Washington–Grizzly Stadium is 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
A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
in the
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
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 Montana
The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...
in
Missoula, Montana
Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...
. Opened in
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal ente ...
, it is home to the
Montana Grizzlies
The Montana Grizzlies and Lady Griz are the nicknames given to the athletic teams of the University of Montana, located in Missoula. The university is a member of the Big Sky Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding six men's teams ( ...
, a member of the
Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...
in
Division I FCS
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...
(formerly Division I-AA).
Its infilled
FieldTurf playing field is below ground level at an
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 ...
and runs in the traditional north–south orientation. The press box is above the west sideline and lights were added for the
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
season.
[http://www.montanakaimin.com/mobile/sports/lighting-up-washington-grizzly-stadium-1.2690020]
It is the largest all-purpose stadium in the state of
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
, and is the largest on-campus stadium in the Football Championship Subdivision that participates in the
playoffs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
.
Yale's massive
Yale Bowl
The Yale Bowl Stadium is a college football stadium in the northeast United States, located in New Haven, Connecticut, on the border of West Haven, about 1½ miles (2½ km) west of the main campus of Yale University. The home of the American foo ...
is the largest on-campus stadium in the FCS, but
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...
members abstain from postseason play.
History
The stadium is named after construction magnate
Dennis Washington
Dennis R. Washington (born 1934) is an American billionaire industrialist who owns, or co-owns controlling interests in, a large consortium of privately held companies collectively known as the Washington Companies and, in Canada, another collec ...
, a Montanan who donated $1 million to finance the stadium's construction in 1985. game came in mid-season in 1986 (October 18), and the Griz have a record of at the venue, through the Montana has gone undefeated at home in eleven of those seasons; the Griz won all ten home games in
2004 and posted a mark six times (
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
,
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
,
1996,
2001,
Capacity and expansions
The 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 25,217 and it has been expanded three times, most recently in 2008 with an upper deck expansion of 2,000 seats on the east side.
The original capacity in 1986 was 12,500 permanent seats on the sidelines with open grass seating behind the end zones, an approximate capacity of 15,000, weather-permitting. Permanent seating for the end zones was installed in
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
, which brought the seating to 18,845. Corner seating in the north end zone opened in
2003 and the most recent expansion in 2008 to the east grandstand brought the capacity to 25,217.
A new attendance record was set in
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
when
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
and four-time defending national champion
North Dakota State
North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as t ...
opened the
FCS season on August 29 and drew 26,472. The previous record was 26,352, set in
2014 against
rival
A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...
Montana State
Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 68 fields, and doctoral degrees in 35 fiel ...
on November 22; both games were Grizzly victories.
Field surface
Infilled SprinTurf was installed in
2001, and replaced in 2008. For its first fifteen seasons, the playing surface was natural grass; with the addition of the
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 ...
in 2001, the playing surface was renamed "John Hoyt Field."
After fifteen seasons of SprinTurf, the playing surface was replaced with multi-color
FieldTurf in the summer of
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
. Following the installation of FieldTurf in the new softball stadium (Grizzly Field), FieldTurf pitched the university with a new football field and within a month, it was approved by the board of regents and installed.
GrizVision
The video screen ''GrizVision'', was installed in
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
in the south end zone; at , it was one of the largest screens in an FCS football stadium and was upgraded in 2016 to a much larger screen: it features HD-quality video and measures , approximately twice the area of the old display.
Previous venues
Before Washington–Grizzly Stadium, the Grizzlies played off-campus at "new"
Dornblaser Field
Dornblaser Field is the name of two outdoor athletic stadiums in the western United States, located in Missoula, Montana. Both were former home fields of the University of Montana Grizzlies football teams and were named for Paul Dornblaser, a ...
from 1968–86. Prior to
1968, Montana played on-campus at "old" Dornblaser Field from 1920–67 (both named for Paul Dornblaser, football captain in
1912, killed in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
). The old field was at the site of the Mansfield Library.
Prior to
1920, Montana played its home games at a field in downtown Missoula, near the former ''
Missoulian
The ''Missoulian'' is a daily newspaper printed in Missoula, Montana, United States. The newspaper has been owned by Lee Enterprises since 1959. The ''Missoulian'' is the largest published newspaper in Western Montana, and is distributed througho ...
'' newspaper building.
Largest attendance
Home records
Concerts
See also
*
List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums
The following is a list of current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) football stadiums in the United States.
Conference affiliations reflect those for the comin ...
References
External links
GoGriz.com– about Washington–Grizzly Stadium
World Stadiums.com– Washington–Grizzly Stadium
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington-Grizzly Stadium
College football venues
Montana Grizzlies football
American football venues in Montana
Sports venues in Missoula, Montana
Buildings and facilities of the University of Montana
1986 establishments in Montana
Sports venues completed in 1986
University and college buildings completed in 1986