The first Michigan Football Stadium
Since people liked the post I did on the first home of Michigan Basketball--Waterman Gymnasium--a couple weeks ago, I figure I'd continue doing these posts.
Now the first playing field of Michigan Football was a place called the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds. The first home game in Michigan history was on May 12, 1883 against the Detroit Independents. A 40-5 Michigan win. The game was part of a Field Day schedule of events at the Fairgrounds that included a 10-mile walk, wrestling and a "hop-skip and jump contest".
But the first dedicated stadium with stands didn't come until the 1890s when the people saw the early Michigan teams in the 1880s roll through opponents. Demand was high for an actual stadium.
The Board of Regents authorized construction of the new field in May 1891 for a cost of $4,000 which is $110,000 in 2017.
The stadium was simply named "The Athletic Field" and had a grandstand capacity of 400.
The first game at the Athletic Field was on October 7, 1893 against the Detroit Athletic Club, a game Michigan won, 6-0.
The stadium was renamed Regents Field the following summer.
The grandstand burned down in 1895 and had to be replaced. When it was, the capacity was doubled to 800.
As the Wolverines continued to get better, the demand for tickets called for an increase of capacity. The capacity was upped to 6,800 just one year after the new grandstand was built with construction of bleachers to the left of the grandstand.
When Michigan won the 1898 Western Conference Championship, it also increased demand for seats. But few could imagine the demand that would come just three years later.
The capacity was raised to a then-massive 15,000 in 1900. The following year, Fielding H. Yost boarded a train to Ann Arbor and declared Michigan would not lose a single game in 1901.
And they did not for four straight years. Yost's teams never lost a game at Regents Field. The biggest destructions in program history happened at Regents Field.
119-0 over Michigan State in 1902 where Albert Herrnstein scored 7 rushing TDs. 130-0 over West Virginia in 1904. Pictured below, the 86-0 win over Ohio State in 1902-
In 1902, Detroit businessman Dexter M. Ferry donated a huge chunk of land North of Regents Field.
Regents Field was renamed Ferry Field in 1902. Not to be confused with the Ferry Field that Yost's dynasty would build in 1906 on said-donated land when the success of the program outgrew tiny Regents Field.
The final game at Regents Field (Ferry Field I) was on November 25, 1905 against Oberlin. Michigan survived, 75-0.
From 1893-1905, Michigan Football teams amassed records of
- 87-2-3 (.962) Overall
- 16-2-0 (.889) Western Conference
- 44-0 under Fielding Yost from 1901-1905, outscoring opponents 2821-42
Regents Field had a Baseball field, as well. The Baseball team played there from 1893 until the first house of Michigan Football was demolished in 1923.
The land Regents Field once sat is where this building now sits-
