Know Your Stadiums – Kidd Brewer Stadium

October 3, 2014 · By · Filed Under Football, Sun Belt Conference 
Ariel photo of Kidd Brewer stadium taken in 2009 | photo: wikipedia.org

Ariel photo of Kidd Brewer stadium taken in 2009 | photo: wikipedia.org

We like to spotlight the story and history behind any new stadium that the Jaguars are set to visit. This week the Jags travel to Boone, NC to face the Appalachian State Mountaineers at Kidd Brewer Stadium, AKA ‘The Rock’.

Appalachian State plays their home games at Kidd Brewer Stadium located in Boone, North Carolina on the campus of Appalachian State University. It is a multipurpose stadium nicknamed “The Rock” and sits at a height of 3,280 feet above sea level. In addition to being home to the NCAA FCS Champion football team for 2005-2007, it serves as the home for the Field Hockey and Track and Field teams. It has undergone several changes in its history.

The stadium officially opened on September 15, 1962 as Conrad Stadium in honor of former University trustee and R.J. Reynolds executive William J. Conrad. It was constructed as a 10,000 permanent seat stadium and would hold the same capacity through 1978.

In 1970 it would be the first stadium in the Carolina’s to install artificial turf when Astroturf was installed. The first game on the new artificial turf was against Elon on October 3, 1970.

Following the 1978 season the stadium saw its first expansion which added 8,000 seats. A year later it would host the second college football game to ever be televised by ESPN when the Mountaineers played the Western Carolina Catamounts for the Old Mountain Jug.

In 1995 an extensive renovation and restoration project was undertaken on the original 10,000 seats which readjusted the seating capacity down to 16,650 from 18,000.

In 1999, they installed the “AppVision” video board and followed that in 2001 with an enlargement of the video board.

In 2003, they were again first to install FieldTurf which is still in use today.

After the 2006 season the press box was removed and replaced by a 100,000 square foot stadium complex which houses strength and conditioning and athletic training facilities for all of the Mountaineers 20 varsity sports. It also houses extensive locker rooms, academic, office and meeting spaces for student-athletes, coaches and administrators.

On the stadium’s west side they also added 18 luxury suites, 500 club seats and the Yosef and Chancellor’s Box areas.

In 2008 an additional 4,400 seats were added to the east side which increased seating to 20,150. The premium seating, which included the suites, club seats in the Yosef club and Chancellor’s area expanded the seating to 21,650.

In 2011 an additional 1,500 seats were brought in to expanded to 23,150 and finally in 2012 the temporary section was expanded to reach the current capacity of 24,050.

On September 3, 1998 the stadium was renamed in honor of Kidd Brewer, one of the most successful head coaches in Mountaineer football history. He served as head coach from 1935-1938 and had a 30-5-3 record in four years. His 1937 team was unbeaten and did not allow a score in the regular season.

From 2003 through October 20, 2007 the Mountaineers held a 30 game winning stream, the longest in Division I at the time, before losing to Georgia Southern. Their last home loss prior was to Maine on November 20, 2002.

The largest crowd to take in a game at the stadium was recorded on October 9, 2010 when 31,531 came for the Mountaineers win over Elon 34-31.

South Alabama and Appalachian State will kickoff at 5pm CDT on Saturday in Boone. The game can be seen on ESPN3.

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