Harlen C. Hunter Stadium, or Hunter Stadium, is an outdoor 7,450-seat multi-purpose

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 ...

located in

St. Charles, Missouri Saint Charles (commonly abbreviated St. Charles) is a city in, and the county seat of, St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. The population was 65,794 at the 2010 census, making St. Charles the ninth-largest city in Missouri. Situated on t ...

located on the campus of

Lindenwood University Lindenwood University is a private university in St. Charles, Missouri. Founded in 1827 by George Champlin Sibley and Mary Easton Sibley as The Lindenwood School for Girls, it is the second-oldest higher-education institution west of the Missis ...

. It is the home for

Lindenwood Lions The Lindenwood Lions and Lady Lions are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Lindenwood University, located in St. Charles, Missouri, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, men's and women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, women's

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, men's and women's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

programs, and

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

. It is located in the north-central part of campus.

History

Hunter Stadium was built in 1976 by the St. Louis Cardinals NFL Football Team as a training camp location. The stadium was the site of the 1978 Class 4-A Missouri State High School Football Championship game between Jefferson City and Hazelwood Central. The stadium was renovated in 1988. It is named after Dr. Harlen C. Hunter who founded the St. Louis Orthopedic Sports Medicine Clinic in Chesterfield in 1979, and made key monetary contributions for the upgrades of the playing surface in 1988. After the 2004 season, Hunter Stadium received a renovation that included new end-zone seating, a brand new two-story press box with luxury boxes and a new concession area. In 2009, the playing surface at the facility was replaced with Enviroturf.

Special events

The facility has hosted NAIA National Football Championship playoff games in 2004, 2008, and 2010; as well as the NAIA National Women's Soccer Championship in 2001 and 2002. The stadium has hosted pre-season scrimmage games for the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

in 2000, 2009 and 2010. On August 7, 2010, one of the largest crowds in the stadium history, estimated over 8,000, turned out to see the Rams training camp scrimmage that included Rams rookie quarterback

Sam Bradford Samuel Jacob Bradford (born November 8, 1987) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, most notably with the St. Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings. He was also a member of the P ...

, the first overall pick in the

2010 NFL Draft The 2010 NFL Draft was the 75th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The 2010 draft took place over three days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, with the firs ...

. In 2019, the stadium hosted a U.S. Open Cup Fourth Round match featuring

Saint Louis FC Saint Louis FC was an American professional soccer team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The team was founded in May 2014, and competed in the USL Championship. The team played their matches at West Community Stadium, a venue inside the World Wide ...

of the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

and Chicago Fire of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

. The match was moved from STL FC's home field

World Wide Technology Soccer Park World Wide Technology Soccer Park is a soccer complex which includes four soccer-specific stadiums, with the main field, West Community Stadium, holding 5,500 seats. Located in Fenton, Missouri, a suburb southwest of downtown St. Louis, it is oper ...

because of flooding.

References

External links

Hunter Stadium
{{Missouri college football venues Lindenwood Lions football College football venues College lacrosse venues in the United States College field hockey venues in the United States College soccer venues in the United States American football venues in Missouri Lacrosse venues in the United States Soccer venues in Missouri Sports venues completed in 1976 Sports venues in Missouri 1976 establishments in Missouri