Villanova

The Villanova Wildcats football program represents Villanova University in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, known as Division I-AA until 2006).

The Wildcats currently compete in the Colonial Athletic Association for football only. They play on campus at Villanova Stadium with a capacity of 12,000, with some games at PPL Park in Chester with a capacity of 18,000. They are currently led by head coach Mark Ferrante. Former head coach Andy Talley was the head coach of the program from its reinstatement in 1985 through 2016 and led the program to its first NCAA Division I FCS national championship in 2009.

Villanova Stadium is a 12,500 seat stadium located on the campus of Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA.

History

Villanova Stadium was originally built in 1927 and dedicated on October 8, 1927. The stadium plays host to a wide variety of events including serving as home to the Villanova Wildcats football, field hockey, lacrosse, and track, and field teams. Philadelphia area teams such as the WUSA's Philadelphia Charge and Major League Lacrosse's Philadelphia Barrage have also used the stadium in the past or currently. In the 1960s, Monsignor Bonner High School, like Villanova an Augustinian school, used the field.

The field and track at Villanova Stadium are known as "Goodreau Field" and "Jumbo Elliott Track," respectively. On May 7, 1930, the playing field at Villanova Stadium was dedicated to the memory of Leo J. Francis Goodreau, a Villanova football player who died due to injuries incurred in practice. On September 27, 1980, the running track was dedicated to Villanova's legendary track and field coach James "Jumbo" Elliott.

Renovations

In Fall 1999, the stadium underwent a face-lift with the Stadium Renovation Project. Included in this project was a state of the art press box, in addition to housing an 80-person meeting room for all Villanova Athletic Department personnel to use. The former AstroTurf playing field was replaced during the spring of 2002 with a synthetic grass surface known as AstroPlay.

In Fall 2009, the stadium received a new scoreboard along with a new playing surface.

In 2016, a new football operations building, the Andrew J. Talley Athletic Center, which also serves as the training room for the sports programs at the school, opened, named for the school's first head coach since the May 1984 reinstatement of the program until the end of 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanova_Stadium