The University of Northern Iowa began its football program all the way back in 1895. Since then the University has continued to with the program. The Panthers currently compete in the NCAA Division 1 Football Championship Series.

The enormous Uni-dome was built in 1976 to be the home of the Panthers football team. The stadium can hold 16,324 people at maximum capacity. There never is any weather related issues to playing in the uni-dome due to the fact that it is completely closed. There has been a tradition in announcing that takes place at every home football game in the dome. The announcer will start of by saying the weather in the opposing teams town then will say… “The temperature in Cedar Falls... no wind, 72degrees. Welcome to the UNI-DOME!!” They do this to point out the fact that a dome stadium is not affected by weather.

 Over the entire life of the panthers football team they hold a record of 174-44-1 at home (in the dome). The panthers have won 33 Conference Titles, the most out of the four Iowa Division 1 Schools. The list of wins is as follows -2 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences -12 North Central Conferences -3 Association of Continent Universities -15 Missouri Valley Conferences The Panthers have only made one national championship game in history and that was in 2005 when they lost 21-16 to Appalachian State.

 Uni was home to one of the NFL’s greatest players who ever played. Kurt Warner. The uni-dome has obviously now been used to host many events other than just football games. All thought football is one of the main events that take place there in Cedar Falls also live concerts by some of music’s biggest names. It also seems to be increasingly evident that the uni-dome creates and unfair atmosphere for the opposing teams who come to play there. Teams used to practicing in all types of weather all of a sudden have to get used to not having to worry about it. In retrospect that can seem dumb but in reality weather you play in a dome or not really can affect the outcome of a football game.

UNI Panthers