From 1967 to 1972, plant ecologists at the University of Saskatchewan participated in the International Biological Program. As part of this worldwide study of agricultural productivity, ecologists established the Matador field station for grassland research carried out by scientists from thirty-four countries. The field station was located near Kyle, thirty miles north of Swift Current, in an area of natural grassland that was potentially the best wheat growing soil in the brown soil zone of Saskatchewan. The land (three square miles) was originally leased for 21 years from the Government of Saskatchewan; the lease (for $1/year) has since been renewed and currently expires in 2009. The Matador Project involved the study of the total grasslands ecosystem, including the interaction of animals, plants, microorganisms, soils and the atmosphere. Robert T. Coupland, Head of the Department of Plant Ecology, served as Director of the Matador Project.

The University of Saskatchewan's Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies joined in 1965 with university scientists and researchers to form the Space Engineering Division (later known as SED Systems Incorporated). SED supplies both systems and services to the satellite industry. SED is located in the Innovation Place Research Park on the U of S campus.

The Institute of Northern Studies was established in January 1960 as a multi-disciplinary unit dedicated to research on the Canadian North and other circumpolar regions, with a special emphasis on northern Saskatchewan. The Institute was to act as a focal point of northern research at the University, to encourage northern research by obtaining scholarship funds and grants, and to coordinate interdisciplinary research. In addition the Institute provided lecture series which promoted understanding of the Canadian north; training programs which taught northern peoples new skills; cross-cultural courses for people working in the north; and a northern information service. In 1981 it was announced that the Institute would be phased out over the next three years. Directors: J.B. Mawdsley (1960-1965); W.O. Kupsch (1965-1973); R.M. Bone (acting) (1973-1974); R.M. Bone (1974-1982).

Hockey has been played at the University of Saskatchewan as long as there have been students to play it. In the early years both men and women braved the cold to play hockey on an outdoor rink situated just east of the Engineering Building. Built on the footprint of the original rink, Rutherford Rink was finished in 1929 and remains home to the Hockey Huskies. Whether their hockey has been played at the inter-collegiate or inter-mural level or in one of the regional leagues, students of the U of S have embraced Canada’s game and made it part of the student experience.

Prior to 1936, the University of Saskatchewan football team played its home games at Cairns Field on the corner of Avenue A (now Idylwyld Drive) and 25th Street. Athletic Director Joe Griffiths longed for a ‘‘home field’’ and had lobbied for its construction since his arrival on campus in 1919.

Merits of the project were debated back and forth but little progress was made. In 1935 a student- organized bowling tournament raised $275 and kick-started the process. Dean C.J. McKenzie of Engineering next seized the initiative by organizing and chairing the U of S Stadium Fund Association. The plan was to fund construction in stages with donations from “students, graduates, faculty and well-wishing business men of the community.” Architectural plans, supplied “gratis” by faculty of the College of Engineering, envisioned a structure costing $25,000 whose final stages would include a grand entrance, bus mall, dressing rooms, showers, etc.

The corner of College and Cumberland, site of the ill-fated 1912 City Hospital project, was chosen as the stadium location. Although tenders were initially called for, the University decided to build the project itself using primally student labour. With the Depression showing no signs of lifting, the University saw the stadium as a opportunity to give financial aid to several students who were in danger of having to discontinue their studies. Sod was turned May 17, 1936 and under the supervision of Professor A.R. Greig, Superintendent of Buildings, construction was carried out through the summer.

The first stage of the original Griffiths Stadium was officially opened 3 October, 1936 amid speeches, bands and a parade. In front of 2,000 fans, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies beat the Alberta Golden Bears 5-3.

Decades later, the widening of College Drive and the desire for a new stadium combined to fuel construction of today’s Griffiths Stadium, a few hundred metres east of the original site. It was officially opened 23 June, 1967. Improvements were made in 1988 to accommodate the Jeux Canada Games.

In 1967 the College of Commerce vacated the Hangar Building to occupy the new Law-Commerce Complex, and the Department of Drama moved in. The building thus became home to the Greystone Theatre.
In September, 1993 the Drama Department vacated the Hangar Building to move into the recently renovated John Mitchell Building.

The construction of the Geology Building marked a return to the early style of campus architecture. The Department of Geology had been formed in 1927 and for the next six decades was based in the east wing of the Engineering Building. A growing faculty and student population had forced the department to cobble together makeshift accommodation in trailers and remote campus buildings. Designed by the architectural firm Black, McMillan and Larson of Regina, the building was given a neo-Collegiate Gothic exterior to blend harmoniously with the other buildings in the central campus. The two-and-a-half-storey building was erected just south or the bowl side of the W.P. Thompson Biology Building providing 8,543 square metres for office, laboratory, library, classroom, and storage space for rock and fossil samples. The exterior was clad with greystone and dressed with tyndal limestone. The dominant feature of the interior was a two story atrium that featured the mosaics for the former exterior walls of the Thompson Building, a life-size skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and geological and biological displays.

The $18.5 million Geology Building was completed in 1986 and fused the space between Physics and Biology and linked, through a walkway, with Chemistry, creating an integrated science complex on campus.

The University of Saskatchewan’s first pool opened in 1916. Located in the basement of Qu'Appelle Hall, it was 18 feet wide, 45 feet long and around 8 feet deep with a spring board and changing rooms. Speed swimming, diving, water polo and recreational swimming soon became popular activities in the long Saskatchewan winters. The pool closed soon after the Physical Education pool opened in October 1964.