Wildcat Stadium is an 11,015-seat open-air multi-purpose stadium in Durham, New Hampshire, on the campus of the University of New Hampshire. It is home to the New Hampshire Wildcats football, lacrosse and track and fieldvarsity teams. The stadium, which runs west-northwest, consists of a FieldTurf playing surface surrounded by a 400-metre track. On either side of the track are aluminum stands. The stadium lies just southwest of the Field House, which houses Lundholm Gym as well as Swazey Pool and the Jerry Azumah Performance Center. The stadium is a part of the main athletics area of campus, south of Main Street and west of the railroad tracks. It replaced Memorial Field, which has since been remodeled for use by women's field hockey, and lies diagonally across Main Street beside the Whittemore Center. The track and field facility surrounding the field is named after Reggie F. Atkins, UNH class of 1928, a star student athlete who in later life donated the funds to start building the facility.
History
The stadium was dedicated on October 10, 1936, with a football rivalry game against the Maine Black Bears. The first football game played in the stadium was actually held two weeks earlier, on September 26, 1936, against Lowell Textile Institute. The university's athletic facilities were originally named Lewis Fields after former university president Edward M. Lewis, with the football stadium referred to as Lewis Stadium or simply Lewis Field. In 1952, the stadium was formally named Cowell Stadium in honor of former football coach and athletic director William H. "Butch" Cowell. The field itself is Mooradian Field, named in 1994 to honor Andy Mooradian, a longtime UNH professor, coach, and athletic director. The stadium went through major renovations during the 2015 offseason. Plans called for a new seating section on the Eastern End Zone side, which included new restrooms, concession, and press box. It also called for restoration of the current Western End Zone seats, along with renaming the stadium.
Scoreboard controversy
The university was criticized for using $1 million for a video scoreboard in the stadium from a mostly unrestricted bequest of $4 million by Robert Morin, a former librarian at the university. One alumna stated, "The school's administrative decision to spend a quarter of Morin's generous donation on an inconsequential trinket for the athletic department is a complete disgrace to the spirit and memory of Robert Morin."
