Joan C. Edwards Stadium

The Joan C. Edwards Stadium is a football stadium located on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. It can hold 38,019 spectators and includes twenty deluxe, indoor suites, 300 wheelchair-accessible seating, a state-of-the-art press-box, fourteen concession areas, and sixteen separate restrooms. It also features 90000 sqft. of artificial turf and 1,837 tons of structural steel. It also houses the Shewey Athletic Center, a fieldhouse and a training facility. The new stadium replaced Fairfield Stadium, a condemned off-campus facility built in 1927 in the Fairfield Park neighborhood.

Marshall has a 118-19 overall record at Joan C. Edwards stadium for a winning percentage of .866. That is the highest home winning percentage in NCAA Division 1 FBS. The University of Alabama ranks second with an .825 winning percentage at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

History
The Joan C. Edwards Stadium was first proposed in 1986 to replace Fairfield Stadium. On January 16, then-Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. met with Huntington and University leaders, stating that "money is available" if the plans for the stadium were put together. On June 15, the Board of Regents gives the green light to the new stadium project; on September 9, the University begins purchasing property east of the central campus for the proposed stadium.

On January 15, 1987, Governor Moore asks the Board of Regents to approve funding for the sale of bonds that would help finance the new stadium. On June 8 of the following year, the state Legislature passes a state budget which has the inclusion of a new 30,000-seat stadium if the Board of Regents can secure funding. A little over one month later on June 9, the Board of Regents passes a resolution that endorsed the construction of a new football stadium.

On October 4, 1988, a rendering of the new stadium was unveiled. The designers of the new facility was Stafford Consultants of Princeton, West Virginia and Rosser Fabrap of Atlanta, Georgia. Soon after, the Board of Regents were given 1800 sqft. of property by the Greater Huntington Area Chamber of Commerce. On November 1, the Board of Regents purchases additional property and hired investment bankers who helped decide the optimal financing method for the project.

On January 11, 1989, the Board of Regents approved of a $70 million bond sale, $30 million of which was for the new Marshall stadium. Demolition of the existing structures for the new stadium began on December 9. A contract for the new stadium was awarded on June 13, 1990 to River Cities Construction of Huntington and the Frank Irey Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Groundbreaking ceremonies took place one month later on July 18. By October 6, 1990, steel beams were being erected for the new stadium. Marshall's "Thundering Herd" played their last game at Fairfield Stadium against Eastern Kentucky University on November 10, losing 12-15.

On January 19, 1991, the designers admitted there was only room for 28,000 seats, not the original 30,000 due to an error in calculating the size of the chairback seats. The remaining 2,000 was to be added to the south end zone after the 1991 season. It would be the sixth largest stadium in NCAA Division I-AA football. By May 3 of that year, it was announced that the stadium was two-thirds complete and on August 9, the "Thundering Herd's" freshmen and transfers held their first practice in the new stadium.

On September 7, 1991, the new Marshall Stadium was unveiled before a crowd of 33,116. The opening game was against New Hampshire, which Marshall won, 24-23. One year later in July, Marshall football staff and administrators relocated into a new facilities structure at the north end of the stadium adjacent to 3rd Avenue.

On September 4, 1993, the playing surface was named in honor of James F. Edwards, a donor to Marshall University. On November 28, 2003, the Marshall Stadium was renamed to the Joan C. Edwards Stadium in honor of her contributions and that of James who had donated $65 million to the university. The Shewey Athletic Center was named for Fred and Christine Shewey who were also major donors.

The expansion of the additional 2,000 seats was completed in July 1995. Five years later in August, another seating expansion brought the total number of seats to 38,016.

The record attendance was set on September 10, 2010 at 41,382 in a 24-21 overtime loss to West Virginia University.

Today
The stadium is one of only two in NCAA Division I named exclusively for a woman. The other is Williams-Brice Stadium at South Carolina. (Several other stadiums are named after husband-and-wife pairs.)

In 2005, the stadium underwent a change in the playing surface as the AstroTurf surface, in place since 1998, was removed, and a new FieldTurf surface was installed.

The stadium hosted the MAC championship game in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002. The NCAA Division I-AA national championship game was held at then-Marshall University Stadium several times in the 1990s, including in 1992 and 1996—the years when the Thundering Herd won the national championship. In 2000, a bronze memorial to the 1970 plane crash that killed most of the football team was placed on the front of the stadium to the left of the main tower, and the road the stadium is on was renamed "Marshall Memorial Boulevard."

In 2010, Kentucky Christian University will play three of its home football games at the stadium.