Bearcat Stadium
Encyclopedia
is the football stadium of the Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University is a state university in Maryville, Missouri. Founded in 1905 as a teachers college, it offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. The campus, based on the design for Forest Park at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, is the official Missouri State Arboretum....
Bearcats in Maryville, Missouri
Maryville, Missouri
Maryville is a city in Nodaway County, Missouri, United States. The population was 10,581 at the 2000 census. The town, organized on February 14, 1845, was named for Mrs. Mary Graham, wife of Amos Graham, then the county clerk. Mary was the first Caucasian woman to have lived within the boundaries...
and is the oldest continuous site for any NCAA Division II school.
It has a capacity of 6,500 and had lights and FieldTurf installed in the summer of 2007.
It is part of the Ryland Milner Complex which includes Bearcat Arena
Bearcat Arena
Bearcat Arena is a 2,500 seat multi-purpose arena in Maryville, Missouri. It was built in 1959 and renovated in 1993. It is the home of the Northwest Missouri State University basketball and volleyball teams....
in the Uel W. Lamkin
Uel W. Lamkin
Uel Walter Lamkin was president of Northwest Missouri State University from 1921 to 1945.Lamkin was born in California, Missouri. He attended the private Clinton, Missouri Academy run by his father...
Activity Center (formerly "Lamkin Gym") which is where the college basketball team plays, Martindale Gymnasium (the original school gymnasium), and the Robert P. Foster Aquatic Center. The field is surrounded by the Herschel Neil Track (named for a university student and rival of Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the...
who held several NCAA track records in the 1930s). The playing field itself is called Tjeerdsma Field in honor of the school's winning football coach Mel Tjeerdsma
Mel Tjeerdsma
Mel Tjeerdsma is a retired American football coach. He served as the head coach at Austin College in Sherman, Texas from 1984 to 1993 and at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri from 1994 until his retirement after the 2010 season. In his 27 years as a head coach, Tjeerdsma...
.
History
The stadium originally opened in 1917 as Memorial Stadium, which replaced a field on the north side of the Administration Building of the college which had started operations in 1906.In 1961 it was named Rickenbrode Stadium for long-time university business manager and athletic booster William Rickenbrode. Through the 1970s the stadium which had lights was the home field for the Maryville High School
Maryville High School
Maryville High School is the public high school for Maryville, Missouri. It is the only institution to have the Spoofhound for a mascot. It is a Missouri State High School Activities Association Class II school...
Spoofhounds and was used as a venue for various civic functions including the annual 4 July display.
In the 1970s Northwest began construction of a new stadium on the west side of the campus. However funds ran out as Northwest began competing for funding with the newly founded Missouri Western State University
Missouri Western State University
Missouri Western State University is a public, co-educational university located in Saint Joseph, Missouri. The school enrolls 6,010 undergraduate students and 124 graduate students.-History:...
40 miles south in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1988 the State of Missouri under Governor John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
announced plans to close Northwest altogether. Following spirited opposition, the plans were reversed and Northwest found it in a position of having to aggressively find ways to differentiate it from its rival if it wanted to survive.
In 1994 Mel Tjeerdsma
Mel Tjeerdsma
Mel Tjeerdsma is a retired American football coach. He served as the head coach at Austin College in Sherman, Texas from 1984 to 1993 and at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri from 1994 until his retirement after the 2010 season. In his 27 years as a head coach, Tjeerdsma...
, who had a stellar playoff coaching reputation from his jobs at Northwestern College (Iowa)
Northwestern College (Iowa)
Northwestern College is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Orange City, Iowa. It is also known as Northwestern IA. It is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America . Northwestern began as an academy in 1882. It was then upgraded to junior college status in 1928...
and Austin College
Austin College
Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated by covenant relationship with the Presbyterian Church and located in Sherman, Texas, about 60 miles North of Dallas....
, started coaching at Northwest. The first season on the job, his team went 0-11.
In 1996 they made it to the NCAA Division II playoffs. However because of poor conditions they were unable to play home games for which they were entitled.
In 1998 and 1999 Northwest won back-to-back Division II championships in games broadcast nationally on ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
. Interest in the university immediately soared with the St. Louis Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
flying the team to a championship game and the Bearcats playing one game a year at Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium is a stadium located in Kansas City, Missouri and home to the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs....
. Partially as a result, Missouri finally managed to finish the long-stalled plan to create a four-lane highway between St. Joseph and Maryville.
In 2000 the east visitor grandstand was completely rebuilt, funded by students of the university. Following the 2001 season, the west home grandstand was demolished (with temporary bleachers put in place for the 2002 season). In 2003 the stadium—with its new west grandstand with chairback and railback seating—was unveiled. During the renovation the stadium lights were taken down (and would be ultimately put up in 2007). The new stadium has ten luxury boxes and the scoreboard has video replay features. The video board is one of the few that offers instant replay at the NCAA Division II level. The entire $5 million overhaul was privately paid for by alumni and boosters. The stadium was renamed Bearcat Stadium in 2004 to honor the contributions of the many individuals and organizations who worked in the fundraising efforts.
On December 9, 2006, the stadium hosted the first nationally televised home game in the school's and Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association's history when Northwest defeated Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, commonly referred to as Bloomsburg, BU or Bloom, is a public university in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States...
in the semifinals of Division II football. The game was broadcast on ESPNU
ESPNU
ESPNU is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced by, affiliated with and owned by parent network ESPN. ESPNU originates out of ESPN Regional Television's ESPNU (often referred to as The U) is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced...
which brought in lights (previously used by Musco Lighting
Musco Lighting
Musco Lighting is an American privately owned company, based out of Oskaloosa, Iowa that is noted for providing permanent or temporary lighting at major sports events and stadiums including the Super Bowl and Olympics....
at Ohio Stadium
Ohio Stadium
Ohio Stadium is the home of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team and is located on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service on March 22, 1974...
during the Michigan - Ohio State
Michigan-Ohio State rivalry
The Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry, also known as The Game, is an American college football rivalry game played annually by the Wolverines of the University of Michigan and the Buckeyes of The Ohio State University...
game) to illuminate the field. It was the first night game at the stadium since 1977.
During the summer months of 2007, the natural turf was replaced by artificial turf and lights were added. The new field was dedicated on August 22, 2007 during a game against Arkansas Tech University
Arkansas Tech University
Arkansas Tech University is a comprehensive regional institution located in Russellville, Arkansas, United States. The university offers programs at both baccalaureate and graduate levels in a range of fields. As of 2004, the University also operates a small satellite campus in the town of Ozark...
which had to be called after two delays with 2 minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter following a thunder and hail storm with Northwest leading 21-0 (it was later ruled a "no contest" by the NCAA). Tjeerdsma said afterwards:
- I will remember this night for all the weird things that went with it
On December 8, 2007, it hosted its second nationally televised game (with its new lights supplemented by Musco Lighting) as it defeated Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University is a public liberal arts university located in Allendale, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1960, and its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids...
to advance again to the Division II championship on ESPN2 with Gary Thorne as play-by-play and Bob Davie as color analyst. It hosted ESPN2 the following year when the Bearcats hosted the University of North Alabama and CBS College Sports in 2009 for the semifinal game against California University of Pennsylvania.