For first time in a century, Davidson football has a new home stadium

A new era of Davidson College football begins Saturday night, when the Wildcats play their first game in their new stadium.

After 100 years in Richardson Stadium, at the south end of the campus, the Wildcats move to the other side of the school grounds to inaugurate Davidson College Stadium.

The Wildcats (0-1) face Catawba (0-0) at 7 p.m.

“We’re all excited about playing here,” Davidson College coach Scott Abell said during a recent practice at the new 5,000-seat stadium. “We’ve moved from an old stadium to the nicest facilities in our conference.”

Adjacent to the new stadium is a sports performance/training center, which the Wildcat football program began using last spring. It includes a training center, office spaces for the coaches, locker facilities, and multipurpose rooms.

“After being at the old stadium, this is pretty exciting,” said Davidson defensive end Julian Rawlins, a Hough High graduate. “We got a chance to check it out for the first time in the spring. It’s nice to know that we have a state-of-the-art facility.”

The stadium features individual chairback seating, a concession concourse area on the home side, and Gallery 18, a hospitality area. The stadium is built in a bowl, with a sweeping view of the north side of campus.

The stadium actually opened to interscholastic sports last spring, with the Wildcats’ lacrosse team playing several home matches. But this will be the first football game at the new facility.

Davidson and Catawba first met before the old stadium was opened — on Sept. 24, 2010. But the teams haven’t played each other since 2015, when Catawba won 35-21. In fact, Catawba has won the last five meetings between the teams, although Davidson leads the overall series 16-7.

The Wildcats, coming off a 7-4 season, dropped their opener last Saturday at Georgetown, 46-24.