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Wisconsin's New Stadium
Dedicated November 3, 1917
ISCONSIN'S new $40,000 athletic stadium at Camp Randall was auspiciouslv dedicated
on November 3. 1917, before a crowd of 10,000 alumni, students and townspeople, who
packed the concrete structure to view the titanic football struggle with Minnesota.
It wa Ilomecoming day. University and state officials solemnly dedicated the field between
halves of the game and the two teams gave the new gridiron its "baptism of battlej the Wisconsin
eleven fittingly commemorating the occasion with a magnificent victory over the Northmen.
The new stadium fills a long-felt need at Wisconsin, and will, when completed, stand as a great
monument to the leading university of the west. It comprises one of the finest football fields in
the west, and a quarter-mile cinder running track, embodying the most modern construction, will
be completed soon. The gridiron has a special double-drainage system which insures a dry field
S even after a series of heavy rains or much snow. The preparation of the field alone cost $8,500.
Until the demand for seats increases, the concrete stand on the west embankment will bear
the burden of the attendance. When completed, it will seat 10,000 people. At the games last
fall, when this section was not quite completed, further seating space was made available by the
use of the old covered grandstand and a section of wooden bleachers moved from the old field to
the new. These two sections furnished 3,000 additional seats. In time to come, larger crowds
are expected to require further concrete stands, and future generations of students will undoubt-
edly witness the playing field entirely enclosed by a mammoth concrete bowl."
The stadium is being built on money appropriated for that purpose by state legislatures and
bya lumni contributions. The legislature of 1915 set aside $20,000, alumni contributions added
$2.300. and the 1917 legislature appropriated $10,000.
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