Ivy stadiums: mixing tradition and innovation

Amidst a number of recent Ivy stadium renovations, Yale plans to modernize the Yale Bowl.

By Michael Horn

Off of Derby Avenue, in the center of Yale's athletic complex, sits a piece of football history.The Yale Bowl, designed by Charles A. Ferry, Class of 1871, opened in 1914, just in time for the 31st episode of The Game. It has served as the home field for Yale football through the last 84 years of Bulldog ups and downs.

The Bowl has held crowds of over 70,000 20 times, most recently on Nov. 19, 1983 for the 100th playing of the Yale-Harvard game. Besides Yale football, the Bowl has recently played host to the 1995 Special Olympics, international soccer matches, and 1-800-COLLECT commercials, featuring Mike Ditka tearing up the historic turf.

But 84 years has brought more abuse than just Ditka's. And as the stadium has deteriorated, so has football attendance. Average attendance for this past season's home football games was only 13,406, despite the team's surprising success. Just as coach Jack Siedlecki improved the play on the field this past year, Carm Cozza, head football coach from 1965 to 1996, has plans to improve the field itself. "I wanted personally to do something," he said.

Cozza's new legacy

The first step in the Bowl renovations plans is fundraising. While building the stadium in 1914 cost less than $750,000, renovations to simply replace the concrete outside and all of the portals will cost $3.5 million alone. "I'd like to start late spring, but we're just scratching the surface right now [in terms of funds]," Cozza said.

The Yale Athletic Department is raising the money for the renovations by asking every former Yale football player to contribute. "My hope is that people will be generous and preserve the stadium so their children, and their grandchildren, and their children's grandchildren can see it, maybe even play in it," Cozza said. "It's a one-of-a-kind structure. It couldn't possibly be replaced." Indeed, the Yale Bowl became a national landmark in 1976.

Cozza thinks that most people are interested in helping, but that the main problem is convincing people the investment is worthwhile, especially considering the low attendance of recent years. But he said that a winning program can do wonders for fan interest.

The stadium, which covers 11.5 acres of ground, has undergone minor alterations over the years, such as the addition of a large scoreboard in 1958, a press box in 1986, and the tearing out of 7,000 seats in 1994-95 so that the stadium could host the Special Olympics.

Playing in the Tigers' den

In stark contrast to aging structures like the Yale Bowl which house most Ivy League teams, Princeton's football facility opened just this year. Princeton Stadium replaced Palmer Memorial Stadium, the second oldest stadium in the country when it was torn down.

Palmer Memorial, like Harvard Stadium, had a horseshoe design. The stadium also contained a track. But by 1995, it was no longer useful. "It was falling apart from the inside and rotting. We had no real choice but to replace it," Princeton's Associate Director of Athletics Kurt Kehl said. During construction on the new stadium, Princeton played its home games at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.

Since the new stadium does not house a track, the university build a new complex for its runners. The combined cost of the new stadium and the new track facility was a hefty $45 million. "We're currently fundraising for the stadium," Kehl said. "We still aren't done."

The stadium has almost 20,000 fewer seats than Palmer Memorial had, but Princeton still led the Ivy League in attendance this season, averaging over 20,000 fans per game. "We had more than 6,000 season ticket holders this year, and less than 2,000 before," Kehl said. He attributed the boost in interest to the excitement surrounding the opening of the stadium.

The new stadium has two tiers, and the seating is steeper and nearer to the action. "It gives a feeling that you are closer to the field. It looks more open and airy and at the same time it looks really intimate," Kehl said.

Faking it for the teams

Princeton Stadium, the newest in the Ivy League, has football's oldest surface: grass. But three football stadiums in the League have recently switched to artificial turf: Pennsylvania's Franklin Field, Cornell's Schoellkopf Field, and Columbia's Lawrence A. Wein Stadium at Baker Field. The main impetus for these universities to switch surfaces was their lack of other athletic facilities. At all three schools, the football team shares the field with a number of other teams.

Of the three fields, Franklin Field is the oldest. It opened in 1895--at a cost of $100,000--for the first running of the Penn Relays, and was rebuilt 72 years ago. Franklin Field lays claim to many firsts in the nation. It received the nation's first scoreboard in 1895. It was the first two-tiered stadium. The first football radio broadcast occurred there in 1922, and the first football telecast also took place there in 1939. Franklin Field also lays claim to being the site of legendary coach Vince Lombardi's only NFL playoff loss.

Franklin Field adopted an artificial turf surface in 1970. "We only have one field. We're landlocked," Pennsylvania's Director of Athletic Communications Shawn May said.

When asked about the hazardous effects that artificial turf is purported to have on players, May said that there are reports to the contrary. "It goes both ways," he said. "There's not that great a difference. Just perceptions."

Built in 1984 because their wooden stadium constucted in 1929 was no longer usable, Columbia's stadium switched to artificial turf in 1995. "As an urban institution, we have limited field space," Columbia's Associate Athletic Director Al Carlson said. Because of the addition of two new teams--women's field hockey and lacrosse--Columbia made the $1.5 million move to artifical turf.

"Dr. Russ Warren, the team physician for the New York Giants, told us that an artificial surface is better than poorly maintainedgrass," Carlson said. There is a crush-stone drainage system underneath the carpet, followed by a 35-mm elastic layer, and finally the carpet. "It's much more cushioned," Carlson explained

Cornell's Schoellkopf Field, which was completed in 1915, received a $3.6 million facelift in 1986. The stands were refurbished, a state-of-the-art press box was added, and lights were added to make night games possible for TV broadcasts.

Cornell switched their stadium to artificial turf in 1971, allowing the field to be used for varsity and junior varsity football games and practices, lightweight football games, field hockey games, and men's and women's varsity and junior varsity lacrosse.

Historic Harvard

While Harvard Stadium has not made the controversial switch from grass to turf, it generated its share of debate when it was built. As the oldest permanent concrete stadium in the country, it is a part of engineering history.

The stadium was a gift from the Class of 1879 and was the first reinforced concrete structure in the country. "It was an engineering marvel of its day," Harvard's Director of Sports Information John Veneziano said.

At the time, many people were questioning the reliability of concrete. In order to prove its durability, 12 workers jumped up and down on the concrete seats at the same time. To further their point, designers remained underneath the stands on opening day to show how much faith they had in the strength of the structure.

The stadium, for the most part, has withstood the test of time. In 1982, the concrete and steel support beams were replaced. The new concrete is five times sturdier than the original concrete. Moreover, the track is no longer in the stadium, and this past summer the field was moved closer to the horseshoe to improve the overall view from the seats.

In addition to being part of engineering history, Harvard Stadium changed football's development. Walter Camp, an 1880 Yale graduate who shaped the game of football, was planning to widen the football field by 40 feet in order to open up the game. But Harvard Stadium had already been built with concrete, and the field could not be widened. Thus, in order to achieve the desired expansion of the game, Camp adopted the forward pass.

The details of the upcoming renovations to the Yale Bowl, the newly-built Princeton Stadium, and the turf fields of the Ivy League may seem to pale in importance to the players and their performance on the field. But the history of Harvard Stadium teaches us never to underestimate the importance of a football stadium.

Photos courtesy Sports Publicity Office.

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