Tubby Raymond Field at Delaware Stadium
Delaware Stadium (Tubby Raymond Field), one of the finest facilities in the country at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level and home of the 2003 National Champion Blue Hen football team, begins its 67th season of action in 2018-19.
In addition to the football team calling the venue its home, the University of Delaware men's and women's lacrosse squads have played their home games at Delaware Stadium since the 2010 spring season.
Delaware Stadium has served as a host site of NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse tournament competition four times, most recently in 2017 for the Men's Division I Lacrosse Quarterfinals.
Erected in 1952 and enlarged prior to the 1964, 1970, 1972 and the 1975 seasons, the 22,000-seat stadium is the second largest in the Colonial Athletic Association and one of the largest in the nation in FCS football.
Delaware Stadium has undergone extensive renovations throughout the years, most recently the installment of a new synthetic FieldTurf surface that was installed in July, 2017. Also included in recent renovations were new bleachers, eight poles of permanent broadcast-quality lights (2000), and handrails installed throughout the stadium seating areas (2011).
In 2002, the Delaware Stadium playing surface was dedicated as Tubby Raymond Field, recognizing Delaware's College Football Hall of Fame head coach who retired following the 2001 season after compiling 300 victories in 36 seasons. Raymond passed away in December, 2017.
The Blue Hen football team enters Delaware Stadium from a brick runway underneath the stands directly behind the goalposts on gameday. The team's smoke-filled exit from the tunnel and a huge inflatable winged helmet on to Raymond Field through a gauntlet of Blue Hen Marching Band members lining the field is one of the highlights of football Saturdays at Delaware Stadium.
A plaque which lists the accomplishments of past Blue Hen football teams along with a football hangs from the runway. A new tradition was started in 2000 as Delaware players jump up to touch the plaque before entering the field.
The largest Delaware Stadium crowd was the 23,619 spectators that watched the Blue Hens host Temple, Oct. 27, 1973. Temple won that game 31-8. Since the stadium opened, Delaware has drawn 22,000 or more fans 55 times, including a season-high 22,075 fans Sept. 9, 2000 vs. The Citadel in the first night game under the new lights.
Delaware Stadium attendance records have consistently been broken recently as the Blue Hens drew an average of 22,280 fans during the 2004 regular season, breaking the previous mark of 21,163 set in 2003. Delaware's home attendance average of 20,750 during the 2009 season ranked fourth among all NCAA FCS institutions.
Delaware was the only school at the NCAA FCS level to average over 20,000 fans for regular season games over a span of 11 seasons from 1999-2009. Delaware Stadium had drawn at least 20,000 fans in 44 straight regular season games prior to the 2009 home finale against Hofstra.
Entering the 2018 football season, the Blue Hens have played 414 games in Delaware Stadium – posting a record of 306-104-4, a winning percentage of .744 over 66 seasons.
The Blue Hens are 20-5 in 25 NCAA playoff games played at Delaware Stadium, including a 2-1 mark during the 1997 and 2000 seasons and a perfect 3-0 mark in 2003 when the Hens easily downed Southern Illinois, Northern Iowa, and Wofford on the way to the national championship game.
The stadium is at the center of the David M. Nelson Athletic Complex that includes the $20.5 million Bob Carpenter Center, a 5,000-seat multi-purpose facility south of the stadium that opened in August, 1992, and the $3.3 million Fred P. Rullo Jr. Stadium, a 2,000-seat lighted ActionTurf field which opened in September, 1998 and is home to the 2016 NCAA national champion UD field hockey squad,
Stuart and Suzanne Grant Stadium, which was dedicated and upgraded in 2014, Bob Hannah (Baseball) Stadium, which underwent major renovations in the spring of 2014 with artificial turf, new brick dugouts, batting cages, bullpens, and a new outfield wall installed, the Delaware Diamond (softball), two synthetic turf practice fields, and two grass practice fields, as well as Delaware Field House, which is a turfed indoor practice facilty.
Other events held in the stadium include the annual Blue-Gold Delaware High School Football All-Star game and University of Delaware graduation ceremonies. Delaware Stadium has been the site of the Blue-Gold All-Star game every year since the game was instituted in the 1950's.
Delaware Stadium Top Attendance Records (entering 2018 season)
- Temple - Oct. 27, 1973 - 23,619
- Navy - Sept. 9, 1985 - 23,110
- Navy - Nov. 14, 1987 - 23,100
- William & Mary - Oct. 18, 1986 - 23,045
- Colgate - Nov. 19, 1977 - 23,019
- Connecticut - Nov. 7, 1992 - 22,911
- Maine - Oct. 28, 1989 - 22,805
- Lehigh - Oct. 3, 1981- 22,784
- Towson - Sept. 11, 2004 - 22,782
- New Hampshire - Sept. 2, 2004 - 22,727
- Villanova - Nov. 1, 1980 - 22,680
- Bucknell - Nov. 18, 1972 - 22,648
- Maine - Nov. 2, 1991 - 22,601
- Temple - Oct. 30, 1971 - 22,582
- Northern Michigan - Oct. 18, 1980 - 22,555
- Lehigh - Sept. 10, 2005 - 22,537
- West Chester Sept. 8, 2007 22,495
- Temple - Sept. 19, 1981 - 22,379
- West Chester - Sept. 17, 2005 - 22,331
- West Chester - Sept. 9, 2006 - 22,329
- New Hampshire - Oct. 5, 1991 - 22,304
- Massachusetts - Oct. 22, 1988 - 22,301
- Maine - Oct. 28, 1995 - 22,293
- James Madison - Oct. 26, 1996 - 22,291
- West Chester - Sept. 20, 1986 - 22,221
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