The following is part of a 10-week series on the history of UW-Stout football. The series, which will run every Wednesday in The Dunn County News, is a collaboration with the The News, the Dunn County Historical Society and UW-Stout Athletics. The Stout football program will mark the centennial with a reunion celebration on Homecoming, Saturday, Oct. 1.
By Layne Pitt
UW-Stout Sports Information Director
After nearly a quarter century, the Stout Institute football team finally had a home of their own.
Rising out of a tamarack swamp to the south of campus, Burton E. Nelson Field (named after then president of the Institute) became home to Stout football, as well as a recreation and intramural complex.
The Blue Devils hosted Macalester College, Sept. 21, 1935, in the first intercollegiate football game at Nelson Field. It was an inauspicious start for a field that would host Stout (as well as Menomonie High School) football until 2001 when Don & Nona Williams Stadium opened for the business. The Scots crushed Stout, 26-0.
Before playing at Nelson Field, Stout played the majority of their games at the fairgrounds in a field in the middle of the race track. It was not a good facility, even for its day, said Menomonie area historian John Russell.
“The high school played on Friday afternoon, Stout on Saturdays,” Russell said. “The field was not prepared for the game, except for yard lines. There were many low levels where, if it had rained and there were large puddles in the field, one could almost tell where the next play was going to take place. They usually avoided the puddles if at all possible.
“There were no bleachers, no rest rooms and the teams retreated to their buses. There were one or two benches on each side for the players and the crowd followed the game by moving along, back and forth on the sidelines.”
Work on Nelson Field began in 1931 when President Nelson purchased a large area on what was then the edge of the city. Trees and brush were removed over the next several years and, according to the Stoutonia, the land sat on “a bed of peat five to seven feet. Under this peat bed was quicksand making it difficult to find a solid spot for the tons of concrete to hold up the flag pole.”
Construction of the field was conducted by Depression-era works projects by the Civil Works and Public Works Administration. The field was completed in the fall of 1934 and a building was erected which would later become known as the squad house before it was razed in the 1990s.
The field was officially dedicated on Oct. 12, 1935, at the annual homecoming festivities. This time, the Blue Devils rose to the occasion and defeated Winona State, 6-0, for their only win of the season.
The approximately 10 acre tract included, according to the 1936 Tower yearbook, “two football playing fields – a large field for inter-school competition and a smaller one for practice. The larger field is surrounded by a half-mile cinder track. Besides these, space is provided for a baseball diamond and tennis courts. The entire field is enclosed with an ornamental wire fence.”
The fence eventually became a corrugated sheet metal fence running along Fifth Street. Local fans, to avoid paying admission fees, would park along Fifth Street and get out their saw horses and boards to erect temporary stands to see over the fence. After Stout touchdowns, the fence rowdies would kick and pound on the fence.
Stout first erected lights on the field in 1947 and the first game “under the lights” was Oct. 4, 1947, against River Falls, a 20-0 loss.
The Nelson Field complex underwent various changes and improvements over the years. Stout's final game at Nelson Field was August 31, 2001, a 48-24 win over Lakeland College. The former football field is now home to the UW-Stout women's soccer team and still bears the name Nelson Field.
Extra - Early Practice Facilities
Before the Nelson Field practice facility was available, the Stout football team practiced at what was known as the “Stout Lot.” The lot was squeezed between Broadway and West Second Street. The area currently is home to the Ministry to UW-Stout, Fleming, Wigen, and Hovlid halls and North Point Dining and Fitness Center.
The facility had an upper and lower level which included space for two small practice fields and a baseball field. The annual homecoming bonfire was also held at the site.
