Ludwig Field (officially Kehoe Track at Ludwig Field) is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

stadium located on the campus of the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

(UMD) in

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located approximately from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. Its population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the home of the University of Mary ...

. Since its opening in 1995, it has been the home of the Terrapin men's and women's soccer teams. The facility also includes a

running track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...

History

Kehoe Track at Ludwig Field was dedicated on September 16, 1995 and is home to the University of Maryland's

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

teams. Built at a cost of $2.5 million, the facility is named after former Maryland track head coach and director of athletics

Jim Kehoe James Henry Kehoe, Jr. (June 3, 1918 – January 17, 2010) was an American athletics coach and university administrator. He served as the athletic director at the University of Maryland from 1969 to 1978, during which time he was responsible f ...

, and Bob and Louise Ludwig, long-time supporters of Maryland Athletics. A state-of-the-art scoreboard was added to the north end of the stadium in 2004. In 2007, a media press box was installed behind the west grandstand and an additional 1,500 seats were added to increase seating capacity from 4,500 to 6,000. In 2009, the capacity increased from 6,500 to 7,000. Maryland men's soccer has won six

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

soccer championships (1996, 2002, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013), two

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

(B1G) championships (2014, 2016), and three NCAA national championships (2005, 2008, 2018) as tenants of Ludwig Field. Ludwig Field hosted the WCAC Boys' Lacrosse League Championship game every May from 2011 through 2023.

Attendance and Fan Support

Ludwig Field is one of the most well-attended college soccer facilities in the country. As of the 2019 season, Maryland has finished top-10 in attendance among all

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

men's soccer programs each year since 2002. Maryland led the Big Ten Conference in attendance during its inaugural campaign, hosting three of the top-10 largest home crowds in the NCAA and finishing second in the nation in total home attendance (43,008) and fourth in the nation in average home attendance (2,688) in 2014. The support for the men's soccer team includes a passionate fan group known as "The Crew." The Crew was formed in 2003 by student Mike Mastrantuono and a group of his friends, and has since grown to nearly 2000 fans. The first appearance of The Crew was at the first home game of the 2003 season, at which Maryland defeated

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

1-0. Though the facility's capacity is officially listed at 7,000, Maryland routinely hosts larger crowds. On October 14, 2011, Ludwig Field hosted its then-largest crowd with 7,957 spectators for the Maryland men's soccer victory over Duke. That attendance record was broken on September 6, 2013 when 8,397 fans looked on as Maryland men's soccer, in its final

season, defeated Duke.

Footnotes

External links

* {{Maryland Terrapins men's soccer navbox Soccer venues in Maryland University of Maryland, College Park facilities College soccer venues in the United States College lacrosse venues in the United States Sports venues completed in 1995 1995 establishments in Maryland College track and field venues in the United States Athletics (track and field) venues in Maryland Maryland Terrapins sports venues Maryland Terrapins soccer Maryland Terrapins track and field