Memorial Stadium is a stadium

Stadium

A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 in Manhattan, Kansas

Manhattan, Kansas

Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...

. For several decades it was used by Kansas State University

Kansas State University

Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

 for college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 and track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

. It was the home field of the K-State's football team between 1922 and 1967, prior to the opening of Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium

Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium

Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium is a stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Kansas State University Wildcats football team. It is named after head coach Bill Snyder and his family...

. Built in tribute to Kansas State students who died in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the stadium held 20,000 people and was opened in 1922. The east stands were built in 1922, while the stands on the west side of the stadium were completed two years later. The original plan to enclose the stadium in a "horseshoe" shape was never executed due to a shortage of funds during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

.

Football history

The first night

Night game

A night game is a sporting event that takes place, completely or partially, after the local sunset. Depending on the sport, this can be done either with floodlights or with the usual low-light conditions.-Cricket:...

 college football game at Memorial Stadium was played on September 20, 1947. Oklahoma A&M

Oklahoma State University–Stillwater

Oklahoma State University–Stillwater is a land-grant, sun-grant, coeducational public research university located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. OSU was founded in 1890 under the Morrill Act...

 defeated Kansas State by a score of 12-0.

Athletic events

The stadium is still used for athletics. In 2002 the grass field was replaced with FieldTurf

FieldTurf

FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by the FieldTurf Tarkett division of Tarkett Inc., based in Calhoun, Georgia, USA. In the late 1990s, the artificial surface changed the industry with a design intended to replicate real grass...

 and the cinder track was replaced with a rubberized surface. The playing field is now painted for use by the school's club MCLA lacrosse team, soccer team, and is also used as the home pitch for the Rugby team, as well as the marching band

Kansas State University Marching Band

The Kansas State University Marching Band, also known as "The Pride of Wildcat Land" or just The Pride, is a 300+ piece marching band consisting of woodwinds, brass, percussion, color guard, dancers, and twirlers...

's practice field.

Other uses

In addition to the stadium's use for athletics, the areas underneath the stadium's seats are utilized for university offices and academic purposes. The East Stadium houses the KSU Telecommunications Department and the Purple Masque Theater, while the West Stadium houses facilities used by art students (particularly students of Ceramics, Painting, and Sculpture) and offices for Graduate Students in the Art Department.

Nick the ghost

There is a campus legend that the Purple Masque Theater is haunted by a ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

named "Nick", allegedly the spirit of a football player who died in the 1950s. Stories are told of boxes and chairs being shuffled, noises heard, and a fire extinguisher being expelled. No player named Nick is recorded to have died at the stadium, but there are stories of deaths of players with other names that may have fed into the legend.