Martin Stadium

football Stadium of the Washington State University Cougars

 

Photo taken by Bobak Ha'Eri , on October 18, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2008-1018-002-WSUMartinStadiumpan.JPG

 

Martin Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pullman , Washington , on the campus of Washington State University . Primarily used for college football , it is the home field of the Washington State Cougars of the Pacific-10 Conference . The FieldTurf playing field runs an unorthodox east-west, at an elevation of 2520 feet (768 m) above sea level .^[1]

The stadium is named after Clarence D. Martin , the governor of the state of Washington from 1933-41, and a former mayor of Cheney . Ironically, Martin was a 1906 graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle , WSU's in-state rival.

Martin Stadium opened on September 30, 1972 , with a disappointing loss to Utah .^[2] Two and a half years had passed since its predecessor, the wooden Rogers Field , was significantly damaged by fire, a suspected case of arson . The WSU Cougars played all of their home games at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane in 1970 and 1971 .

As of 2006 , the stadium has a seating capacity of 35,117. Since the renovation of Reser Stadium at Oregon State , Martin Stadium has fallen to last in seating capacity among Pac-10 football stadiums. The current attendance record was set on November 15, 1997 , when WSU beat Stanford in front of 40,306 fans (The '97 Cougar team won the Apple Cup in Seattle the following week to win the Pac-10 , and played in the Rose Bowl for the first time in 67 years). Despite the relatively small size of Martin Stadium, it has one of the highest ratios of seating capacity to population base; almost 1.6 seats per every citizen in the city of Pullman , and a seat for everyone in Whitman County .

Martin Stadium was the first college football stadium to expand (in 1979) by removing its 400 meter running track and lowering the playing field, by 16 feet (5 m). This modification added over 12,000 new seats that were closer to the field (and the opponent's bench). The first game following the renovation was played in October 1979 , a victory over the UCLA Bruins . Following a 10-3 season and an undefeated home campaign in 2003 , Martin Stadium was ranked by Sports Illustrated as one of the toughest stadiums for visiting teams in college football .^{[citation needed ]}

The current playing surface is FieldTurf , installed in 2000 , preceded by the sand -filled Omni-turf, installed in 1990 . The original playing surface at Martin Stadium in 1972 was AstroTurf , replaced by SuperTurf in 1979 .^[3] The playing surface at Rogers Field was natural grass.

The public address announcer at Martin Stadium is WSU professor Glenn Johnson, who is also the mayor of Pullman. Johnson is known for his first-down call of "...and that's ANOTHER...", to which the crowd responds by chanting "...COUGAR FIRST DOWN!" in unison along with Johnson.

Wikipedia contributors. "Martin Stadium." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 Jan. 2010. Web. 7 Feb. 2010.

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