The stadium was built in 1966 and is named after Theodore "Spud" Harder, a former coach of the Gauchos' football team. It hosted Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers who trained there ahead of the 1967 Super Bowl. The UC-Santa Barbara football team played their home games at Harder Stadium until football was cut after the 1971 season due to budget cuts. UCSB brought football back as a non-scholarship sport in 1983 and by 1987 was playing a full Division II and III schedule. In 1992, the NCAA ruled that Division I colleges must play at the Division I level in all sports; UCSB and a few other universities attempted to form a non-scholarship Division I-AAA level, but the effort failed and UCSB eventually dropped football. The stadium has a capacity of 17,000 people, and currently is the largest stadium on California's Central Coast. Along with the UCSB Events Center, it is one of the more well-attended athletic venues in the Central Coast. Harder Stadium hosted a memorial service for the victims of the 2014 Isla Vista Killings. Guests in attendance included UC President Janet Napolitano, and over 20,000 students, staff, alumni, and community members. The stadium seats were filled over capacity as thousands more sat on the grass field.
Soccer legacy
Harder Stadium sees most of its present-day use as a soccer stadium to the UCSB men's soccer and women's soccer teams. The stadium hosted the final three matches of the 2010 College Cup. However, a number of professional club and international teams have played in Harder Stadium as well.
Due to the success of the men's program, the stadium has hosted numerous NCAA soccer playoff games in addition to the regular season games. Despite the men's program recent success, it was the women's program who first brought the NCAA Tournaments to Harder Stadium. The women hosted the first soccer NCAA Tournament game in a 1985 4-3 victory against Cal State Hayward. In total, the women's program has held 4 NCAA Tournament matches at Harder Stadium, bringing such opponents as the Wisconsin Badgers, Stanford Cardinal, and Hartford Hawks. The men's program hosted their first men's NCAA Tournament game in 2002, blanking the San Diego Toreros 2-0. In total, they have hosted 9 NCAA Tournament games. In 2004, 11,214 fans saw UCSB defeat Virginia Commonwealth 4-1 to reach the College Cup. After the game, a group of students celebrated by carrying one of the soccer goals out of the stadium. They had planned to throw it into the Pacific Ocean, but were stopped by a combination of law enforcement down the block and tiring out from the weight of the goal. However, in 2006, the UCSB won the 2006 Division I Men's College Cup in St. Louis, Missouri. Meanwhile, 2,000 miles away at Harder Stadium, a group of rowdy students marched down to the stadium from their homes and attempted the same feat. This time the group succeeded in their quest, throwing the soccer goal off of a cliff at the beginning of the 6600 block of Del Playa Drive. In 2009, the NCAA awarded UCSB and Harder Stadium the 2010 Division I Men's College Cup, which is the "Final Four" of Division I men's soccer. On September 24, 2010, the UCSB gaucho fans set a record on the highest attendance at any NCAA soccer match. UCSB beat the visiting UCLA team in front of 15,896 who attended the game. Additional UCSB teams that use the stadium for select contests are the UCSB women's lacrosse, men's lacrosse and rugby teams. These teams are part of the UCSB Recreation Department and open to all students.
