Dick Wackar resurrected the varsity football program at Rowan in 1963 by acquiring hip and shoulder pads from a defunct semipro team and getting a good deal from a dairy farm on sod for a new field.

Next month, the school is showing its appreciation for that effort and much more by naming its renovated stadium in his honor. The facility will be named Coach Richard Wackar Stadium at John Page Field during Rowan’s homecoming game October 24.

Wackar is the only coach to lead teams in four different sports to New Jersey Athletic Conference titles. However, as the Rowan football program celebrates its 50th season this fall – it first played in 1947 but was discontinued for 13 years after the 1950 season – many are fondly remembering Wackar’s role in literally building the sport from the ground up.

“Coach Wackar has been a great role model and coach for so many people during his lifetime,” said Rowan President Donald Farish. “It is a pleasure to honor someone so deserving, yet so humble about his accomplishments. Even though he retired 21 years ago, coach Wackar remains an institution at Rowan.”

Called “Coach” by everyone at what was known as Glassboro State during his tenure, Wackar led football and men’s golf, basketball and cross country teams to league titles. He coached football through the 1980 season and coached golf for 25 years ending with his retirement in 1988. He also started the cross country team in 1957.

“I’m humbled by the honor, but it is a tribute to the thousands of wonderful students, athletes and coaches I’ve met in my journey at the college and university,” Wackar said of the naming of the refurbished stadium, which will host its first football game October 3.

The Philadelphia Daily News’ Bob Cooney recently wrote about the role Wackar played in bringing back football at the school – particularly how he stretched the $5,000 budget he was given to resurrect the program.

The equipment he grabbed from the semipro team wasn’t enough, so he also persuaded a friend who served as equipment manager at Rutgers to sell him more pads for $1 each.

As the program attracted more men and outgrew the outfield of the baseball diamond where it played its first games, Wackar began work on a new football field.

“I was good friends with the grounds man at the college, and we found a place to put a field, where we could fit a bulldozer,” Wackar told the Daily News. “The school gave us $1,000 for the field. We got a bulldozer, for one day, for $100. We tried to turtle the field so that the water would be able to run off it, but we wound up with one side three feet higher than the other. But we couldn’t worry about it.”

Wackar then bought the sod for two cents per square foot from a dairy farm recommended by the grounds man.

With that foundation in place, Wackar coached the team to five conference titles, saw four players receive all-America honors and saw one play professional football.

Wackar also was a professor at the school, where he helped establish the undergraduate major and graduate program in health and physical education.

He remains an active supporter of Rowan athletics, regularly hosting tailgate parties for faculty, alumni and friends at a spot just outside the current football stadium – on the old field he built during the 1960s.