Stadium in Evanston, Illinois
Ryan Field
View from northeast corner in 2006
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Show map of the United States
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Former names
| Dyche Stadium (1926?1996)
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Location
| 1501 Central Street
Evanston, Illinois
, U.S.
[1]
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Coordinates
| 42°3′56″N
87°41′33″W
/
42.06556°N 87.69250°W
/
42.06556; -87.69250
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Owner
| Northwestern University
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Operator
| Northwestern University
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Capacity
| 47,130 (1997?2023)
Former capacity
-
- 48,187 (1996)
- 49,256 (1982?1995)
- 48,500 (1975?1981)
- 55,000 (1954?1974)
- 52,000 (1949?1953)
- 47,000 (1927?1934)
- 25,000 (1926)
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Surface
| Grass
: 1997?2023
Astroturf
: 1973?1996
Grass: 1926?1972
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|
Broke ground
| April 8, 1926
[2]
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Opened
| October 2, 1926
; 97 years ago
(
1926-10-02
)
[5]
|
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Renovated
| 1996
|
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Expanded
| 1949, 1952
|
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Closed
| November 25, 2023
; 5 months ago
(
2023-11-25
)
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Demolished
| January 29, 2024 (started)
|
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Construction cost
| $
2.6 million (original)
[3]
($44.7 million in 2023
[4]
)
1996 renovation:
$20 million
|
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Architect
| James Gamble Rogers
[1]
|
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General contractor
| J. B. French Construction Company
[1]
|
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|
Northwestern Wildcats
(
NCAA
) (1926?2023)
|
|
nusports.com/ryan-field
|
Ryan Field
was a
stadium
in the
central
United States
, located in
Evanston, Illinois
, a suburb north of
Chicago
. Near the campus of
Northwestern University
, it was primarily used for
American football
, and was the home field of the
Northwestern Wildcats
of the
Big Ten Conference
. Before its demolition in 2024, it was the only
FBS
stadium
without permanent lighting, and its final
seating capacity
was 47,130. The stadium closed at the end of the 2023 season, and preparation for demolition began on January 29, 2024 to make way for a new Ryan Field on the site. On April 17th, 2024, Ryan Field was fully demolished after 97 years of
Northwestern Wildcats football
.
[6]
Opened 98 years ago in
1926
, it was named
Dyche Stadium
for William Dyche, class of 1882, Evanston mayor from 1895 to 1899 and overseer of the building project.
[7]
The stadium was renamed Ryan Field in
1997
in honor of the family of
Aon Corporation
founder
Patrick G. Ryan
,
[8]
who was then the chairman of Northwestern's board of trustees. The renaming was made by the other members of the board in recognition of the Ryan family's leadership and numerous contributions to Northwestern, including the lead gift to the Campaign for Athletic Excellence, Northwestern's fundraising drive for athletic facilities.
History
[
edit
]
At the time it was constructed, Dyche Stadium was considered one of the finest college football stadiums in the country.
[9]
The stadium originally consisted of two semi-circular grandstands on either sideline, with the west (home) sideline having a small, curved upper deck whose 2 ends abut in matching concrete towers. The purpose of the curved grandstands was to maximize the number of fans sitting close to the action.
[9]
A preliminary proposal featured both the west and east grandstands having symmetrical triple decks but was never realized because of cost overruns resulting from an accelerated construction schedule and average attendance figures that rarely approached 50,000.
[7]
End zone seating was later added in the south, and in 1952
McGaw Memorial Hall
was built beyond the north end zone.
The stadium had a natural grass surface when it opened. It switched to
artificial turf
in
1973
and was used until
1996
. Before the
1997
season, the natural grass surface was restored, and the playing surface was lowered approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) to improve sight lines from the lowest rows of the stadium.
The
Chicago Bears
played their first home game of the
1970
season vs. the
Philadelphia Eagles
at Dyche Stadium on September 27 as an experiment; the
NFL
had required that the Bears move out of
Wrigley Field
because its
seating capacity
was under 50,000, which was below the minimum set out by the newly constituted post-merger NFL. Also, the
Chicago Cubs
were in a September
pennant race
with the
Pittsburgh Pirates
and
New York Mets
in the
National League
East.
[10]
If Wrigley Field was needed for postseason baseball games, the temporary grandstand for football along the east sideline (in right and center field) would not be available until late October. After Evanston residents petitioned city officials to block the team from moving there permanently and the
Big Ten Conference
opposed the Bears' use of Northwestern's stadium, the Bears ended up moving to Chicago's
Soldier Field
the
following year
.
The stadium hosted the
1932 Women's
(July 16) and
1948 Men's
(July 9?10)
US Olympic Trials for track and field
. The venue also hosted the
NCAA track and field championships
in
1943
.
[11]
It also hosted the summer
College All-Star Game
in 1943 and 1944, which had usually been instead held at Chicago's Soldier Field. Both games were played at night with the use of temporary lights.
[12]
The college all-stars held their practices for the game at Dyche Stadium in years such as 1934 and 1935.
[13]
Pending replacement
[
edit
]
Grandstands and exterior view in November 2006
On September 22, 2021, Northwestern announced that the Ryan family had donated $480 million to the university, the largest donation in its history. The donation supported several academic initiatives and provided initial funding for replacing Ryan Field with a new stadium at the current site.
[14]
[15]
A year later, Northwestern announced initial design concepts for the new stadium, and also announced that the Ryans had committed to adding to the initial stadium gift. The new Ryan Field will seat 35,000, more than 12,000 less than the current stadium, and feature a canopy to better focus light and noise toward the field and away from the surrounding neighborhood. Also, it will be entirely privately funded.
[16]
It will have a much smaller footprint than the current stadium; Northwestern released a preliminary schematic indicating that the most distant seats would be roughly the same distance from the sidelines as the back rows of the lower deck of the (much larger)
Notre Dame Stadium
.
[17]
[
non-primary source needed
]
Northwestern's plan to use the new stadium as a commercial concert venue had been met with opposition from stadium neighbors and other Evanston residents.
[18]
Issues included Northwestern's alleged failure to address issues of noise, parking, traffic congestion, and public safety.
[19]
Additionally, some have questioned the stadium's continuing to have a property tax exemption while being used for commercial purposes.
On January 20, 2024, it was announced that a demolition process, without explosives, would begin on January 29. The process is expected to take 4 to 6 months, after confirmation that a new, $800 million stadium would replace the current, aging one.
[20]
Renaming controversy
[
edit
]
Northwestern's decision to rename Dyche Stadium to Ryan Field defied the university's own 1926 resolution that forbade such a change. School officials said that a private institution can override previous boards' decisions, and dismissed the earlier resolution as a "show of appreciation." But NU did not explain why a mere gesture of appreciation would expressly state that any football stadium at any location would retain the name Dyche, as indeed the 1926 resolution does. The Dyche family was not notified of the change; NU claimed that the only descendant they found was a grandniece, despite other family members living in Chicago and being listed in the phone book. After the family protested, NU said it was willing to install an informational plaque at the stadium, noting its former name.
[21]
Transportation
[
edit
]
The closest transit stations are
Metra
commuter railroad's
Central Street station
and
Chicago Transit Authority
's
Central
station on the
Purple Line
.
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Parts of
The Express: The Ernie Davis Story
, a 2008 film about
Syracuse University
Heisman Trophy
winner
Ernie Davis
starring
Rob Brown
as Davis, and
Dennis Quaid
as Davis' Syracuse coach,
Ben Schwartzwalder
, were filmed at Ryan Field.
[22]
Parts of
Four Friends
, a 1981 film directed by
Arthur Penn
, were filmed at Dyche Stadium.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Ryan Field"
. Ballparks.com. Archived from
the original
on January 20, 2017
. Retrieved
November 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Northwestern Starts Work on New $1,000,000 Stadium"
.
Chicago Daily Tribune
. April 8, 1926. p. 26
. Retrieved
November 13,
2013
.
- ^
"Northwestern's New Field Named Dyche Stadium"
.
Chicago Tribune
. October 28, 1926
. Retrieved
September 28,
2011
.
- ^
1634?1699:
McCusker, J. J.
(1997).
How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda
(PDF)
.
American Antiquarian Society
.
1700?1799:
McCusker, J. J.
(1992).
How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States
(PDF)
.
American Antiquarian Society
.
1800?present:
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
"Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800?"
. Retrieved
February 29,
2024
.
- ^
LaTourette, Larry (2005).
Northwestern Wildcat Football
. Chicago: Arcadia Publishing. p. 35.
ISBN
0-7385-3433-1
. Retrieved
September 28,
2011
.
- ^
"Ryan Field demolition set to begin the week of Jan. 29"
.
Northwestern Now
. Northwestern University. January 19, 2024
. Retrieved
January 30,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Pope, Ben. "Football: Northwestern and Ryan Field’s near-ascendency into college football glory,"
The Daily Northwestern
(Northwestern University), Tuesday, November 22, 2016.
Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^
"Northwestern University Campus Maps: Ryan Field"
.
maps.northwestern.edu
. Retrieved
2023-12-21
.
- ^
a
b
Pridmore, Jay (2000).
Northwestern University: Celebrating 150 Years
. Northwestern University Press. p. 126.
- ^
"Pennant race at a glance"
.
Spokesman-Review
. (Spokane, Washington). September 16, 1970. p. 16.
- ^
"DI Men's Track & Field (O) Championship History | NCAA.com"
.
www.ncaa.com
. Retrieved
2022-01-21
.
- ^
"Recalling the Night That Nu Lit up the Big 10"
. 31 August 1988.
- ^
Schmidt, Raymond (2001).
Football's Stars of Summer: A History of the College All-Star Football Game Series of 1934-1976
. Lanham, Maryland; London, England: Scarecrow Press.
ISBN
9780810840270
. Retrieved
April 21,
2015
.
- ^
"Ryan Family Makes Largest Gift in Northwestern History"
(Press release). Northwestern Wildcats. September 22, 2021
. Retrieved
September 30,
2022
.
- ^
<
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/09/06/funded-by-the-same-480-million-gift-as-stadium-proposal-ryan-institute-launches-at-northwestern/
>
- ^
"N'western gets city council's OK for new stadium"
.
ESPN
. 2023-11-21
. Retrieved
2023-12-21
.
- ^
"Ryan Field: A New Vision"
. Northwestern University
. Retrieved
September 30,
2022
.
- ^
<
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/evanston/ct-evr-ryan-field-update-tl-1110-20221107-v5jmvrpofbbynabzponkwjh2mm-story.html
>
- ^
<
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2023/03/25/guest-essay-neighborhood-representatives-on-ryan-field-stadium-working-group/
>
- ^
"Northwestern gets green light to move forward with Ryan Field rebuild"
.
news.northwestern.edu
.
- ^
Morrissey, Rick (September 19, 1997).
"For Dyche Clan, Perpetuity Didn't Last Long"
.
Chicago Tribune
. Chicago, Illinois
. Retrieved
July 10,
2016
.
- ^
Bhattarai, Abha (May 1, 2007).
"Bringing Hollywood to NU"
.
Daily Northwestern
. Northwestern University. Archived from
the original
on May 3, 2007
. Retrieved
May 6,
2007
.
External links
[
edit
]
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- Founded
: 1851
- Students
: 21,208
- Endowment
: 15 billion
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