Indian Stadium is the home of Arkansas State University’s football Indians. Originally, a 16,000 seat facility, the structure has undergone some changes over the years. When ASU declared Division I-A status in 1991, additional seating was added to meat capacity requirements. Capacity expanded to seat 30,708.
Indian Stadium has a four level press area that includes the press box and two donor levels: Happy Hunting Grounds and Chiefs Council. The area also includes a photo deck complete with and area for filming, Visiting Team AD Suite and coaches booths for both teams. The playing field is natural Bermuda grass.
In 2002, players and coaches moved into a new three-story complex which features office space for coaches, dressing rooms, meeting rooms, and player lounges. These rooms are also utilized as suites for use during games, academic study areas, conference rooms, alumni functions, booster meetings, recruiting, and other gatherings. The structure complements the million-dollar video/scoreboard constructed in 2001 and located in the South end zone. The former football complex now houses the Performance Enhancement Center comprised of the Athletic Training Center, Strength and Conditioning Center, Student-Athletic Academic Success Center, Compliance, and some sports offices. A computer lab open to all ASU students is also located in the Performance Enhancement Center.
For any university to be successful in football, a solid strength and conditioning program is a must. At ASU, this program is built, not on just improvement in the weight room, but on solidly improving each athlete’s overall fitness and increasing each athlete’s overall athletic ability.
The major goal of the ASU program is to keep the Indians healthy and prepared for competition by reducing their susceptibility to injury or illness.
Through the hard work and generosity of several individuals and organizations--the weight room at Indian Stadium was transformed into "Indian Iron Works" in 1996.
Facts & Figures
Opened: 1974
Original cost: $2,500,000 ($1.4 million raised by friends and alumni)
Original Capacity: 16,343 (revised to 18,709 in 1980)
Current Capacity: 30,964 (enlargement completed in 1991; suites included in 2002)
Surface: Natural (Bermuda grass)
Largest Crowd: 30,427 (?????) vs. Memphis
Best Average Attendance (Season): 17,488 in 2003
First Game: Sept. 28, 1974 (Louisiana Tech 21, ASU 7)
First ASU Victory: Second game (Oct. 5, 1974)...ASU 14, Eastern Michigan 7
Dedication Game: Nov. 2, 1974 (ASU 17, Northeast Louisiana 14)
THE ULTIMATE SPORTS ROAD TRIP
By: Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell
November 11, 2004 - The minute you exit the expressway or byways around these parts and enter the city streets of Jonesboro, you know right away that it is the Arkansas State Indians who are #1 in the hearts of the local folks. "Go Tribe", says the marquee on the local Denny's... "We Love the Indians" is painted right on the window of a local furniture store. And here in a town of 55,000 people, a one hour drive from Memphis, it is the Arkansas State University football program which does battle in the Sun Belt Conference and is the focal point of pride and joy for Arkansans who call this part of the world home.
Indian Stadium is the home of the ASU Indians, and is nestled on the campus just north of the city, easy to find just by heading up Stadium Drive. Opened in 1974, the venue was expanded after the program went to Division !-A in 1991. Seating was added to bring capacity to over 30,000 seats, a new end zone building opened in 2002 to include modern practice facilities, offices and end zone party decks, as well as a state of the art video scoreboard. Other than that, the playing field is set below grade, with sideline and end zone lower bowl seat areas broken up by grassy knolls emblazoned with the ASU logo, and large upper decks along each sideline, all served by a bright and spacious single concourse. On the west side is an tall press tower structure, with a level of indoor premium seating and two press levels.
One walk through the west concourse you can see the banners heralding the program's winning tradition - although most of the successes have come at Division 1-AA. Winning at the highest level of college athletics has proved elusive, both in the Big West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference, where they currently hold residence.
Yet the program here retains a loyal and hardy bunch of fans, and despite the horrible weather earlier in the day and being a night game, a pretty decent crowd and a noisy one at that was on hand.
One of the signature elements here in the seating bowl is something as simple as an Indian teepee, standing stoically in the southwest corner of the seating bowl, and occupied by three mascots, two guys and a gal, dressed in full Indian regalia. Each time the home team made it to the red zone, the mascots came out of the teepee and glared down onto the field, seemingly to will the team into the end zone. Nice tradition, eh? But as we found out, the mascot movements were totally random, and had nothing to do with what was occurring on the field. But wouldn't this be a cool thing to start!? If the USRT just gave the team a good idea, then we've done our job... have the mascots do something cool as part of a red zone tradition!
The marching band sits up in the stands on the visitors side, and heralds each first down with the school's fight song, while the PA announcer asks the fans to chant in unison "and that means another Indians?"... "First Dowwnnnn!!!" the crowd replies.
Game report - Arkansas State scored three field goals in the first half to take a 9-7 lead, then added a touchdown with a punt return in the 4th quarter, and that was all they needed to beat the visiting Aggies, 16-7. A last minute interception by ASU sealed the deal. Hey - give an assist to the USRT Karma!
Special thanks!!!... The Ultimate Sports Road Trip extends props to Gina Bowman, ASU Media Relations Director for extending us a nice welcome. Gina and her staff made our visit a very warm one, and we appreciate her assistance. Gina is inducted into the USRT Hall of Fame with our thanks!
