Current Romney Stadium
The stadium retained the Romney name as it was relocated farther north on Utah State's campus to its present location. The first game in the current Romney Stadium was played on Sept. 14, 1968 when the Aggies defeated New Mexico State, 28-12, and the facility was officially dedicated on Sept. 27, 1969. The stadium was financed by a student body which believed in athletics to the extent of underwriting a special bonding assessment for both Romney Stadium and the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, which serves as home for Utah State’s basketball, gymnastics and volleyball teams.
There has been one major stadium addition since 1969. Thanks to a massive volunteer effort in 1980, 10,000 seats were added to the southern bowl which brought the capacity of the stadium to 25,513. Prior to the 1997 season, approximately 4,000 chair back seats replaced wooden bleachers on the west side of the stadium. Ahead of the 1999 season, new scoreboards were added at each end of the stadium and additional bleacher seats were installed as well. New aluminum bleachers replaced wooden bleachers on the lower sections of the east side of the stadium in 2001. In 2003 that project expanded to the upper sections. In the summer of 2004, the bent bluegrass field was replaced with a state of the art synthetic turf by SprinTurf. Prior to the 2005 season a new south end entrance, improved concession stands and restroom facilities as well as a widened concourse on the east side of the stadium were completed.
On December 5, 2009, USU announced that the field at Romney Stadium would be named Merlin Olsen Field in honor of Pro and College Football Hall of Fame member and former Aggie Merlin Olsen. Following Olsen's death in March 2010, Utah State dedicated a statue in his honor in a ceremony held on October 23, 2010. The bronze statue, created by Utah sculptor Blair Buswell, depicts Olsen during his college playing days at USU - in full uniform and pads, with his helmet under his arm - and stands outside the south entrance of Romney Stadium.
Following the unveiling of new Utah State athletics logos and prior to the home opener of the 2012 football season, the playing surface on Merlin Olsen Field was replaced. The SprinTurf, which was installed in 2004, was replaced by AstroTurf GameDay Grass 3D60 Extreme and the new athletic logo replaced the old at center field. The new end zones are navy blue with the “Utah State” word mark in the south end zone and the “Aggies” word mark in the north end zone, bookended by the new bull logo.
Read more about this topic: Romney Stadium, History
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