Notre Dame Road Stadium Tour: BB&T Field

This is the second to last tour of the stadiums Notre Dame will visit on the road this year.

So far, we've covered four stadiums:

Heinz Field

Ross-Ade Stadium

Stanford Stadium

FedEx Field

Up next is a wee little place down in North Carolina.

It's Wake Forest's BB&T Field!

Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Opened: September, 1968

Capacity: 31,500

Surface: FieldTurf

• The stadium was originally named Groves Stadium and cost $4 million to build.
• Henry Groves, the stadium's main benefactor, promised extra funds for the stadium if it were named after him. However, the university announced in 1948 that the school would be moving nearly 100 miles from Wake Forest, North Carolina to Winston-Salem, and the money for such a move left little for the new football facilities. It took nearly 20 years, but the stadium finally was erected and under Henry Groves' name.
• Wake Forest lost the first game in the new stadium 10-6 to rival NC State.
• In 2007, the bank BB&T negotiated the naming rights to the stadium, signing a 10-year deal.

BB&T Bank world headquarters are in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

• FieldTurf was installed in 2006. Wake is one of only three teams in the SEC and ACC conferences to use FieldTurf, and one of only two from the South to do so (the others being Boston College and Mississippi).
• In August 2008 the DeaconTower was completed. It is a seven story multi-purpose football building that also serves as the press box.
• WakeForest has two undefeated seasons at BB&T Field: 1970 (4-0) and 1979 (5-0).
• BB&T Field has only hosted one No. 1 team in history, the 1990 Virginia Cavaliers. WakeForest would lose to UVA that day 49-14.
• Wake Forest has hosted 10 BCS teams out of conference at BB&T Field since 2000. The Demon Deacons are 3-7 in these games with victories over Ole Miss (2008), Vanderbilit (2008), and Syracuse (2006). Wake has also hosted Navy three times since 2000 and is 1-2 against the Midshipmen.
• The only ranked non-ACC team to play at BB&T Field since 2000 is Purdue, back in 2003. The Boilermakers won that game 16-10.

Jim Grobe has been head coach at WF since 2001 and is 35-27 at BB&T Field.

• You can expect temporary bleachers to be put up for the game against Notre Dame in order to maximize revenue, as BB&T field is the smallest stadium in the ACC and out of all BCS conference teams.
• The game between WakeForest and Notre Dame will be one of the smallest crowds to watch the Irish in school history. In the past five years, the smallest crowds to watch Notre Dame have been at Boston College's Alumni Stadium which seats 44,500 or 13,000 more than BB&T Field.
• Wake Forest is a very respectable 20-9 at BB&T Field since 2006, including 16-11 versus BCS opponents.