GlobeStadiums

Memorial Stadium is a stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Indiana University “Hoosiers”. Memorial Stadium opened in 1960 as part of a new athletics area at the university. and holds 52,354 people. The stadium is similar in structure to venues at Wake Forest (Groves Stadium) and Virginia Tech (Lane Stadium). It replaced the “old” Memorial Stadium, built in 1925, a 20,000 seat stadium located on 10th St where the arboretum now stands.

There have been many renovations since the original construction, including the replacement of wooden seats with aluminum, installation of sound and lighting systems, and laying of Astroturf in 1986, which was subsequently replaced with natural grass in 1998. Prior to the 2003 season, that natural grass was removed. Indiana now plays football on a synthetic surface.

On June 1, 2003 a $3.5 million renovation of the Memorial Stadium press box was completed. In the summer of 2003 the Hoosier locker room in Memorial Stadium underwent a $250,000 renovation. The facelift to the original 1986 facility included renovating and modernizing the existing space with new carpeting, lighting and a new bulkhead ceiling along with the installation of custom-built oak wood lockers for 105 football players. The renovation was funded in large part by former Hoosier quarterback Trent Green and his wife Julie.[citation needed]

In 2005, head football coach Terry Hoeppner nicknamed the stadium “The rock” and had a southern, Indiana limestone boulder installed in the north end zone as a new campus tradition. This limestone boulder was found prior to Hoeppner’s first season at IU in the Mellencamp practice field. It was removed, put on a granite slab and is now the icon for Memorial Stadium and the Hoosiers, before running onto the field.

[Source: Wikipedia]