Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium: A Legacy of Duke Blue Devils Football
Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium stands as a testament to the rich history of Duke University football. Home to the Duke Blue Devils since 1929, the stadium has witnessed countless memorable moments and undergone significant transformations, solidifying its place as a landmark on the university's campus.
Genesis of a Gridiron Landmark
Duke University, established in 1924, initially did not allocate funds to build a stadium. However, driven by a vision to create a legendary football program, university leaders issued certificates of indebtedness at 6% interest and appealed to alumni and friends to buy the bonds. Their stated goal was for 1,000 individuals to each invest $100 in Duke’s athletic future. The university successfully raised sufficient funds to start construction on the stadium in the final months of 1928. The facility, originally named Duke Stadium, opened its gates on October 5, 1929. The inaugural game saw the Pittsburgh Panthers defeat the Blue Devils in front of 25,000 spectators. Jack Dahler of The Chronicle noted that the stadium was built to house the largest crowd that would’ve ever attended a football game in the south. The game against Pittsburgh was highly anticipated, expecting to draw-in the new structure's 35,000-spectator capacity. Before the new stadium was built, the Blue Devils had played their games at Trinity College, which would rarely host more than a modest 5,000 spectators. Thanks to James Buchanan Duke, the athletic department was able to fund the building of the new stadium.
Completed in 1929, Duke Stadium was built with 33,941 seats (its current capacity) and was unique to other Southern stadiums: fans entered the facility through gates at the top, instead of at the bottom. Built in a natural ravine, the stadium was flush with the ground above, and its horseshoe shape offered spectators unobstructed vision. Engineers had curved the seating at the bottom so that the bleachers were elevated six feet above the field. The top row is only forty feet above the playing field.
Even though Duke lost that first game, Wallace Wade, one of America’s most successful football coaches at the University of Alabama, expressed interest in joining the Duke program. Wade had brought Alabama’s football program from obscurity into the national sporting spotlight after the program won back-to-back national championships (1925 and 1926) and another one in 1931. Shocking the football world, Wade decided in 1931, to assume command of the Blue Devils.
An energy and excitement filled the campus air as students were all ready to watch and be part of Duke history on the biggest stage. Students believed the opening of the new stadium would bring an “era of good feeling,” one that could last and propel the football program to new heights. Indeed, it was a poor display on the stadium's opener, and students were disappointed to see their team fall so heavily in an anticipated game.
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Honoring a Coaching Legend: The Wallace Wade Era
In July 1967, Duke's Board of Trustees approved the renaming of the stadium to honor Wallace Wade (1892-1986), the legendary head football coach and athletic director who served the university from 1931 to 1941 and again from 1946 to 1950. The dedication ceremony took place on September 30, 1967. As head coach of Duke, Wallace Wade secured Duke’s first Rose Bowl invitation to play for a national championship, which the school lost. After coaching Duke for sixteen years Wade compiled an impressive record (110 wins and 36 losses) that included six conference titles and two Rose Bowl appearances. In honor of his coaching legacy, Duke Stadium name was changed on September 30, 1967, to Wallace Wade Stadium.
A Rose Bowl Far From Pasadena
Wallace Wade Stadium holds a special niche in college football history as one of only two facilities outside Pasadena, California, to host the Rose Bowl. The 1942 Rose Bowl came to Durham during World War II. In December 1941, Duke and Oregon State were scheduled to play for the national championship title; however, a war-time attack threat on the California coast jeopardized the scheduled game. government discouraged Bowl officials from assembling large crowds on the West Coast. Duke University then offered to host the game, and on January 1, 1942, for the first and last time in the history, The Rose Bowl was played outside of Pasadena. Oregon State defeated Duke 20-16 in front of a crowd of 56,000 fans. Despite the loss, rose bushes remain outside Wallace Wade Stadium as a reminder of this unique event.
Key Moments and Attendance Records
The stadium's largest crowd was November 19, 1949, with 57,500 people witnessing the annual Duke-North Carolina game. On September 18, 2010, Duke played Alabama and drew a crowd of 39,042 enthusiastic spectators, the largest in sixteen years. An attendance record was set in 1939, against the seventh-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels.
Transformations and Modernization
In 2015, Steve Brooks, Duke alumnus and CEO of the Phoenix American Insurance Group, donated $13 million to the Duke Athletics department. After removal of the track in 2015, the field was named Brooks Field. In September 2014, renovation plans were released. The new stadium would seat nearly 40,000 and have 21 luxury suites housed within a new five-story, 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) tower along the stadium's west side. A new 42 feet (13 m) high by 75.6 feet (23.0 m) wide LED video board would be installed 90 feet (27 m) closer to the field than the previous one. Another notable feature was the removal of the stadium's track, which allowed 4,000 additional seats to be added along with lowering and recentering the field. The concourses along the stadium's north and west sides were enhanced with new concessions and new gates, restroom facilities and first aid stations.
Phase three was completed prior to the 2017 season. It included completion of ADA boxes currently in one-third of the concourse on the north and east concourse, rebuilding the concourse surface, and construction of a north gate ticket booth and various concessions, bathroom, and future store buildings on the east concourse. A terraced area known as the "Devils Deck" was added for the 2024 season at the north end of the stadium, reducing capacity to 35,018.
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Beyond Football
The stadium is also frequently used for track and field competitions. The natural-grass football field is surrounded by an eight-lane track. The track is synthetic, mondo rubber and has been resurfaced numerous times since its construction. In 1972, Wallace Wade Stadium hosted the first edition of the Pelican Bowl, a short-lived attempt at a black college football national championship game between the winner of the MEAC and the winner of the SWAC.
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