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University Stadium (Waterloo)
Encyclopedia
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
with a capacity of 6,000. It is home to the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks
Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks
The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks is the name used by the varsity sports teams of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the Ontario University Athletics conference of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport and, where applicable, in the west...
football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
, rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, and lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
teams. The track is closed to the public. The stadium has also been used by the nearby University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
Warriors for their home football games. The Warriors played their final season at University Stadium in 2008, after which time they moved to the new Warrior Field on the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
north campus. http://news.therecord.com/article/302082http://www.athletics.uwaterloo.ca/varsity/sports/2008_2009/football/warrior_field.htm
Seagram Stadium was built for the University of Waterloo
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...
in 1957 with a $250,000 donation from Joseph E. Seagram and Sons Ltd.
Seagram
The Seagram Company Ltd. was a large corporation headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that was the largest distiller of alcoholic beverages in the world. Toward the end of its independent existence it also controlled various entertainment and other business ventures...
and additional contributions from Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro
Ontario Hydro was the official name from 1974 of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario which was established in 1906 by the provincial Power Commission Act to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity generated by private companies already operating at Niagara...
and the City of Waterloo. It formally opened on May 7, 1958. From 1968 to 1974, UW leased the stadium to the city, until August 12, 1974 when the university agreed to sell the stadium—which was in need of extensive repairs—to the city for $1 million. In July 1992, the city sold the facility to Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University is a university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It also has campuses in Brantford, Ontario, Kitchener, Ontario and Toronto, Ontario and a future proposed campus in Milton, Ontario. It is named in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada....
, also for $1 million. Artificial turf
Artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
was installed in 1994 at a cost of $1.7 million. The stadium was renamed University Stadium and Sports Centre in March 1995.
In 2007, the stadium underwent a major $5-million renovation, including replacing the field's playing surface with Fieldturf
FieldTurf
FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by the FieldTurf Tarkett division of Tarkett Inc., based in Calhoun, Georgia, USA. In the late 1990s, the artificial surface changed the industry with a design intended to replicate real grass...
, overhauling the bleachers and re-naming the football field to Knight-Newbrough Field (although the name of the field itself has changed, the stadium as a whole is currently retaining the name University Stadium.) The name honours two influential figures in Laurier athletics history, former football head coaches Dave "Tuffy" Knight
Tuffy Knight
David "Tuffy" Knight is a former coach of Canadian university football and a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame....
and Rich Newbrough.
University Stadium is located near Waterloo Park on Seagram Drive.