Milan Puskar Stadium, in Morgantown, West Virginia, is the football stadium for West Virginia University. The facility's complete name is
Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, although fans more commonly refer to it by its original name of Mountaineer Field.
The original Mountaineer Field was located on the school's downtown campus, but it could not be expanded or modernized due to the proximity of
campus buildings and roads near the stadium. It seated 38,000 when it was last used in 1979. The new stadium was originally to be called
Mountaineer Stadium, but the fans ignored this and called it New Mountaineer Field, with the "new" eventually falling into disuse.
Mountaineer Field was constructed in 1980 on the former site of a golf course between the Law School and Medical School buildings. The
stadium's original cost was $22 million. Upon completion it had a seating a capacity of 50,000. The stadium has been expanded as follows: in
1985 7,500 seats were added to the south end zone for $7.5 million, the next year 6,000 seats were added to the north endzone for $650,000,
and in 2004 luxury suites were added for a cost of $12.1 million. The most recent expansion actually reduced the seating capacity by 3,500, so
the current capacity is 60,000. Mountaineer Field is still the largest on-campus facility in the BIG EAST Conference. The facility received its
current name in 2004 in honor of Milan Puskar, co-founder of generic drug manufacturer Mylan Laboratories and a longtime major donor to both
WVU and its athletics program. There are five banks of lights located on the perimeter of the stadium and one long bank along the top of the
press box. The current play surface was installed in 2002 and is Astroplay Synthetic Grass. There are 12 luxury seats on the first level of the
press box, 18 in the north end zone, and 648 club seats in the north end zone called "Touchdown Terrace".
The Caperton Indoor Facility, opened in 1998, sits adjacent to Milan Puskar Stadium and provides a versatile, modern indoor workout space
equipped with a 90-yard Astro-Turf 12 playing surface with seven yards of safety zone surrounding the entire field. Total length from wall to wall is
105 yards, with more than 75,000 square feet of practice room. Skylights provide natural lighting. The facility is also used by baseball and men's
and women's soccer.
The stadium has occasionally hosted larger crowds than its listed capacity; the current attendance record is 70,222 against Miami on November
20, 1993. The listed capacity is larger than the population of any city in West Virginia and on game days, Morgantown temporarily becomes the
largest city in West Virginia.
Mountaineer Field has also hosted non-university football games in the past. One notable game was a pre-season exhibition match on August
22, 1998 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons, both National Football League teams. Old Mountaineer Field had also hosted
an NFL game in 1968 between the Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The stadium is also the location where the annual "MoHawk Bowl" is
played between Morgantown High School and University High School, the two public high schools located in Morgantown.
When the stadium was dedicated in the fall of 1980, fans were surprised when singer John Denver made an appearance and led the fans in the
singing of his hit song Take Me Home, Country Roads. The song has been played at every Mountaineers home game since 1972. In recent
years, the song has been the subject of a new tradition; after a Mountaineers win, the players lead the crowd in singing the song.
Denver's 1980 appearance marked the dedication of the new stadium as well as the first game for coach Don Nehlen.
