Bucknell Athletics proudly celebrates the 100th anniversary season of Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium in 2024. Over the course of 10 decades, the historic landmark has played host to 457 Bucknell football games, 152 Bucknell men's lacrosse games, hundreds of Bucknell track and field meets, and countless other community sporting events, performances and gatherings.
Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, recognizable by its red brick exterior walls offset by white arches and its horseshoe edifice at the south end, featuring the iconic "BUCKNELL" shrubbery, has undergone plenty of transformations over the past century. The most recent additions have come as part of the Pascucci Family Athletics Complex enhancements, which have only elevated and modernized the beloved site.
Travel back in time to the stadium’s beginnings, read about the teams that have called it home, and learn about some of the legends who have graced its grounds with their athletic mastery. Consider the stories that could be told, if only its 13,100 seats could share their tales. This page will continue to be updated throughout the year with additional stadium history and information regarding Bucknell Athletics' celebration of the 100th anniversary season.
A Stadium is Born
Athletics at Bucknell far predate the stadium, with baseball coming to campus as early as the 1860s. Football scrimmages were organized by students as early as 1881, and Bucknell’s first official football game was played in November of 1883. In those days, and for the first four decades of the football team's existence, home games were played at Loomis Field, now the location of the University's Gateway residences.
Spectator accommodations at Loomis Field were scant during those days to say the least. Soft spots in the grass and wooden planks installed on the overlooking hillside served as seats. The planks eventually graduated to rickety wooden stands, and once the University began taking gate receipts, a canvas screen was hung around certain sections of the field to keep intruders away. The wooden stands, which at one point collapsed under the weight of the growing crowds, and the canvas curtain that did little to serve its purpose, were as close as the University got to a stadium until the 1920s. Alas, the demand for a proper football stadium grew faster than the school's temporary solutions.
Bucknell was not alone in its enthusiasm for the sport and in its rapidly growing demand for a new stadium. Football attendance was surging throughout the country, and stadiums were springing up everywhere in the midst of the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties. Furthermore, Americans were desperate for entertainment in the wake of World War I, and the game of football provided the perfect outlet.
Primarily driven by passionate alumni desperate for improved athletic facilities, a massive fundraising campaign was launched, and an incredible sum of $430,000 (approximately $6,600,000 in 2024) was raised. A key draw for donors was a declaration that the venue would be named Memorial Stadium, in honor and memory of Bucknell alumni that had served and lost their lives in World War I, the Civil War and the Spanish American War. The Alumni office assembled a list of more than 1,400 names, which are immortalized on bronze tablets set into the ends of the stadium.
The initial plans called for a 25,000-seat stadium based on estimations that crowds from Buffalo to Washington would converge. However, following a shift in plans, budget and location, construction began on an 18,000-seat stadium built into the sloping terrain. While efforts were slowed by poor weather and heavy rains, Memorial Stadium was nevertheless completed by autumn of 1924 as promised, and approximately 15,000 spectators poured into the venue for the first time for a Homecoming game against Lafayette on October 18 of that year.
Fortunately, fans would not have to wait long to witness Bucknell's first-ever victory in its new home. Just two weeks after the Lafayette loss, Bucknell defeated Army Corps 26-7 in its second game in the new stadium, and the team went unbeaten at home during the following season in 1925. Now entering its 100th anniversary season, Bucknell football is 256-101-10 (.573) when playing in the stadium.
Bucknell's football team was not the only athletic program to benefit from the construction of Memorial Stadium. The track & field program, which has roots dating back into the 1800s, was also in need of practice and competition space. During the early days of the program, track athletes performed at the Union County Fairgrounds, a mile west of Lewisburg. Some even trained in the old covered wooden Lewisburg bridge, which was located where the present Pennsylvania Railroad bridge now crosses the Susquehanna.
The stadium grounds provided space for a new cinder track in addition to the football field, and it saw its first track meet less than a year after the first football game. On May 2, 1925, Bucknell and Gettysburg competed in a 63-63 tie. As the Bucknellian reported at the time, "Most of the marks were poor and will probably not stand long as track records in the new oval." Today, Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium hosts some of the largest track & field meets on the East Coast and was home to the first-ever Patriot League Championship Meet in 1991.
After three and a half decades of playing at East Field, where Sojka Pavilion and the Graham Building now stand, Bucknell's men's lacrosse program began competing in Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium in 2002. In the midst of one of the most successful stretches in program history, the 19th-ranked Bison hosted 15th-ranked North Carolina for the first-ever collegiate lacrosse game played in the stadium on February 23, 2002. The Tar Heels pulled out a 12-3 victory over Bucknell in front of 2,820 fans.
The men's lacrosse program has gone on to achieve great success since making its move into the stadium, going 102-50 in home games. The Bison posted a perfect 9-0 record in Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium in 2011, including a 10-3 victory over Colgate in the Patriot League Championship game.
A Stadium Rededicated, A Hero Remembered
The most famous Bison and one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Christy Mathewson was one of the five original members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., but "Matty" gained his initial athletic fame as a fullback, punter and dropkicker at Bucknell from 1898 to 1900. One of the truly outstanding players of his era, Mathewson kicked a point-after touchdown in the first varsity game of his freshman year and in the next three years added 13 touchdowns and eight field goals.
Mathewson gained national attention when he dropkicked two field goals against Pennsylvania in 1899 and added a 45-yard field goal against Army the following year. As a result, he was named the "12th man" on Walter Camp's 1900 All-America Team.
Reports in Bucknell files indicate that Mathewson practiced his dropkick hour after hour and also note that his punting was exceptional throughout his career, a three-year stretch during which he scored 106 points. He was also a punishing runner, and one game account makes note of a 65-yard touchdown run and a 70-yard kickoff return. Mathewson, who also played baseball and basketball at Bucknell, was known as a gentleman and true scholar-athlete. In addition to his athletic pursuits, he was an A student, the president of his class and a member of the glee club and literary society.
Like many Bucknellians, Mathewson served in World War I, attaining the rank of captain in the Gas and Flame Division in France. During a mishap in training, he was exposed to poison gas that damaged his lungs and caused him to contract the tubercular pneumonia that eventually killed him.
Christy Mathewson was buried in Lewisburg on October 10, 1925, less than one year after Bucknell's first game at Memorial Stadium. That same day, Bucknell played George Washington at home, and in his memory, there was no cheering in the first quarter. Memorial Stadium was rededicated as Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium on September 30, 1989 in his honor. Bucknell defeated Dartmouth 36-20 that day. The 100th anniversary season logo bears the legend's original signature.
The Christy Mathewson Gates
Following Christy Mathewson's death, organized baseball came together to build a memorial to the former New York Giant and Cincinnati Red. Through hundreds of big-league benefit games and contributions from professional ballplayers across the country, money was raised to erect ornamental gates to the new stadium. Standing prominently at the campus' main entrance and facing the stadium, the iconic brick and iron gateway was erected. Baseball's first commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, attended and spoke at the memorial's dedication.
Today, Bucknell football players parade through Christy's Gates every game day, and students symbolically enter the gates on their first day at Bucknell and exit four years later as graduates.
Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium Monuments and Legends
The southern end of Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium features five monuments dedicated to Bucknell legends Clarke Hinkle, George Young, Bob Odell, Sid Jamieson and Tom Gadd. All five are members of the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame and left a lasting impact on the University, but the list of outstanding student-athletes and coaches that performed at the highest level within the 100-year-old stadium is numerous. Below are just a handful of those Bucknell greats.
Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium Athletes From The 2024 Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Class
Luke Rohrbaugh '71 (football), Amy Mantush Filanowski '10 (women's track & field) and Austin Winter '10 (men's lacrosse), each renowned for their remarkable careers competing within Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, were among the latest inductees into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame. As part of the Class of 2024, they, along with Ted Peterson '76 (men's soccer) and Garrin Kapecki '89 (men's water polo), will be formally inducted during Homecoming Weekend on Friday, Oct. 18 – exactly a century later, to the day, when Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium saw its first athletic contest.
The Pascucci Family Athletics Complex
In 2021, the largest single pledge in Bucknell history, made by Michael Pascucci '58, directed funds toward enhancements in and around Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. In recognition of Pascucci's historic commitment to both financial aid and athletics, the area of campus that includes the stadium and the Christy Mathewson Gates was named the Pascucci Family Athletics Complex. The enhancements included the Michael C. Pascucci Team Center, a new stadium video board, and a new turf practice field.