After decades without, Dakota Collegiate finally gets its football field

For the first time ever, students at Dakota Collegiate finally have an athletic field to call their own.

After years of fundraising a symbolic football tossed helped to officially open Murray Field Thursday afternoon.

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It’s a first for students at Dakota, who’ve been missing out on the benefits of playing at home for years.

Up until now, every football and soccer game has been played away.

WATCH: Global News coverage of Dakota Collegiate’s Murray Field

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“It’s such an upgrade for the kids,” Phil Hudson, Dakota Collegiate Athletic Director said. ” A field to call our own.”

Plans to build an athletic space that would include a football field, soccer field, basketball court and indigenous interpretive area have been in the works for years.

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After nearly two million dollars in donations and funding from the city, construction finally started this summer.

The first true home game for the Dakota Lancers is Oct. 5.