Bronco Stadium

Bronco Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in Boise, Idaho, the home field of the Boise State Broncos of the Mountain West Conference. Since 1997, it has hosted the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Humanitarian Bowl from 1997-Jan. 2004 & 2007-10; MPC Computers Bowl from 2004-06), the longest-running outdoor bowl game in a cold-weather venue.

Opened in 1970, Bronco Stadium was also a track & field stadium; it hosted the NCAA track & field championships twice, in 1994 and 1999.[2] The stadium was used extensively for local high school football for decades until August 2012, when games were transferred to the new Dona Larsen Park, which is also the new home venue of Boise State's track & field team.

Bronco Stadium is widely known for its unusual blue playing surface, installed in 1986 as the first non-green playing surface (outside of painted end zones) in football history and remains the only one among NCAA Division I FBS schools.

Bronco Stadium is the fourth venue and second of the same name at Boise State; the three on-campus stadiums were built in 1940, 1950, and 1970, respectively.[4]

[edit]Public School Field

During its first years at its original campus, BJC football was played at "Public School Field," located three blocks north-northeast of today's Bronco Stadium. The site was the home of East Junior High School from 1953 to 2009, and was remodeled and became Dona Larsen Park in 2012.

[edit]College Field

After the college moved to its present campus in 1940, "College Field" opened in September 1940 with lights and a seating capacity of 1,000. Also called "Chaffee Field," it was used through 1949 for junior college football (photo - 1940s). In the 1950s it became the baseball field, until right field was displaced by the construction of the Student Union Building, which opened in 1967. The baseball field migrated slightly east, then north, until it was eliminated in 1980 by the construction of the BSU Pavilion and the relocation of the tennis courts. (Baseball was dropped by both BSU and Idaho following the 1980 season;[5] the Broncos played their home games at Borah Field during their final season.)

[edit]Bronco Stadium (I)

The first "Bronco Stadium" was built in three months in 1950 at the east end of campus, with wooden grandstands, a natural grass playing field, lights, and a cinder running track; seating capacity was 10,000.[6] It was in approximately the same location as the present stadium, but aligned northwest to southeast. (photo - 1964) The 45-degree offset was designed to keep the mid-afternoon sun of mid-October out of the players' eyes (but put it into the eyes of half of the spectators). Through 1968, the University of Idaho Vandals usually played one home game per season in Boise, at the original Bronco Stadium.[7] After Boise State joined the Big Sky in 1970, Idaho discontinued its practice of scheduling home games in Boise. (Idaho did use the new Bronco Stadium for a "home" game in 1971, but it was against Boise State in the first football game ever played between the schools. Idaho's new stadium on campus in Moscow was behind schedule so the university rented Bronco Stadium for its opening game. The underdog "visitors" of Boise State built a 28-7 lead at halftime and won handily 42-14 and a rivalry game was born.)

The Boise College football program upgraded from junior college to four-year status in 1968 and competed as an NAIA independent for two seasons. The school became Boise State College in 1969 and the Broncos were accepted into the NCAA in October.[8] A month later they were voted into the Big Sky Conference, effective fall 1970.[9] Following the 1969 football season, the first Bronco Stadium was razed in November and the new concrete stadium was ready for play in less than ten months.[4][10]

[edit]Bronco Stadium (II)

Boise State began NCAA competition in 1970 in Division II ("College Division" prior to 1973) in a brand new venue.[10] The first game at the new Bronco Stadium was on September 11th, a 49-14 victory over Chico State. The $2.2 million concrete stadium opened with a seating capacity of 14,500 and a green AstroTurf playing field, configured in the traditional north-south direction, and an all-weather running track. For its first five seasons, the stadium consisted of two sideline grandstands, the west side having an upper deck and the press box. (photo - 1971) Boise State became a charter member of NCAA Division II when the NCAA reorganized the former College Division in 1973.

Following the 1974 season, the school's first as Boise State University, an upper deck was added to the east side (photo - 1971) - (photo -1975), adding 5,500 seats as well as symmetry to the stadium. The permanent seating capacity grew to 20,000 for its Bronco Stadium's sixth season in 1975, with up to 2,600 temporary seats available in the north end zone seating for bigger games. The original green artificial turf was replaced with the same in 1978 as the Big Sky Conference and the Broncos moved up to the newly formed Division I-AA.

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