Delaware Stadium
Delaware Stadium has been the home of Delaware Blue Hens football for generations, a place where the program's past and its new FBS era now meet on the same field in Newark.
Completed in 1952, the stadium has witnessed decades of Delaware football history, championship teams, legendary coaches and generations of Blue Hen fans. Today, with Delaware competing at the FBS level, the old ground has entered another chapter without losing the history that made it important in the first place.
A Stadium Dating Back to 1952
Delaware Stadium was completed in 1952, but its first football game did not arrive until November 15 of that year. Delaware welcomed Lafayette to the new stadium and escaped with a 13–12 victory.
The venue grew alongside the program. It was expanded multiple times during the 1960s and 1970s and has undergone numerous improvements since, including permanent broadcast-quality lighting, updated seating, synthetic FieldTurf and more recent facility development surrounding the stadium.
Yet the significance of Delaware Stadium isn't simply found in concrete, seats or renovations. Its real history is the football that has been played there.
Tubby Raymond Field
One name is inseparable from the ground beneath Delaware football.
In 2002, the playing surface at Delaware Stadium was dedicated as Tubby Raymond Field, honoring the legendary Delaware head coach.
Raymond retired after the 2001 season with 300 victories accumulated across 36 seasons. His impact reached far beyond a win total: his teams and distinctive Wing-T offense became part of the identity of Delaware football, and his career ultimately earned him a place in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Naming the field after Raymond ensured that one of the defining figures in Blue Hen history would remain physically connected to the stadium long after his final game on the sideline.
There's a lot more to that story than can fit into a stadium article. Raymond spent 36 seasons running the Blue Hens, won national championships and helped make the Wing-T part of Delaware's football identity. Explore the full Tubby Raymond story inside the Vault →
Touch the Plaque
Some of the best college football traditions aren't manufactured for television. They happen in tunnels, locker rooms and walkways that most spectators barely notice.
Delaware has one of those traditions.
The Blue Hens enter the stadium through a brick runway underneath the stands behind the goalposts. A plaque displaying accomplishments of past Delaware football teams hangs along the route.
Beginning in 2000, Delaware players began jumping up to touch the plaque before entering the field.
It is a wonderfully simple connection between generations: today's team literally reaches toward the achievements of the teams that came before it before running onto Tubby Raymond Field.
From FCS Power to FBS Football
For most of its history, Delaware Stadium was associated with one of the country's best-known programs below the Football Bowl Subdivision.
That changed in 2025.
Delaware began its inaugural FBS season as a member of Conference USA, giving the stadium an entirely new place in college football. The Blue Hens opened that historic season at home against in-state rival Delaware State.
Later that September, UConn became the first FBS opponent to visit Delaware Stadium after the Blue Hens themselves had joined the subdivision.
The surroundings were familiar. The level was new.
That's part of what makes Delaware Stadium particularly interesting now: this isn't a new venue constructed for an FBS program. It's an old football home being carried into a new era.
The Sacred Grounds Relic
Our Delaware Stadium card imagines what might happen if the history of the stadium could be sealed inside a single one-of-one artifact.
Field turf from Tubby Raymond Field. A fragment representing the old stadium concrete. A seat preserved from Delaware Stadium.
The pieces shown on the card are fictional — part of The Sovereign Vault's ongoing experiment in turning sports history into impossible museum pieces.
The history behind them, however, is very real.
1952
Newark, Delaware
Delaware Blue Hens
Tubby Raymond Field
Why Delaware Stadium Belongs in Sacred Grounds
College football's great stadiums aren't defined solely by capacity.
They are defined by what happened there, who walked through their tunnels, what traditions survived and how much of a program's identity became attached to the place.
Delaware Stadium has been standing since 1952. It carries Tubby Raymond's name on its field. Blue Hen players still pass the accomplishments of earlier generations on their way into the stadium.
And now, after decades of football history, those same grounds have followed Delaware into the FBS era.
New conference. New opponents. Same ground beneath their feet.
Why Are They the Fightin' Blue Hens?
Delaware's football identity reaches far beyond the stadium. Follow the Blue Hen story through its Revolutionary roots, YoUDee, the Birdgade, blue-and-gold game days, the marching band and traditions carried into the FBS era.
🔓 EXPLORE BLUE HENS TRADITIONS →Tubby Raymond: A Delaware Football Legacy
You've walked onto Tubby Raymond Field. Now meet the coach behind the name — 36 seasons, 300 victories, national championships and a Wing-T offense that became part of Delaware football itself.
🔓 EXPLORE TUBBY RAYMOND'S STORY →Keep Exploring Blue Hen Football
Delaware Stadium is only one chamber in a growing Blue Hen collection. Follow the traditions, meet one of the most important coaches in program history, or continue deeper into the College Football Vault.
🐔 BLUE HEN TRADITIONS 🏈 TUBBY RAYMOND 🏟️ SACRED GROUNDS 🏈 COLLEGE FOOTBALL VAULT 🏈 EXPLORE ALL 138 TEAM VAULTS →The relic card displayed above is fictional concept artwork created for entertainment and historical appreciation. It is not an official University of Delaware product and does not represent possession of actual stadium materials.