Bryant-Denny Stadium has been used by Alabama since 1929; it replaced Denny Field, which was used from 1915 to 1928. It opened as Denny Stadium but was renamed in honor of famous coach Bear Bryant in 1975.

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-4 at this field, losing all their games as non-conference games.

  * Non-conference games

Denny Field (originally University Field) opened in 1915 and represented the first permanent home for athletics on Alabama's campus. Though barely a teenager, the replacement of the plant was announced in October 1928, with the 12,000 seat concrete and steel replacement venue situated a few blocks west in old "Denny's cow pasture"; building costs were funded entirely by Alabama's 1926 and 1927 Rose Bowl appearances. Though both were located on-campus and fairly similarly sized (the former held roughly 7,000 persons), the move was logical for a few reasons. First and foremost, it was a more enduring venue, being made of concrete, rather than wood. Additionally, it allowed for baseball and football to perform in individual venues.

It was also a far-sighted move, with the venue being built as an expansion-ready stadium. Speaking on the maxiumum capacity of the original conception, George H. Denny, namesake of both Denny Field and Denny Stadium, admitted "I don't know whether Alabama will ever need 60,000 seats for a football game here on campus," before adding that the foreward-looking design was a prudent decision. In a similar ethos, one local newspaper columnist presciently surmised that "Though the majority of major games must be scheduled for centers of population [such as Montgomery and Birmingham], it is the intention of the university committee to build toward the time when transportation facilities and growth of population will warrant the scheduling of major Southern and Intersectional games at the University Stadium."

Construction began in March 1929 after significant rain delays, but was still completed in time for Alabama's first home game of the season, a 55-to-nothing smackdown against Mississippi College on September 28th. The stadium was officially dedicated the following week with another win, this time against Ole Miss. The initial field had seating only on the west side of the stadium, but was augmented as needed by the old "knock-down" wooden bleacher seating from Denny Field, allowing for capacities as high as 16,000 persons, four thousand more than with the concrete seats alone. Old Denny Field was converted into a football practice field and baseball diamond [1].

When Wallace Wade left for Duke in 1931, things easily could have gone awry; after all, the coach had posted a 61-13-3 record over 8 seasons, including three trips to the Rose Bowl and five top-2 finishes in the Southern Conference. Under the tutelage of former Chattanooga coach Frank Thomas, however, the Crimson Tide scarcely missed a beat. After a series of successful seasons, the eastern stands were completed ahead of the 1937 football season. Slightly smaller than their across-field counterparts, the new stands upped the capacity to 18,000, though crowds about 4,000 persons larger could be accommodated using temporary stands in the endzones.

In 1947, those temporary stands were replaced with concrete and steel bleachers seating about 7,000 persons; lights were also installed. Initially, it was intended to expand the smaller eastern stands to match their staid counterpart over the field in that same cycle, but that was delayed until 1950. Because the decision was made so late, finishing ahead of the first home game of the 1950 season was off the table from the start; the deadline was instead October 28th, in time for the Tide's homecoming game against Mississippi State. The contractors missed the date, but only scarcely: work was said to be about 90% done (resulting in a venue capable of seating 31,200 persons) and only incomplete because a shipment of wooden seat planks was the wrong size. The full 32,000-seat complement of seats was finished just after the close of the season [2].

The Wolfpack ushered in a new era of Denny Stadium in 1961, when they visited the "re-dedicated" stadium. A brand-new press box and 16 rows of seats per side adorned the existing concrete stands, along with updated amenities all around, including ramps, concessions, and restrooms. Though the Wolfpack had lost two of their first three games of the season, coach Bear Bryant was nonplussed: "If they play like they're supposed to play... and we don't play a good game, then we get beat." Fortunately for the rededication, the Crimson Tide swept the Red and White away, winning by three scores, shutting out the visitors after trailing by a touchdown early in the second quarter. Only 30,000 fans filled the newly-expanded 43,000-person plant to witness the game and ceremony, which included hosting members of Alabama's 1929 team which innaugurated Denny Stadium [3].

In 1966, the endzone bleacher seats were removed in order to finally complete the 60k-seat bowl the venue's namesake doubted would ever be necessary. Thirteen thousand spots were added in the work, pumping the venue's seat count to a total of 56,000. In 1969, the natural grass playing surface of Denny Stadium was replaced with Astroturf. Though it was the first time their home field didn't have genuine soil underfoot, the Yellowhammers were used to it: they practiced the entire 1968 season on an Astroturf field. The impact was minimal anyways, since Alabama played only two of its games that season at home, otherwise playing on the road or at neutral sites [4].

Because of the stadium's (comparatively) small size during this time, many of Alabama's most important home games were actually played in Birmingham's Legion Field, which had capacity for several thousand more fans in any given year. Alabama had long played much of their schedule at neutral sites throughout the state due to the campus's considerable distance from other population centers. The capacity part of the equation started to change in 1988, when the west side bleachers received an upper deck, raising the seating capacity to 70,123 -- work forced the entire 1987 home slate to be played at Legion Field. After that, the Tide continued to split primary billing between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham through 1996, only playing more games at their true home four times (1979, 1990, 1994, and 1995). Regardless, Bryant-Denny Stadium (which was renamed in 1975, a full seven seasons prior to the legendary coach's retirement) still lagged slightly behind the capacity of the Magic City's stadium.

While upgrades to the seating were highly necessary, work also focused on improving the average fan's quality of life: seats were renumbered to give each ticket-holder an airy 17-5/8 inches per spot, more restrooms and concessions were added, a "color matrix screen" added, and the layout retooled so that visitors weren't required to leave the stadium to move between sections. Part of the reason this work took a full year was that crews had to cut through 59 years of concrete to create exits in some places. Still, Birmingham edged out the Capstone by several thousand seats.

In 1998, an upper portion was added to the eastern deck. Replete with 81 skyboxes and 10,000 seats, the stadium revamped venue sat 83,818 persons, edging the coastal city by just a few hundred, just in time to replace the expiring contract with Legion Field, which was set to lapse in 2001. Unlike anything ever before built in Tuscaloosa, the stadium was innovative and exciting. "There's an electricity that hasn't been there for some time," crowed coach Mike DuBose [5].

For various reasons, the Legion Field contract was extended until 2004, when the need for major remediations to the away-from-home home stadium necessitated a final departure. Active construction at Bryant-Denny through the 2005 season yielded a north endzone expansion in 2006, allowing the plant to hold 92,138 players. A similar renovation was made to the south endzone in 2010, bolstering capacity to 101,821 persons. Aside from renovations to increase premium and ADA seating in 2020, which lowered the seating by 1,744 persons, that currently remains the finishing touches on one of college football's crown jewels [6].

Photos of Bryant-Denny Stadium