Memorial Stadium

Memorial Stadium is the most recognizable and well-known building at the University of Nebraska. The stadium has gone through many changes since it was built in 1923 at the cost of  $450,000. Before the stadium was constructed, the football team played on a field called Nebraska field. Games were hosted on this field from 1909 to 1922. Unlike Memorial Stadium today Nebraska field was oriented east to west. Also the buildings Brace Lab and Richards Hall were very snug to Nebraska field so the stadium was built north of both buildings. The stadium was designed by John Latenser Sr. an architect from Omaha. It was named Memorial Stadium to honor all of the Nebraskans that served in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and the 751 Nebraskans who died in World War 1.

 

The first expansion of the stadium happened in 1964 where putting seats in South Stadium took the capacity from 31,080 to 48,000. The next big expansion happened in 1965 to North Stadium bringing the capacity to 65,000. In 1972 the South End was expanded further to add another 9,000 seats. From 1999 - 2017 there have been various expansions of seats and luxury boxes bringing the stadium to its capacity today of 90,000. Permanent lights weren’t installed until 1999 and in 2018 they were replaced with a new LED system. In 2014 a 12.3 million-dollar audio system was installed to replace the previous 20 year old version.