Football | 11/2/2016 5:49:00 PM
GAMEDAY CENTERAL
ABILENE – For 57 seasons, the ACU Wildcats have called Shotwell Stadium their home away from home.
That comes to an end Saturday night when the Wildcats play their final home game of the 2016 season and their final home game ever at Shotwell Stadium after playing there since 1960.
The Wildcats close out their run at Shotwell Stadium this Saturday at 6 p.m. when they host Northwestern State from Natchitoches, La. ACU enters the game at 1-8 overall and 1-6 in the Southland, while the Demons are 1-7 and 0-6.
ACU has dropped back-to-back games to the Demons in its first two seasons back in the Southland by the scores of 34-10 in Abilene in 2014 and 39-22 in Louisiana in 2015.
In those 57 seasons (not including Saturday's game against Northwestern State), the Wildcats have played 291 games at Shotell and are 180-107-4 all-time for a winning percentage of 62.5.
ACU has enjoyed seven perfect regular-season records in its 57 seasons at Shotwell and five perfect records overall. ACU posted perfect regular-season records in 1963 (5-0), 1973 (5-0), 1974 (5-0), 1978 (5-0), 2008 (5-0), 2010 (6-0), and 2013 (4-0). When counting post-season games, the Wildcats have posted perfect overall home records in 1963, 1973 (6-0), 1974, 1978 and 2013.
The Wildcats have played six post-season games at the venerable stadium, which also serves as the home field for Abilene and Abilene Cooper high schools, and the Wildcats are 4-2 in their home venue.
They beat Langston (Okla.) and star linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson in the 1973 NAIA Division I national semifinals, and then pummeled Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the 1977 NAIA Division I semifinals. Both of those ACU teams went on to win national championships.
After that 1977 win, it would be 30 more seasons before ACU would host a playoff game, but it was worth the wait as ACU pummeled Mesa State (Colo.), 56-12, in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. The next season, ACU played perhaps the greatest game in program history, beating West Texas A&M, 93-68, in the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
The Wildcats scored 13 touchdowns in the game with eventual Harlon Hill Award-winner running back, Bernard Scott, set several NCAA Division II, Lone Star Conference and ACU single-game records by scoring seven touchdowns in the victory.
The Wildcats lost to eventual national runner-up Northwest Missouri State the next week, 45-36, and two years later (2010), the Wildcats lost their only playoff game of the season, 55-41, to Central Missouri after running through the regular season with a 6-0 home record en route to an LSC championship.
ACU's best 10-year period at Shotwell Stadium came from 1970-79 when it posted a home record of 43-12 for a .782 winning percentage. The Wildcats' most home wins in a season came in 1977 when ACU finished 7-1 at home en route to that national championship victory.
