Doak Campbell Stadium History in Tallahassee, Florida

Doak Campbell Stadium opened on October 7, 1950, and Florida State Athletics now lists its capacity as 67,277.

The FSU Athletics quick facts give the stadium's location as Pensacola Street and Stadium Drive, Tallahassee, Florida 32304, its playing surface as 419 Tiftway Bermuda, and the first game as a 40-7 Florida State win over Randolph-Macon on October 7, 1950. Entering 2026, FSU's all-time record at the stadium was 327-111-4, a .744 winning percentage. Its full name is Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium.

The size has moved in a long arc. FSU's capacity table shows 15,000 seats in 1950, a peak of 82,300 for the 2003 through 2015 seasons, 79,560 for 2016 through 2023, 55,107 during the 2024 construction season and 67,277 from 2025. The Seminole Boosters, the university's fundraising arm for athletics facilities, describe the opening day in the same words, as a 40-7 victory over Randolph-Macon.

The stadium followed the school's 1947 return to coeducation and was built three years after football resumed in Tallahassee.

According to the Florida State University history page, on May 15, 1947, the Governor signed an act of the Legislature returning Florida State College for Women to coeducational status and naming it The Florida State University. That year the student body of 4,056 selected the Seminole as its athletics symbol, and football was started again when the first home game since 1905 was played in October. Three years later, the history says, Campbell Stadium was built.

The name comes from the president who pushed for it. The FSU Office of the President lists Doak Sheridan Campbell as president from 1941 to 1957, through the change from Florida State College for Women to The Florida State University, and says one of his most important contributions was his support for building a football stadium on campus, a goal achieved when the stadium opened in 1950 and was named for him. Campbell retired in 1957 but remained in the Tallahassee area as president emeritus until his death in 1973.

FSU added seats in Tallahassee in at least fourteen steps between 1954 and 2003, with the steepest climb in the early 1990s.

The table shows crowds above the listed capacity in many periods, such as 46,790 against Florida in 1966 when the stadium was listed at 40,500, and FSU does not explain on the page how those crowds were counted. The 1964 season brought the first win at the stadium over a ranked team, 48-6 over No. 5 Kentucky on October 10, and the first win there over Florida, 16-7 on November 21.

FSU's ranked list puts the largest Doak Campbell crowd at 84,409 against Miami on October 2, 2013, but the same page's capacity table shows 84,431 against Notre Dame on October 18, 2014.

The two figures sit on the same official page and the page does not reconcile them, so both are given here. Eight of the ten crowds on the ranked list came between 2002 and 2005. The single-season list puts 2006 first, when eight home games in Tallahassee drew 644,256 fans for an average of 80,532, and 2014 second, with 575,478 across seven games for an average of 82,211.

The north end zone held wood bleachers until 1994, and the field was dedicated as Bobby Bowden Field on November 20, 2004.

The athletics department says the north end zone consisted of wood bleachers until the 1994 season and is now the Moore Athletic Center, whose offices overlooking the field house FSU's athletics executive staff. The south end zone houses the Florida State University School of Hospitality, where students get hands-on experience in the food and beverage industry, and the Champions Club, with private entrances, chair-back seats, covered rooftops with cabanas and panoramic views of downtown Tallahassee.

In a ceremony before the Florida game on November 20, 2004, Bobby Bowden Field was dedicated; the crowd that day, 84,223, ranks fifth on the stadium list. The Office of the President notes that the 2004 naming made the official name Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium. Bowden's first win at the stadium came on October 2, 1976, 20-10 over Kansas State, his 200th career win came there on October 27, 1990, against LSU, and his 300th Florida State win came on November 17, 2007, against Maryland. In 2016 FSU added 9,908 square feet of LED displays, including a video board 63 feet high that the department calls the tallest video board structure in college football.

A two-year renovation of the Tallahassee stadium, unveiled before the 2025 opener against Alabama for its 75th anniversary, cut capacity to 67,277 while adding premium seating and new video boards.

The FSU Athletics stadium page lists the upgrades: expanded seating options including a revamped Dunlap Champions Club, Founders Suites and Loge Boxes and the West Sideline Club; chairback seating on the east side; updated concourses and signage; improved concessions; ADA improvements and restroom enhancements; and new video boards measuring 57 by 120 feet in the north end zone and 35 by 75 feet in the south, plus additional ribbon boards. The capacity table records 55,107 for the 2024 construction season, reached six times, and 67,277 from 2025, reached three times.

Local government money was part of the picture. A January 2022 newsletter from a Leon County commissioner, posted on the county website, says the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency board voted 7-5 at its December 9, 2021, meeting in favor of a bond issuance that included $20 million for Doak Campbell Stadium infrastructure repairs, with final approval of the bond financing set for the February 24, 2022, meeting; the commissioner voted against it. The Seminole Boosters say the Dunlap Football Center, the year-round home of FSU football with academic spaces, meeting rooms, a weight room and staff offices, opened in the fall of 2025.

FSU won its 327th game at Doak Campbell Stadium on November 15, 2025, against Virginia Tech, 75 years after the first.

The same list records the first win over Miami at the stadium on September 22, 1979, 40-23, and the first win over an AP No. 1 team on November 30, 1996, 24-21 against Florida.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Florida State Athletics stadium page (capacity, crowd, season and milestone tables), FSU's history and Office of the President pages, the Seminole Boosters capital projects page and a January 2022 Leon County commissioner newsletter on the Blueprint vote.