UMD Kicks off 50th Year Saturday

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

On Oct. 29, 1966, the University of Minnesota Duluth christened its brand new on-campus football facility — then known at Griggs Field — with a 20-14 Homecoming triumph over Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival University of St. Thomas.

It was surely a sign of things to come.

Since that time, the Bulldogs have won over 77 percent of their home games, going 189-54-4 (.773).  In recent times, visiting clubs have found victories even harder to come by at James S. Malosky Stadium (renamed in honor of the legendary UMD head coach in 2005) as the Bulldogs have rolled up a sizzling 44-3 mark there since the 2008 opener.

This Saturday (Sept. 12), the Bulldogs will kick off its 50th season of play at Malosky Stadium, convening for the 248th time for a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchup with Wayne State College (which is 0-7-0 lifetime in Duluth).  As part of the fesitivites, UMD, which is riding an 11-game home winning streak, will welcome back members the 1966 Bulldogs.

Here are a few other Malosky Stadium tidbits:

•Malosky Stadium’s natural grass was first replaced with Astro Turf prior to the 1985 season and, at the time, UMD had one of just two football facilities in the entire state with an artificial surface (Minneapolis’s Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome  was the other). Malosky Stadium also underwent turf replacements in 1999 and 2004.

•UMD has reeled off 24 consecutive Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division home wins and is 50-1 versus overall NSIC competition at Malosky Stadium since Oct. 21, 2000.

•Six of the seven largest crowds to ever pack the 4,500-seat Malosky Stadium have done so in the past six years. That includes a school-record gathering of 6,044 that saw the Bulldogs rout Northern State University 37-6 on Oct. 22, 2011.

•Since relocating to campus, UMD has posted a losing home record on only five occasions (1968, 1994, 1998, 1999 and 2007).

•UMD played its home games primarily at Public Schools Stadium in west Duluth prior to relocating to its current digs. The campaign to bring Bulldog football to campus began in earnest in 1959 and seven years later that dream came to fruition at a price tag of just under $200,000. That, to put it in perspective, was about $125,000 less than the cost of the scoreboard that was added to the north end of Malosky Stadium in 2009.