Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium
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| Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium |
|
|---|---|
| Location | Don Nehlen Dr Morgantown, WV 26505 |
| Opened | September 6, 1980 |
| Owner | West Virginia Univ. |
| Operator | West Virginia Univ. |
| Surface | AstroPlay |
| Construction cost | $22 million |
| Tenants | |
| West Virginia Mountaineers (NCAA) (1980-Present) | |
| Seats | |
| 60,000 | |
Milan Puskar Stadium, in Morgantown, West Virginia, is the football stadium for West Virginia University. The facility's complete name is Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, although fans more commonly refer to it by its original name of Mountaineer Field.
The original Mountaineer Field was located on the school's downtown campus, but it could not be expanded or modernized due to the proximity of campus buildings and roads near the stadium. It seated 38,000 when it was last used in 1979. The new stadium was originally to be called Mountaineer Stadium, but the fans ignored this and called it New Mountaineer Field, with the "new" eventually falling into disuse.
Mountaineer Field was constructed in 1980 on the former site of a golf course between the Law School and Medical School buildings. The stadium's original cost was $22 million. Upon completion it had a seating a capacity of 50,000. The stadium has been expanded as follows: in 1985 7,500 seats were added to the south end zone for $7.5 million, the next year 6,000 seats were added to the north endzone for $650,000, and in 2004 luxury suites were added for a cost of $12.1 million. The most recent expansion actually reduced the seating capacity by 3,500, so the current capacity is 60,000. The facility received its current name in 2004 in honor of Milan Puskar, co-founder of generic drug manufacturer Mylan Laboratories and a longtime major donor to both WVU and its athletics program.
The stadium has occasionally hosted larger crowds than its listed capacity; the current attendance record is 70,222 against Miami on November 20, 1993. The listed capacity is larger than the population of any city in West Virginia and on game days, Morgantown temporarily becomes the largest city in West Virginia.
Mountaineer Field has also hosted non-university football games in the past. One notable game was a pre-season exhibition match on August 22, 1998 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons, both National Football League teams. Old Mountaineer Field had also hosted an NFL game in 1968 between the Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The stadium is also the location where the annual "MoHawk Bowl" is played between Morgantown High School and University High School, the two public high schools located in Morgantown.
When the stadium was dedicated in the fall of 1980, fans were surprised when singer John Denver made an appearance and led the fans in the singing of his hit song Take Me Home, Country Roads. The song has been played at every Mountaineers home game since 1972. In recent years, the song has been the subject of a new tradition; after a Mountaineers win, the players lead the crowd in singing the song.
Denver's 1980 appearance marked the dedication of the new stadium as well as the first game for coach Don Nehlen.
[edit] External links
| Football Stadiums of the Big East Conference |
|---|
| Carrier Dome (Syracuse) • Heinz Field (Pittsburgh) • Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium (West Virginia) • Nippert Stadium (Cincinnati) • Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (Louisville) • Raymond James Stadium (South Florida) • Rentschler Field (Connecticut) • Rutgers Stadium (Rutgers) |
