50 Years of Memories at Commonwealth Stadium & Kroger Field

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first game played at Commonwealth Stadium, the home of Kentucky football now known as Kroger Field.

An estimated crowd of 48,000 fans were in the stands to watch the Wildcats’ first-year head coach, Fran Curci, lead Kentucky to a 31-26 victory over Virginia Tech. Ray Barga caught a 13-yard pass to score the first touchdown in the stadium’s history. Quarterback Ernie Lewis ran for two more scores in the win. Future Super Bowl Champion head coach Bruce Arians rushed in a touchdown for the Hokies.

Curci’s first season at the helm produced five wins and six losses, but featured a 34-7 win over No. 14 Tulane, providing a preview of what was to come in a new era of Kentucky football. Three seasons later the Cats won the Peach Bowl, followed by a 10-1 campaign in 1977.

On the day of the opener, it was a similar scene to what we saw in 2015 when the stadium underwent dramatic renovations. Crews were cleaning up and putting the finishing touches hours before kickoff. Bill Finch, one of the stadium’s architects, told the Herald-Leader he did not feel confident the project would be finished on time until a week before when “more of the toilets were installed.” He offered advice to fans after they experienced traffic jams in the opener.

“They have a good road system here and as time passes the fans will learn more alternate routes to the stadium,” he said. “Maybe they can work up car pools or take a bus. That’s the best thing. And stay off Nicholasville Road.”

That’s sound advice that still applies today.

Commonwealth Stadium Through the Years

The home of the Kentucky football team has undergone three major changes. The first was in 1999 when $27.6 million was invested to close in the end zones and add 40 suites, increasing capacity to just shy of 68,000. Commonwealth Stadium received an even more significant facelift in 2015 when a limestone exterior transformed the facade of the stadium. The $126 million investment also added luxury suites, a recruiting room, widened the concourses and decreased capacity to 61,000. Two years later the facility was renamed Kroger Field.

Since the recent renovation, Kentucky’s 2018 SEC East title bout against Georgia holds the record for most attended game with 63,453 fans in the stands. Kentucky has a 182-141-4 (.563) record at Commonwealth Stadium and is 46-25 (.648) under Mark Stoops.

Memories from the Home of the Wildcats

Kentucky fans have spent many Saturdays cheering, and cursing, the Cats at Commonwealth Stadium. Instead of ranking the top games, I asked members at KSBoard to share their favorite memories watching the Wildcats. Some of the best of the best:

The sound of our fans booing the disrespect that the LSU fans showed during the playing of My Old Kentucky Home in 2007…

I was a freshman on the UK drumline, which meant I was mid field, pre-game, as the band plays MOKH… Some fans singing along. During this moment before the LSU game, the large contingent of LSU fans from one corner of the stadium yelled “GEAUX!” The side catty-cornered to them “TIGERS!” Suddenly, like the sound a fighter jet going from one side of the stadium to the other, the loudest boos I have ever heard drowned everything out, then it sounded like EVERY Kentucky fan joined in to sing the ending of MOKH.

from that moment, I knew we had a chance….

I held up double freedom rockets to the LSU fans during all that- still thankful the jumbotron didn’t catch it.

Jon d.

One time, probably would have been the 2000 season, we played Miss. St. at home. This college-age MSU fan/idiot who must have just downed the first few beers of his life came running down the steps from the upper deck to the concourse swinging his cowbell at people while a 101’er was yelling for somebody to stop him. My wife and I just happened to be walking by on the upper concourse and I was in the right place at the right time to grab that dude and drive him hard into a concrete wall. He was much easier to get along with after that, and then the cops came to take him away.

ClutchCargo

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Kroger Field memorable moments from the 1990s.

Celebrating 50 Years of Football in Kroger Field pic.twitter.com/h9ADpQlCZt

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) September 15, 2023

One of my favorite memories was the smell as you approached the stadium – whiskey (I doubt it was all bourbon) mixed with the smell of charcoal and delicious food being prepared and consumed… Then, sitting in the old EZ bleachers, the sound of empty whiskey bottles being dropped and crashing against the pavement under the bleachers.

DCornett

First game at CWS was Tennessee in 97. Maybe the most fun I’ve had was the Arkansas comeback in 08. I was a freshman, all my buddies left right at start of the 4th. I stayed and watched Randall Cobb (wearing Dicky Lyons number) have two TD’s in two minutes to take the lead.

I remember walking into Ingles and telling people in the common area we won, them laughing me off, and someone looking it up on a laptop (long before everyone had smart phones and apps) to then everyone celebrating in shock and excitement.

jsmith4415

I know this is generic, but that 2021 blocked field goal touchdown against Florida is the loudest I’ve ever heard that stadium. The place was shaking. Something about the atmosphere of that game was just different. It was loud and chaotic from start to finish, and I think the Florida players afterwards said it got in their heads.

Chase Slone