Folsom Field 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 in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, located on the campus of the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

. It is the home field of the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffaloe ...

of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divisi ...

. Opened in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hold ...

, the

horseshoe-shaped Many shapes have metaphorical names, i.e., their names are metaphors: these shapes are named after a most common object that has it. For example, "U-shape" is a shape that resembles the letter U, a bell-shaped curve has the shape of the vertical ...

stadium runs in the traditional north–south configuration, opening to the north. The CU athletic administration center, named after 1950s head coach Dal Ward, is located at the north end. The playing field returned to natural grass in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

and sits 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 § ...

of , more than a

mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 Engli ...

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 standardis ...

. Folsom Field is the third highest stadium in FBS

, behind only

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to t ...

and

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

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 ...

History

Gamble Field Gamble Field was an outdoor sports stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of the University of Colorado in Boulder. It was the predecessor of Folsom Field. History Opened in 1901 on September 21, it was built via the efforts ...

was the home of Colorado football for two decades, through the first game of the

season. Opened as Colorado Stadium on October 11, Folsom Field has been the continuous home of Buffaloes football. Through the

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

season, the Buffs have a home record of . Colorado Stadium was renamed Folsom Field in

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in ...

, following the death of former head coach

Fred Folsom Fred Gorham Folsom (November 9, 1873 – November 11, 1944) was an American football player, coach of football and baseball, lawyer, and law professor. He served as the head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder (1895–1899, 1901 ...

. He led the Silver and Gold for fifteen seasons (

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

– 99,

1901 Events January * January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime Minist ...

– 02, 1908– 15), compiling an overall record of . In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, Folsom Field became the first " zero-waste" stadium in the

NCAA 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 ...

by instituting a rigorous

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The Energy recycling, recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability t ...

and

compost Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting ...

ing program.

Expansions and renovations

When opened in 1924, the horseshoe-shaped stadium had a capacity of 26,000; a major expansion in

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

raised the height of the stadium, with a new seating capacity of 45,000. The removal of the running track in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

added six thousand seats; the track and field team relocated t
Potts Field
on the East Campus. A sizable, six-level press box was added in 1968 to the top of the west side grandstand, directly in front of

Balch Fieldhouse Balch Fieldhouse is a 4,000, at one point seating 7,000, seat multi-purpose arena in Boulder, Colorado. It opened in 1937. It was home to the University of Colorado Buffaloes basketball teams until the CU Events Center opened in 1979. The Fiel ...

, the former home of the

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team. Renovations continued in 1976 when the old, rickety wooden bleachers were replaced with aluminum ones, raising the capacity to 52,005. In 2003, suites and club seating were added to the east side of the stadium, raising the capacity to 53,750. Since the 2003 renovation, 137 seats with obstructed views have been removed, lowering the seating capacity to 53,613. In 2014, construction for a further expansion started. This expansion included a new indoor practice facility, a high performance sports center, as well as extra seating on the northeast corner of the stadium. The latest expansion at Folsom Field was finished before the start of the 2016 season. Completed as part of a $156 million dollar initiative, the north endzone was completely rebuilt. Existing bleachers were renovated into large boxes, club level seating & areas.

Playing surface

From 1924 through

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 ...

, the playing surface at Folsom Field was natural grass. In the summer of

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 J ...

, AstroTurf was installed and the first game played on the new surface was a 56–13 win over

on September 18. Unranked in the preseason, the 1971 Buffs finished third in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...

behind

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

and Oklahoma, for a sweep of the top three spots by the Big Eight Conference. The synthetic turf was replaced in 1978 and again in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

, with "Astroturf-8." After 28 years of AstroTurf, Folsom Field returned to natural grass in the spring of

. The project, which included bio-thermal heating, drainage, and a sub-air system, cost $1.2 million.

Other uses

Concerts

The Grateful Dead played at Folsom on 9/3/72 and as part of their 15th anniversary June 7 & 8, 1980. 9/3/72 has been partially released on Dick's Picks Volume 36.

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

were at the venue on October 3 & 4, 1981. The stadium played host to a concert, later released on DVD, by the

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

on July 11, 2001. More recently, in keeping with the decision to bring back live music to Folsom Field, the stadium hosted Dead & Co. for two-night stands during their 2016, 2017 and 2018 summer tours.

In popular culture

The south end zone was featured in the opening and closing credits of the late 1970s television show ''

Mork and Mindy ''Mork & Mindy'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978, to May 27, 1982. A spin-off after a highly successful episode of ''Happy Days'', "My Favorite Orkan", it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrest ...

,'' which was set in Boulder.

Other events

Folsom Field is also used as the finish line for the

Bolder Boulder The Bolder Boulder (styled as BOLDERBoulder and previously BolderBOULDER) is an annual 10-kilometer run in Boulder, Colorado. The most recent race featured over 54,000 runners, walkers, and wheelchair racers, making it the second largest 10k rac ...

, a popular

10K run 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

. The first

Promise Keepers Promise Keepers is an Evangelical Christian parachurch organization for men. It originated in the United States, but independent branches have also been established in Canada and New Zealand. Promise Keepers describes its goal as "to bring abo ...

stadium conference was held at Folsom in June 1992.

Attendance records

The largest crowd for a CU football game at Folsom Field was 54,972 in 2005, against in-state rival Colorado State on September 3, in which the Buffaloes won with a 47-yard field goal by

Mason Crosby Mason Walker Crosby (born September 3, 1984) is an American football placekicker for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Colorado, and earned unanimous All-American honors. The Packers chos ...

with four seconds remaining. This early-season, non-conference rivalry game, the

Rocky Mountain Showdown The Rocky Mountain Showdown is the name given to the Colorado–Colorado State football rivalry. It is an American college football intrastate rivalry between the University of Colorado Buffaloes and the Colorado State University Rams; the wi ...

, is more often played in neutral

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

at Mile High Stadium and its successor Empower Field at Mile High. The largest crowd ever at Folsom Field was in 1977 for a

rock concert A rock concert is a performance of rock music. During the 1950s, several American musical groups experimented with new musical forms that fused country music, blues, and swing genre to produce the earliest examples of "rock and roll." The coin ...

, one of the popular Colorado ''Sun Day'' concert series. The attendance on May 1 was an estimated 61,500 (exceeding the seating capacity by about 9,000) for a show featuring Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger,

Firefall Firefall is an American country rock band that formed in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. It was founded by Rick Roberts, former member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Jock Bartley, who had been Tommy Bolin's replacement in Zephyr. The band' ...

, and

John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969

Gallery

File:Folsom Field Facade 2006.jpg, Facade built prior to 2003 season on July 13, 2006 File:Folsom Field July 2007 2.jpg, Interior view, 2007 File:Folsom Field Mountain View.jpg, View to the southwest of the Flatirons in 2016 File:Folsom Field North Endzone.jpg, A view of the north side of the stadium in 2016 File:Folsom Field Scoreboard.jpg, New video boards were added before the 2012 season. File:Folsom Field Champions Center.jpg, Folsom Field's east side as it looked in 2016 after the addition of the Champions Center.

References

External links

*
Facility rental at Folsom Field for events - weddings, birthdays, conferences, etc.
{{Colorado college football venues College football venues Colorado Buffaloes football venues American football venues in Colorado Defunct athletics (track and field) venues in the United States Music venues in Colorado Buildings and structures in Boulder, Colorado Tourist attractions in Boulder, Colorado Sports venues completed in 1924 1924 establishments in Colorado