Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium was an outdoor

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

stadium in the

western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

, located in

Fort Collins, Colorado Fort Collins is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Larimer County, Colorado Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359 ...

. It was the home field of the

Colorado State Rams The Colorado State Rams are the athletic teams that represent Colorado State University (CSU). Colorado State's athletic teams compete along with 8 other institutions in the Mountain West Conference, which is an NCAA Division I conference and s ...

of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

from 1968 through

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; the team moved in 2017 to the new on-campus Colorado State Stadium (now Canvas Stadium). The playing field had a mostly conventional north-south alignment, skewed slightly northwest-southeast, at an approximate

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. It was natural grass for the stadium's first 38 years; FieldTurf was installed in the summer of

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for the final eleven seasons.

History

Owned and operated by

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

, it stood on a site located about west of the school's main campus. The stadium opened in 1968 as the replacement for the old

Colorado Field Colorado Field was an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Opened in 1912, it was the home of the CSU Rams of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) t ...

, a 14,000-seat on-campus stadium that is now the site of the "

Jack Christiansen John LeRoy Christiansen (December 20, 1928 – June 29, 1986) was an American professional football player who became a college and pro coach. He played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions as a safety an ...

Track." Hughes Stadium sat in a natural oval bowl, with seating on three sides and an open grass berm (not open for seating) behind the south end zone. The west (home side) stands were expanded out of the bowl and capped by a press box. Named for Harry W. Hughes, the

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

for 31 seasons (1911–41) at what was then known as Colorado Agricultural, the stadium had a

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 ...

of 32,500 with club seats and 12 luxury suites, completed in 2005. The playing surface itself was named in 2003 in honor of then

Sonny Lubick Louis Matthew "Sonny" Lubick (born March 12, 1937) is a retired American football coach. He was the 15th head football coach at Colorado State University from 1993 to 2007. Lubick won or shared six Western Athletic Conference or Mountain West Con ...

. The winningest coach in school history, he led the Rams for fifteen seasons ( 1993– 2007), winning six conference titles with nine

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

appearances. The inaugural game at Hughes Stadium was played on September 28, 1968, a 17–12 loss to

North Texas State The University of North Texas (UNT) is a Public university, public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private Normal school, teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 y ...

, led by defensive tackle Mean

Joe Greene Charles Edward Greene (born September 24, 1946), better known as "Mean" Joe Greene, is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1969 to 1 ...

, a consensus All-American. From October 1989 to August

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, the Rams won eight consecutive games at the stadium, a school record. After 49 seasons, its finale in

saw the Rams defeat

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

49–31 on November 19.

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

recorded the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

television special and live concert album '' Hard Rain'' at Hughes Stadium during a rainstorm

Demolition

At the time of its closure, future plans for Hughes Stadium were unknown, but it was unlikely to be left dormant or given away, rather more likely to be developed for high-density residential use. CSU eventually decided to demolish the stadium and restore the site to its original bowl-shaped topography before selling the site for future development. Pre-demolition work began in March 2018 with hazardous material mitigation (mainly asbestos), with full-scale demolition beginning on April 10. Demolition continued into summer, followed by filling in the stadium bowl with soil that had been originally used to create berms around the stadium; the project was completed in late 2018.

Attendance

Attendance information for primary tenant,

References

External links

CSU Rams.com
- Hughes Stadium

World Stadiums.com
- photos - Hughes Stadium {{Colorado State University Defunct college football venues Colorado State Rams football Buildings and structures in Larimer County, Colorado Tourist attractions in Larimer County, Colorado American football venues in Colorado 1968 establishments in Colorado Sports venues completed in 1968 2016 disestablishments in Colorado Sports venues demolished in 2018