Cajun Field
"The Swamp"
Cajun Field enters its 40th season as the home of Ragin' Cajuns football. UL holds an all-time mark of 113-94-2 at Cajun Field.
Attendance numbers have spiked in recent years, as three of the six highest attended games ever have occurred between the 2007 through 2009 seasons (including a new stadium record of 41,357 vs. Southern in 2009). Those attendance figures also rank No. 1, No. 2 and No. 8 on the largest home stadium attendance in Sun Belt Conference history.
Cajun Field hosted the 1,000th Cajuns game in school history on Nov. 1, 2008 before a Sun Belt Conference game-record crowd of 29,031. In fact, eight of the 18 best conference game crowds have occurred at Cajun Field.
UL was the SBC Attendance Champion in 2004 and 2008.
With a 4-1 record at home in '08 and one of the nation's top offenses, the Cajuns posted their best home average since 1996 with 21,468 per game.
The Cajuns have been .500 or better at home in seven of eight seasons under head coach Rickey Bustle. In addition, attendance for the first four seasons under Bustle increased 41 percent over the preceding four-year period.
From 2003-04, Louisiana won six straight home games, the fourth longest streak at Cajun Field.
Louisiana has enjoyed plenty of memorable moments since the venue opened in 1971.
The greatest of those moments came during the 1996 season when the Ragin' Cajuns opened their 26th season in the facility with the biggest upset in school history, a 29-22 victory over No. 25 Texas A&M in front of a then-record crowd of 38,783 fans. That mark surpassed the previous record crowd of 36,133 that saw the Cajuns face the Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 6, 1990.
"The Swamp" has been the site of much success with four consecutive 4-1 records from 1993-96. The school record for wins at Cajun Field in a season is seven, set during the 1976 season, one of two undefeated seasons at "The Swamp."
Cajun Field boasts 2,577 chairback seats and bleacher seating to the capacity of another 28,423, giving "The Swamp" a seating capacity of 31,000. General admission seating on the hills in both end zones give fans the opportunity to overflow the stadium.
Cajun Field was built in time for the 1971 football season. The characteristics which helped create the name and traditions have been there since the initial construction.
For the first 17 years, Louisiana's football stadium was simply known as Cajun Field.
In the summer of 1988, then-Strength & Conditioning Coach Mickey Faulkinberry suggested referring to Cajun Field as "The Swamp". The name stuck for various reasons. To start, the field surface is set two feet below sea level in a natural bowl. In addition to providing a picturesque surrounding, the sunken facility allows most fans to walk down to their stadium seats. The Cajuns and their opponents must enter Cajun Field through a long tunnel from the Cox Communications Athletic Center.
"The Swamp" nickname also fits in with the geographic makeup of the area, with its many surrounding bayous and wetlands, as well as the close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, which lies just 30 miles south. In fact, a popular gathering place for Louisiana students and a regular stop for visitors is the small swamp located in the heart of UL's main campus, which sits adjacent to the Student Union. Ironically, the on-campus swamp, officially named Cypress Lake, lays over the original football field that existed during the early 1900's, adding to the distinct nickname.
The National Wetlands Center, a nationally renown research facility that UL hosts and administers, is located less than a half-mile from Cajun Field.
In the summer of 2008, Cajun Field removed its long-standing natural grass and entered a new era with a synthetic playing surface.
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