The University of Wisconsin’s historic Camp Randall stadium will celebrate its 100th birthday with several special events throughout the year, UW officials revealed Tuesday.
The most anticipated of these special events is the release of the top 100 people who impacted the stadium’s history, which will be voted on and revealed in May.
Athletic director Barry Alvarez, football head coach Paul Chryst, former player Ron Dayne and former athletic director Pat Richter led the opening talks about the celebrations this week, reflecting on their first and favorite moments in Camp Randall. Despite Chryst and Dayne’s typically reserved behavior, Alvarez and Richter were more than happy to travel down memory lane and express their anticipation of the upcoming schedule.
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The so-called “camp” is one of the most fabled venues in all of college football. It ranks 20th in seating capacity with just more than 80,000 seats, holds a record attendance of 83,184 in 2005 against Iowa and is the fourth-oldest college football stadiums in the U.S. The attendance and longevity are just small parts of what makes Camp Randall so nationally recognized as the crowd’s hostility normally gets most of the talk.
Wisconsin’s relative “house of horrors” ranks at No. 6 in Bleacher Report’s “10 Toughest College Football Stadiums to Play In,” despite hosting only one of three programs on the list without a national championship. Even with three Rose Bowls in the program’s history, UW is often not considered a top 10 team, yet it still boasts one of the most intimidating destinations in collegiate athletics.
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This year’s festivities will pay appropriate homage to a place needing no introduction, but will occur during a year with only one scheduled home game against an ESPN early top 25 College Football rankings team in the form of Michigan. Despite coming off one of the most exciting home schedules the Badgers could possibly have with the current layout of the Big Ten East and West, Wisconsin will have to host their centennial celebration in a down year.
That being said, Wisconsin fans never seem to need an excuse to get excited. If the ecstatic faces of the former Badgers are any indication, the fall schedule will be a fun one.
