the lowest rows of the stadium.
The
Chicago Bears played their first home game of the
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
season vs. the
Philadelphia Eagles at Dyche Stadium on September 27 as an experiment; the
NFL had required that the Bears move out of
Wrigley Field because its
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
was under 50,000, which was below the minimum set out by the newly constituted post-merger NFL. Also, the
Chicago Cubs were in a September
pennant race with the
Pittsburgh Pirates and
New York Mets in the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
East.
If Wrigley Field was needed for postseason baseball games, the temporary grandstand for football along the east sideline (in right and center field) would not be available until late October. After Evanston residents petitioned city officials to block the team from moving there permanently and the
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
opposed the Bears' use of Northwestern's stadium, the Bears ended up moving to Chicago's
Soldier Field the
following year.
The stadium hosted the
1932 Women's (July 16) and
1948 Men's (July 9–10)
US Olympic Trials for track and field. The venue also hosted the
NCAA track and field championships
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges a ...
in
1943
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
* January 4 ...
.
It also hosted the summer
College All-Star Game in 1943 and 1944, which had usually been instead held at Chicago's Soldier Field. Both games were played at night with the use of temporary lights. The college all-stars held their practices for the game at Dyche Stadium in years such as 1934 and 1935.
Pending replacement
On September 22, 2021, Northwestern announced that the Ryan family had donated $480 million to the university, the largest gift in its history. The gift will support several academic initiatives and provide initial funding for the replacement of Ryan Field by a new stadium at the current site. Almost exactly a year later, Northwestern announced initial design concepts for the new stadium, and also announced that the Ryans had committed to adding to the initial stadium gift. The new Ryan Field will seat 35,000, more than 12,000 less than the current stadium, and will feature a canopy to better focus light and noise toward the field and away from the surrounding neighborhood. Also, it will be entirely privately funded. It will have a much smaller footprint than the current stadium; Northwestern released a preliminary schematic indicating that the most distant seats would be roughly the same distance from the sidelines as the back rows of the lower deck of the (much larger)
Notre Dame Stadium
Notre Dame Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana, the home field of the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team.
It was built in 1930 under the guidance of Knute Rockne, regarded as one of the greatest c ...
. No date for construction has been announced; this will presumably depend on fundraising progress.
Renaming controversy
Northwestern's decision to rename Dyche Stadium to Ryan Field defied the university's own 1926 resolution that forbade such a change. School officials said that a private institution can override previous boards' decisions, and dismissed the earlier resolution as a "show of appreciation." But NU did not explain why a mere gesture of appreciation would expressly state that any football stadium at any location would retain the name Dyche, as indeed the 1926 resolution does. The Dyche family wasn't notified of the change; NU claimed that the only descendant they found was a grandniece, despite other family members living in Chicago and being listed in the phone book. After the family protested, NU said it was willing to install an informational plaque at the stadium, noting its former name.
Transportation
The closest transit stations are
Metra commuter railroad's
Central Street station and
Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...
's
Central station on the
Purple Line.
In popular culture
Parts of ''
The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film about
Syracuse University Heisman Trophy winner
Ernie Davis starring
Rob Brown as Davis, and
Dennis Quaid
Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...
as Davis' Syracuse coach,
Ben Schwartzwalder
Floyd Burdette Schwartzwalder (June 2, 1909 – April 28, 1993) was a Hall of Fame football coach at Syracuse University, where he trained future National Football League stars such as Jim Brown, Larry Csonka, Floyd Little and Ernie Davis, t ...
, were filmed at Ryan Field.
Parts of ''
Four Friends'', a 1981 film directed by
Arthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010)
was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 19 ...
, were filmed at Dyche Stadium.
See also
*
List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums
This is a list of stadiums that currently serve as the home venue for Football Bowl Subdivision college football teams. These include most of the largest stadiums in the United States.
Conference affiliations reflect those in the current 2022 ...
References
External links
*
Ryan Field History, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois
{{Authority control
College football venues
Northwestern Wildcats football venues
American football venues in Illinois
Chicago Bears stadiums
Defunct National Football League venues
Sports venues completed in 1926
1926 establishments in Illinois