The university began planning a new stadium complex shortly after World War I to replace Nebraska Field, an outdated venue that housed the program from 1909 to 1922.

Major expansions of East, West, and North Stadium between 1999 and 2013 raised capacity to 85,458 and completely enclosed the original superstructure, which remains largely intact.

[5] Nebraska Field's wooden bleachers and limited seating capacity meant that after less than ten years there was significant momentum toward the building of a larger steel-and-concrete stadium.

[5] College football exploded in popularity after the war and enthusiasm for a new stadium was high, with many suggesting it be named for former team captain Roscoe Rhodes, who was killed in France in 1918.

[8] John Latenser Sr. of Omaha and Ellery L. Davis of Lincoln were selected as head architects as they offered to work pro bono, a significant boost to the cash-strapped Memorial Association.

[7] A ceremonial groundbreaking was held on April 23, 1923 when the fundraising target of $430,000 had been met, but higher-than-expected contractor bids pushed the price tag over $540,000 and required further design revisions.

[7] The contract between Parsons and the university required the stadium to be ready for the upcoming 1923 season, reflecting assurances made by the Memorial Association during fundraising.

[7] Work continued through a rainy summer and an August tornado, and was mostly complete in time for Nebraska's first home game, though lead builder Earl Hawkins insisted fans not be allowed into the unfinished upper sections.

In the early 1980s, portable lighting was occasionally used to allow Nebraska to host late afternoon games, typically on Black Friday against rival Oklahoma.

[16] In 2010 the university polled fans about a proposed East Stadium project – the most-supported option was a modest seating expansion designed to protect Nebraska's NCAA-record sellout streak.

[21] Before work began, the renovation was reexamined in light of budget projections following a proposed NCAA settlement allowing revenue sharing between schools and student-athletes.

[22] The potential teardown and rebuild of South Stadium is under review; athletic director Troy Dannen maintains it is an integral part of the project, but a timeline is undetermined.

[23] Regent Barbara Weitz jokingly suggested constructing a columbarium beneath the football field to help fund the South Stadium project and address a university-wide budget shortfall.

By the mid-1930s the university began planning additional facilities along the stadium's north end zone, but Great Depression financial struggles made it difficult to acquire the necessary land in adjoining neighborhoods.

[16] A statue of Osborne and Brook Berringer, a Scottsbluff native and former backup quarterback who was killed in a 1996 plane crash, was installed at the main entrance of the complex.

[28] Barely a decade after completing the Osborne Athletic Complex, Nebraska's football facilities already lagged behind other major programs in terms of size and amenities.

[10] Nebraska played on grass until 1970, when the stadium was fit with AstroTurf, an artificial turf surface glued to a foam-like plastic layer on a six-inch (15 cm) bed of asphalt that was made famous when it was installed at the Houston Astrodome in 1966.

[31] Devaney and Osborne used the outfield at Buck Beltzer Stadium, home of NU's baseball team, to conduct practices for upcoming road games to be played on grass.

This meant the stadium could not have a warning track or permanent fence, and left divots that made fielding ground balls extremely difficult (termed "the bounce of the Buck").

[32] Several iterations of AstroTurf were used at Memorial Stadium until 1999, when Nebraska became the first Division I-A program to install FieldTurf, a lighter synthetic surface designed to more closely replicate natural grass.

[33] Since 1993, Nebraska's home games have opened with the "Tunnel Walk" as the team takes the field before kickoff, typically to the Alan Parsons Project instrumental "Sirius."

[39] Nebraska's student section, nicknamed "The Boneyard" after the team's starting defensive unit, is located in the southeast corner of East and South Stadium.

Nebraska will only allow Memorial Stadium to host two days of state football games when it installs a natural grass playing field, tentatively scheduled for 2026.