Ted Runner Stadium - Home to Bulldog Football

PHOTO GALLERY

Ted Runner Stadium and the Frank R. Serrao Gateway are historical and symbolic aspects of the Redlands campus that represent two great contributors to Bulldog Athletics. The stadium is home to the football program and houses Ashel Cunningham Track.

Dedicated to a man who gave 35 years of unparalleled service to the University of Redlands, Ted Runner Stadium is one of the jewels of Southern California football stadiums and one of many fine athletic facilities on the University of Redlands campus. The stadium itself seats 6,750 people and is utilized by the Bulldog football and track & field teams. In addition, the local high schools and community organizations have used this great facility in the past.

Ted Runner was an outstanding student-athlete who earned Little All-America Second Team quarterback honors in 1947. He was also a two-year member of the All-SCIAC football team and ran as a member of the Bulldog track team. After earning a master’s degree in 1952 at Springfield College, Runner returned to the University of Redlands as the head track coach and assistant football coach. He became the head football coach in 1959 and guided the Bulldogs to a 27-22-1 record over the next five years.

Runner became the director of athletics in 1962, a position he held until his retirement in May of 1988. The stadium was named in his honor at a dedication ceremony on October 22, 1988. Runner was awarded the University of Redlands Bulldog Bench Distinguished Service Award at the 1997 Bulldog Bench Hall of Fame Induction Dinner and was later inducted in the Hall of Fame as part of the 1947 Football Team.

This is the second football stadium at the University of Redlands. The original stood across from Currier Gymnasium on the current site of the Hunsaker Center until the late 1960s. It was relocated to its new location on Brockton Avenue in 1968.

In addition to regular upgrades to the facility, Ted Runner Stadium was emblazoned with “HOME OF THE BULLDOGS” across the visitors’ stands during the summer of 2009. Members of the athletic department spent a few days stenciling and painting this proud statement prior to the start of football season.

The 2001 football season marked the grand opening of the long-awaited Frank R. Serrao Gateway to the stadium.

Coach Serrao patrolled the sidelines of Ted Runner Stadium for over 20 years. During that time, his teams amassed a record of 115-80-1 and won eight SCIAC championships, including six consecutive titles from 1973 to 1978. His 1976 team, which was inducted into the Bulldog Bench Hall of Fame, finished the season with a career-best 10-2 record and was runner-up in the NAIA national championship race. He retired from the University of Redlands in 1984 with more wins than any other football coach in the history of the institution, a distinction he still holds today.