Joan C. Edwards Stadium

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Joan C. Edwards
"The Joan"

Location	Marshall Memorial Blvd Huntington, WV 25755
Broke ground	1990
Opened	September 7, 1991
Owner	Marshall University
Operator	Marshall University
Surface	FieldTurf
Construction cost	$30 million USD
Former names
Marshall University Stadium (1991-2003)
Tenants
Marshall Thundering Herd (NCAA) (1991-Present)
Seats
38,019

Joan C. Edwards Stadium, sometimes called "The Joan" is the home football stadium of Marshall University. It is located on the main campus in Huntington, West Virginia, USA.

The stadium opened in 1991 as simply Marshall University Stadium. It replaced Fairfield Stadium, a condemned off-campus facility built in 1927 in the Fairfield Park section of town.

The stadium had an original capacity of 28,000 in two grandstands on the sidelines, along with temporary bleachers in the endzones, although 33,116 was the record crowd. With an expansion of the south endzone, seating was raised to 38,019 by 1998. The stadium was designed to have an upper deck added, bringing capacity to 55,000, should continued growth in the program warrant it. The north endzone contains the Shewey Athletic Center, a field house and training facility.

In 2003, the stadium was renamed after Joan C. Edwards, who is the largest single donor to the university in the modern era. The university's medical school and fine arts center are also named for her. The field at the stadium is named for her late husband, James F. Edwards and the facilities building is named for Fred and Christine Shewey, who are also major donors.

As of 2004, the stadium is the only one in NCAA Division I named for a woman.

In 2005, the stadium underwent a change in the playing surface as the original AstroTurf surface, in place since the stadium opened, 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 the entire 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."