Doak Campbell Stadium has been used by Florida State since 1950; it was the school's first on-campus field, and replaced Centennial Field, which had been used since 1947.

Overall, NC State has a record of 6-16 at this field. Since the Seminoles joined the ACC, NC State has gone 4-11. NC State is 2-1 when they are ranked, 4-8 when FSU is ranked, and 0-1 when both teams were ranked.

  * Non-conference games

Florida State began playing football for the first time in almost half a century in 1947, the fall after the former women's college elected to enroll male students. After two seasons of playing off-campus, FSU began constructing a stadium of their own. The need was largely logistical: though the Seminoles were a young team, their early success under coach Don Veller led to increased demand for tickets, in addition to the city's "terrific need for a new stadium" -- the multi-use Centennial Field was old, cramped, and made parking difficult [1]. As columnist Fred Pettijohn put it, "as a football layout [Centennial Field] is poorly located for the college students, doesn't have the parking to accomodate the crowds of 7,000 and up, and is damper than a well-diggers heels on those fall nights" [2].

In January 1950, plans for a new stadium finally caught. The Tallahassee Athletic Council, led by former Florida Gator captain Rainey Cawthon, organized a drive to sell 1,000 five-year tickets at $50 a piece to finance a down-payment on the work; the drive was completed by late March, with the remainder of the $250,000 (about $3.2 million in 2023) funded through bonds. Bidding for the project started in early April [3]. Work began in June and moved at a fast and furious pace, opening just in time for the October 7th introductory game against Randolph-Macon: the steel and concrete structure was not complete in early August due to over a week of steady rain [4].

Though the stadium opened for the 1950 season, work was not entirely complete: only the southwestern stands, with room for 7,500, were completed. The field was augmented with temporary bleachers, numbering about 12,000 at their peak, as well as temporary lights and, for some games, temoprary restrooms. Though it was expected the northeastern stands would be completed in time for the dedicatory game against Sewanee on October 27th, the work was incomplete; it's not clear when the work was finished, but it was completed prior to the end of the season, yielding a stadium of 15,000 [5].

Ahead of the 1954 season the total stadium capacity began to be reported as 17,500, which included a small number of temporary bleachers. Before that season even began, excitement for the Georgia game pushed the venue to up the ante, increasing the capacity to almost 19,000 (officially, 18,660) seats [6]. Though proposals to expand the stadium were approved in 1955, they weren't acted upon for some reason or another. Instead, expansion waited until 1961, when $272,310 (about $2.8 million in 2023) was approved to add roughly 5,100 seats on the western stands, bringing the total reported capacity to 25,000 [7] [8]. Basketball coach Bud Kennedy, for one, approved of the enlarged stadium, utilitizing its additional rows for his team's off-season work outs. "Thank goodness they added those 90 extra rows of seats this year," he exaggerated. "It certainly shows up in the boys' conditioning" [9]. As part of the construction, the original press box was demolished, and a new one put up in its place.

Not content with the work, the stadium was nearly doubled in size ahead of the 1964 football season. The half-million ($4.9 million in 2023) expansion grew the stadium's official capacity to 39,484, though another 880 corner seats (only sold for choice games due to their poorer visibility) grew the stadium's maximum patronage to about 40,500. The recently-enlarged west stands gained 3,734 seats, while the eastern stands grew by 8,974. At the same time, work was begun to replace 1,800 temporary bleacher seats in the endzones with 2,048 bleachers in the north endzone and 3,064 in the south [10].

The Seminoles were satiated for a while, waiting over a decade before starting another major renovation, which was completed in 1978. This time, seating was increased to 47,413 primarily by "filling in the four vacant corners" of the stadium's upper level. This kicked off a rapid succession of stadium renovations: in 1980, 934 temporary bleachers were removed and replaced by 4,728 aluminum seats, pushing the capacity to 51,094. At the same time, the fieldhouse was enlarged, and the venue's lighting was rewired and replaced. Another 4,000 seats were added before the 1982 season, pushing the seating to 55,246. And in 1985, the seating was enlarged once again, to 60,519, by adding seats to both sidelines at ground level. This work also greatly improved stadium concessions and restrooms [11].

The venue's size held pat until 1992, when the university engaged in a multi-year construction plan. While the bulk of the work focused on beautifying the exposed girders of the "erector set" stadium and replacing older wooden seats in the south endzone, builders also filled void spaces around the stadium with new seating. Other work also included a sky box and a new scoreboard. The seating eventually totaled 80,000, with work often taking place over the course of the season. The stadium's brick facade was added ahead of the 1996 season. Another 2,000 seats were added before 2001, and another 300 were added before 2003 [12] [13].

Renovations began anew once again as soon as the 2023 football season wrapped up, with plans this time emphasizing improved spectator comfort. All existing seats on the east stands were removed and expected to be replaced with widened seats and aisles, as well as additional legroom, while the western stands were demolished in their entirity. Work also focused on increasing club seating. Improvements to the northeastern stands will be completed ahead of the 2024 season, though the western stands will remain unfinished; capacity is expected to be about 50,000 in 2024 before ballooning back up to roughly 65,000-70,000 upon completion [19].

Pictures of Doak Cambell Stadium