Pueblo – The City Council has cleared the way for construction of a 6,000-seat, $10 million stadium and athletics building for Colorado State-Pueblo’s return to intercollegiate football next year.
The school’s football team will play in the NCAA Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
CSU-Pueblo dropped football in a 1985 reorganization. The Colorado State University System Board of Governors in May approved reviving the program, along with wrestling and women’s track and field.
The City Council on Monday approved an amendment to an annexation measure the university sought as part of the ThunderWolves’ stadium project.
“I hope you have a 100-member band and 12 cheerleaders and everything that makes football fun, because this will bring more students to the university,” Councilman Ray Aguilera told CSU- Pueblo President Joe Garcia.
John Wristen, an all-conference quarterback at CSU-Pueblo when the school was the University of Southern Colorado, has been named head coach.
Wristen has been an assistant coach at Northwestern, Colorado and UCLA.
CSU-Pueblo’s 2008 home opener in football is scheduled for Sept. 6 against Oklahoma Panhandle State.
RMAC members that have football teams are Adams State, Colorado Mines, Fort Lewis, Mesa State, Western State, Chadron (Neb.) State, Nebraska-Kearney, New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico.
