Memorial Stadium, also known as the "Brick House", was an outdoor athletic stadium in the north 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 on the campus of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. It was the home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team for 58 seasons, from 1924 through

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. Prior to 1924, the Gophers played at Northrop Field. Starting in 1982, the Gophers played their home games in the new Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and Memorial Stadium was demolished a decade later. After 27 seasons indoors, the Gophers returned to campus in 2009 at the new TCF Bank Stadium, a block from the site of Memorial Stadium.

History

Opened on October 14, 1924, the stadium was dedicated to the 3,527 students, graduates, and workers who served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which had ended six years earlier. It sat on approximately . While Memorial Stadium was its home, the football team won six national championships, including three consecutive (1934–1936). The championship years were

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

, 1935,

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * Januar ...

, 1941, and 1960. The official capacity of the stadium during the 1970s was listed as 56,652. From the 1940s onward, temporary bleachers were occasionally brought in to boost capacity to approximately 66,000, though many of the seats were far away from the field. The stadium's attendance record was 66,284, set in 1961 against Purdue on November 18. Memorial Stadium also served as the university's track and field venue, and was an occasional back-up venue for professional football and soccer. In 1969, the NFL's

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

played a regular season game on October 5 against the Green Bay Packers at Memorial Stadium. It was due to a conflict with a Minnesota Twins playoff game at

Metropolitan Stadium Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met", "Met Stadium", or now "the Old Met" to distinguish from the Metrodome) was an outdoor sports stadium in the north central United States, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneap ...

, game three of the 1969 American League Championship Series the following day. The Vikings also played a pre-season game at Memorial in 1971, its second season with artificial turf. The artificial Tartan Turf was removed after seven seasons and returned to natural grass in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

. The Minnesota Kicks soccer team of the NASL played once at Memorial Stadium, a 1981 playoff game on September 6 against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and lost 3–0. The game was moved due to a schedule conflict with the

Twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

at Met Stadium. It was the last game in Kicks' history.

Ancel Keys Ancel Benjamin Keys (January 26, 1904 – November 20, 2004) was an American physiologist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesized that replacing dietary saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat reduces card ...

founded the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene underneath Memorial Stadium, on the ground floor accessed at Gate 27. Here thirty-six conscientious objectors were confined during the yearlong

Minnesota Starvation Experiment The Minnesota Starvation Experiment, also known as the Minnesota Semi-Starvation Experiment, the Minnesota Starvation-Recovery Experiment and the Starvation Study, was a clinical study performed at the University of Minnesota between November 19, 1 ...

. Memorial Stadium served as the anchor for

Stadium Village Stadium Village is an area of Minneapolis, Minnesota near the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. While not an official neighborhood of Minneapolis, the area is an important commercial district that serves university students with man ...

, a small commercial area at the southeast portion of the Twin Cities campus.

Move to Metrodome 1982

Pressured by downtown Minneapolis business interests and athletic boosters, the school elected to move out of the stadium to the new Metrodome, about away, during the spring of 1982. Athletic director Paul Giel cited the advantages of recruiting by playing in a new NFL venue. Also, the attendance was expected to go up in the late fall with protection from harsh weather.Brackin, Dennis - emorial Stadium: An unfair end? Star Tribune, September 2, 2009 Memorial Stadium had been neglected by that time, and was badly in need of renovation. New head coach Lou Holtz gave an impassioned speech when the time came in 1984 to decide whether to remain at the Metrodome, and declared that "Athletes want to play at the Dome."

University Aquatic center

Following the move, the University of Minnesota proposed a new

natatorium A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built above ground (as ...

that would extend into the field at the open end of the horseshoe and ensure that there could be no return to Memorial Stadium. After legal challenges to halt construction of the natatorium failed, the Aquatic Center opened in 1990 and the stadium was torn down two years later. The original brick entrance arch was preserved, and when the McNamara Alumni Center was built on the same site it was installed in the interior atrium over the entrance to a small museum.

Aftermath

The move to the Metrodome proved to be a dismal failure in the long run, as Gophers home games lost the charm of being on a college campus. The Gophers had the lowest priority in scheduling, behind the Twins and Vikings, and had to move games if the Twins were in the baseball playoffs. The university also gave up most concession and parking revenue, although their portion of the rent was the lowest of the three Metrodome tenants. On May 20, 2006, the state legislature passed a bill providing funding for a new on-campus stadium. It opened in the fall of 2009 as TCF Bank Stadium. The original Memorial Stadium site could not be used, due to the construction of the aquatic and alumni centers. The new stadium is located about a block from where the old stadium once stood, and was designed so that the alumni center on the old site is visible through the open end of the horseshoe. Memorial Stadium inscription

Attendance

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! style=";", Year !! style=";", Total !! style=";", Games !! style=";", Season highest !! style=";", Average , - , 1924, , 139,772 , , 6 , , Illinois (35,341) , , 23,297 , - , 1925, , 193,707, , 7 , , Notre Dame (49,009), , 27,672 , - , 1926, , 156,032, , 5, , Michigan (58,362), , 31,206 , - , 1927, , 166,848, , 5, , Wisconsin (48,443), , 23,126 , - , 1928 , , 146,185 , , 5, , Chicago (53,016), , 29,237 , - , 1929, , 204,083, , 6, , Michigan (58,160), , 34,014 , - , 1930, , 167,728, , 6, , Northwestern (50,225), , 27,955 , - , , 1931, , 115,631, , 5, , Wisconsin (48,443), , 23,126 , - , 1932, , 113,956, , 5, , Northwestern (52,426), , 43,557 , - , 1933, , 164,301, , 6, , Iowa (41,177), , 27,384 , - , 1934 , , 192,922, , 5 , , Michigan (59,362), , 38,584 , - , 1935, , 217,785, , 5, , Northwestern (52,426), , 43,557 , - , 1936, , 247,653, , 5, , Iowa (61,172), , 49,531 , - , 1937, , 254,188, , 5, , Notre Dame (63,237), , 50,838 , - , 1938, , 237,000, , 5, , Michigan (54,212), , 47,400 , - , 1939, , 229,954, , 5, , Northwestern (52,372), , 45,991 , - , 1940, , 234,990, , 5 , , Michigan (61,976), , 46,998 , - , 1941, , 239,227, , 5, , Northwestern (61,784), , 47,845 , - , 1942, , 231,307, , 6, , Michigan (52,351), , 38,551 , - , 1943, , 182,779, , 7, , Purdue (38,709), , 26,111 , - , 1944, , 179,979, , 6 , , Northwestern (39,997), , 29,997 , - , 1945, , 246,931, , 6, , Ohio State (55,789), , 41,155 , - , 1946, , 328,003, , 6, , Michigan (59,037), , 54,667 , - , 1947, , 289,612, , 5, , Purdue (61,087), , 57,922 , - , 1948, , 308,556, , 5, , Purdue (65,549), , 61,711 , - , 1949, , 305,200 , , 5, , Wisconsin (63,139), , 61,040 , - , 1950 , , 267,015 , , 5 , , Iowa (60,312) , , 53,403 , - , 1951, , 224,759, , 5, , Nebraska (54,573), , 45,152 , - , 1952, , 270,292, , 5, , Iowa (60,376), , 54,058 , - , 1953, , 293,313, , 5, , Michigan (62,795), , 58,663 , - , 1954, , 347,555, , 6, , Iowa (65,464), , 57,926 , - , 1955, , 305,581, , 5, , USC (64,074), , 61,116 , - , 1956, , 372,654, , 6, , Iowa (64,235), , 62,109 , - , 1957, , 314,769, , 5 , , Purdue (64,629) , , 62,954 , - , 1958, , 282,230 , , 5 , , Iowa (63,726), , 56,446 , - , 1959, , 256,039, , 5 , , Michigan (56,082), , 51,208 , - , 1960, , 342,199, , 6 , , Iowa (65,292), , 57,033 , - , 1961, , 361,929, , 6 , , Purdue (66,284) , , 60,322 , - , 1962, , 368,200, , 6 , , Iowa (65,061), , 61,367 , - , 1963, , 286,797, , 5, , Michigan (61,817), , 57,759 , - , 1964, , 268,908, , 5, , Iowa (62,514), , 53,782 , - , 1965, , 302,747, , 6, , Michigan (58,519), , 50,458 , - , 1966, , 248,248, , 5, , Iowa (62,631), , 49,600 , - , 1967, , 237,798, , 6 , , Michigan State (56,334), , 39,633 , - , 1968, , 312,806, , 6 , , USC (60,820), , 52,134 , - , 1969, , 272,449, , 6 , , Ohio State (52,972), , 45,417 , - , 1970, , 225,468, , 5, , Nebraska (52,539), , 45,093 , - , 1971, , 207,662, , 6 , , Michigan (44,412), , 34,610 , - , 1972, , 222,079, , 6, , Iowa (44,196), , 37,013 , - , 1973, , 252,917, , 6, , Nebraska (56,782), , 42,153 , - , 1974, , 226,127 , , 6 , , Ohio State (45,411), , 37,688 , - , 1975, , 220,081 , , 7 , , Wisconsin (37,578), , 31,440 , - , 1976, , 262,878, , 6, , Iowa (53,222), , 43,813 , - , 1977, , 247,118, , 7 , , Michigan (44,165), , 35,303 , - , 1978, , 231,411, , 6, , Ohio State (52,209), , 38,569 , - , 1979, , 241,952, , 6, , Purdue (47,281), , 40,325 , - , 1980 , , 265,105, , 6, , Iowa (58,158), , 44,184 , - , 1981, , 301,248, , 7 , , Michigan (52,875) , , 43,035

References

*
University of Minnesota 2006 Football Media Guide - Records

External links

Memorial Stadium
at the

.
Memorial Stadium
at the Minnesota Historical Society. {{University of Minnesota campus 1924 establishments in Minnesota 1981 disestablishments in Minnesota American football venues in Minnesota Defunct college football venues Defunct National Football League venues Demolished sports venues in Minnesota Minnesota Golden Gophers football venues Sports venues completed in 1924 Sports venues demolished in 1992 Sports venues in Minneapolis