You know, as a proud Miamian and thus lifelong hater of anything to do with the University of Cincinnati, I’m trying to find a reason to mock this. But I can’t. Here’s to college football—and a big RedHawks upset this weekend.
This was wonderful, and it makes me even sadder that as a Pitt fan I’ll never know having a true home field. I was five when Pitt Stadium was torn down, and it’s never coming back.
In the #D3FootballisReal category, Washington University in St. Louis plays football on Francis Field, which hosted track and field for the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, and is positioned such that you walk by it every time you move between main campus and the primary collection of dorms. (The fact that a D3 football field is open to the student body and public when not is use is much less of a surprise.)
I think you're lucky that you got to attend grad school at your undergrad alma. I do not share the same fuzzy feelings for Kansas State as I do and always will for Illinois. It would certainly be easier on me to be a fan of the Wildcats over the Illini on account of one of the two programs actually goes to bowl games and the other is Illinois.
BUT.
I used to work for the temp agency in Manhattan during grad school and one of my favorite assignments was getting sent to do construction on Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The stadium needed to be finished before the season opener so every contractor in Kansas (and random temps like yours truly) were working on it simultaneously. I feel far more pride seeing that silly stadium than I do seeing the vet school campus.
At the University of Miami, the Orange Bowl was an incredible venue despite both being off campus and being an NFL stadium. It was old, it was shaky, it's open endzone looked out at Biscayne Bay...it was marvelous, scary, beautiful, and everything in between.
My freshman year, we came back from a 23 point deficit against Florida in what I've dubbed the Brock Berlin game and it was an incredible spectacle to witness while glass beer bottles were being chucked from above me, whizzing past my head and in the direction of the football field. It felt like I was in a warzone, or what I imagine it would feel like.
Then the stadium was demolished and the team moved to the Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphins/Dolphin/Land Shark/Sun Life/Hard Rock Stadium and the feeling just wasn't there any more. The student section that once fueled the entire stadium in now drowned out by the enormity of it. It's still fun, it's just different. Less a part of the team and more an outside entity just like every other person in the stands.
Canes fans will defend the off campus stadium because you can buy alcohol in it, but despite an incredible tailgating experience, it doesn't hold a candle to on campus stadiums.
Great article from a double alum of a different school that plays in a Swamp literally and figuratively (given the leadership of the state here in Florida).
This is very cool, and I’ve long admired how most college programs will tinker around the edges of their stadia to keep with the times, rather than replace them whole cloth like every other major sport (except European football to some extent). I will say, having gone to two schools as an undergrad AND one school post-grad without football programs, articles like these make me rethink my life choices a little!
Scott, I'm very excited for you and your football team's season. I perpetually hope half of the playoff field is non-P5 teams, so I am especially on board with a successful Cincy season.
I've always felt like NFL stadiums are designed to look much more impressive on camera than they do in person. The sections are deceptively small, it just feels like a forced perspective trick rather than a functional building.
The only time I tried to get on Penn State's field, a cop put a can of pepper spray about three inches from my face. He then threw me into the wall of bodies that wasn't leaving the stadium yet...I do not miss the campus cops.
I had no idea about any of this. Fascinating.
You know, as a proud Miamian and thus lifelong hater of anything to do with the University of Cincinnati, I’m trying to find a reason to mock this. But I can’t. Here’s to college football—and a big RedHawks upset this weekend.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out Maryland's stadium is also pretty dead center campus.
https://goo.gl/maps/yFtsMasEcnQ9yeT8A I lived in Centreville Hall for 2 years (upper right) and walked past it almost every single day. It used to be open (https://digital.lib.umd.edu/image?pid=umd:183532) but hasn't been for a while. You can watch the DC fireworks on the 4th from the top rows.
This was wonderful, and it makes me even sadder that as a Pitt fan I’ll never know having a true home field. I was five when Pitt Stadium was torn down, and it’s never coming back.
In the #D3FootballisReal category, Washington University in St. Louis plays football on Francis Field, which hosted track and field for the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, and is positioned such that you walk by it every time you move between main campus and the primary collection of dorms. (The fact that a D3 football field is open to the student body and public when not is use is much less of a surprise.)
I think you're lucky that you got to attend grad school at your undergrad alma. I do not share the same fuzzy feelings for Kansas State as I do and always will for Illinois. It would certainly be easier on me to be a fan of the Wildcats over the Illini on account of one of the two programs actually goes to bowl games and the other is Illinois.
BUT.
I used to work for the temp agency in Manhattan during grad school and one of my favorite assignments was getting sent to do construction on Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The stadium needed to be finished before the season opener so every contractor in Kansas (and random temps like yours truly) were working on it simultaneously. I feel far more pride seeing that silly stadium than I do seeing the vet school campus.
At the University of Miami, the Orange Bowl was an incredible venue despite both being off campus and being an NFL stadium. It was old, it was shaky, it's open endzone looked out at Biscayne Bay...it was marvelous, scary, beautiful, and everything in between.
My freshman year, we came back from a 23 point deficit against Florida in what I've dubbed the Brock Berlin game and it was an incredible spectacle to witness while glass beer bottles were being chucked from above me, whizzing past my head and in the direction of the football field. It felt like I was in a warzone, or what I imagine it would feel like.
Then the stadium was demolished and the team moved to the Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphins/Dolphin/Land Shark/Sun Life/Hard Rock Stadium and the feeling just wasn't there any more. The student section that once fueled the entire stadium in now drowned out by the enormity of it. It's still fun, it's just different. Less a part of the team and more an outside entity just like every other person in the stands.
Canes fans will defend the off campus stadium because you can buy alcohol in it, but despite an incredible tailgating experience, it doesn't hold a candle to on campus stadiums.
Great article from a double alum of a different school that plays in a Swamp literally and figuratively (given the leadership of the state here in Florida).
This is very cool, and I’ve long admired how most college programs will tinker around the edges of their stadia to keep with the times, rather than replace them whole cloth like every other major sport (except European football to some extent). I will say, having gone to two schools as an undergrad AND one school post-grad without football programs, articles like these make me rethink my life choices a little!
Beat the RedHawks!
Cincinnati’s band is one of my favorites.
Scott, I'm very excited for you and your football team's season. I perpetually hope half of the playoff field is non-P5 teams, so I am especially on board with a successful Cincy season.
I've always felt like NFL stadiums are designed to look much more impressive on camera than they do in person. The sections are deceptively small, it just feels like a forced perspective trick rather than a functional building.
The only time I tried to get on Penn State's field, a cop put a can of pepper spray about three inches from my face. He then threw me into the wall of bodies that wasn't leaving the stadium yet...I do not miss the campus cops.