Dacotah Field is an outdoor stadium in the north central

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, on the campus of

North Dakota State University North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. It was ...

(NDSU) in

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

. It is the former home of the

North Dakota State Bison football The North Dakota State Bison football program represents North Dakota State University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level and competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Bison play in ...

team, and the current home of the

North Dakota State Bison women's soccer The North Dakota State Bison soccer team is the NCAA Division I women's soccer team that represents North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. The program began its first season in 1995 under head coach Gordon Henderson. The Bison ar ...

team. The field runs east-west at an approximate

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. Dacotah Field opened in 1910, north of Festive Hall on campus. A quarter-mile cinder track and a 7,000-seat stadium were added in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

as part of one of the federal government's

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

(WPA) construction projects; it had a final

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 13,000. The field moved farther north in 1949 to its present location, completed in time for the

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

season. A 1952 fire destroyed two-thirds of the north stands but, in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

, the remaining wooden bleachers were replaced with a new 7,000-seat grandstand, courtesy of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

. NDSU won its final game at Dacotah Field in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and still uses the turf for practice and high school games. In

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

, the team moved to the 18,700-seat

Fargodome Fargodome is an indoor athletic stadium and convention center in the West North Central states, north central United States, located on the campus of North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, North Dakota. It opened in 1992 and is owned and ...

, adjacent to the north. In 2013, the NDSU women's soccer team moved from Ellig Sports Complex to Dacotah Field. Major renovations were completed prior to the move, including new bleacher seating, lighting, sound system, and scoreboard; its seating capacity was reduced to 2,600 during the renovations. In

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, a $1 million project added a bubble to enable year-round use as a multi-use event and practice facility. The

air-supported structure An air-supported (or air-inflated) structure is any building that derives its structural integrity from the use of internal pressurized air to inflate a pliable material (i.e. structural fabric) envelope, so that air is the main support of the st ...

hosted its first football practice on December 1, and new artificial turf was installed in the summer of 2017. In 2022, after the completion of the nearby NoDak Insurance Football Performance Complex that is just south of Dacotah Field and the

Scheels Center Scheels Center is a 5,460 seat multi-purpose arena in Fargo, North Dakota. It was built in 1970 and was home to the North Dakota State University Bison basketball and wrestling teams through the 2013–14 season. It was previously named the Bison ...

, the NDSU football team ceased year-round use of the field and the bubble was permanently taken down. A new scoreboard on the west side of the field was installed back in 2021 for sole use by the NDSU women's soccer team.

References

External links

Dacotah Field historyNDSU Campus Building Directory
North Dakota State Bison football Defunct college football venues Sports venues in North Dakota Buildings and structures in Fargo, North Dakota 1910 establishments in North Dakota College soccer venues in the United States Sports venues completed in 1910 Soccer venues in North Dakota High school football venues in the United States College football venues in North Dakota {{NorthDakota-stadium-stub