History
The Tennessee Volunteers football team originally played at Baldwin Park, which was once located between Grand Avenue and Dale Avenue, north of Fort Sanders. From 1909 to 1920, the team played at Wait Field, which was once located on 15th Street.
Neyland Stadium (pronounced NEE-land) was first conceived in 1919. Colonel W.S. Shields, president of Knoxville's City National Bank and a University of Tennessee trustee, provided the initial capital to prepare and equip an athletic field. Thus, when the original stadium–the lower level of the current stadium's West Stands– was completed in March 1921, it was called Shields-Watkins Field in honor of the donor and his wife, Alice Watkins-Shields. However, the project ran out of funds and was unfinished temporarily until MacGregor Smith (1921) suggested at a meeting of the University's Scarabbean Senior Society that the students and faculty finish the project together. At the group's behest, students and faculty finished the field over a two-day period. An invitational track meet was then held as a celebration and thus became the very first event at Neyland Stadium. The first Vol football game at the stadium took place on September 24, 1921, with the Vols defeating Emory & Henry, 27–0. The first night game at Neyland Stadium was played on September 16, 1972, with the Vols defeating Penn State, 28–21.
In 1962, the stadium was renamed Neyland Stadium in honor of former athletic director and coach, General Robert Neyland. Neyland, the man credited with making the Vols a national football power, coached the team from 1926–1952, with two interruptions for military service. Shortly before his death, he spearheaded the stadium's first major expansion. The plans were so far ahead of their time that they have been used in every expansion since then. The playing surface is still named Shields–Watkins Field.
The latest additions and updates to the facility were part of a $136.4 million series of renovations, beginning in 2004 and completed by 2010. They included the bricking around the field and the removal of the previous hedges, numerous changes to the inside and outside of the stadium structure, additions and reconfigurations of seating areas, as well as new home locker, press, and varsity rooms.
In a Spring 2001 poll in The Sporting News, Neyland Stadium was ranked as the nation's #1 college football stadium. In 2004, Sports Illustrated ranked Neyland Stadium, the University of Tennessee campus, and the surrounding Knoxville area, as the best college football weekend experience. On April 8, 2009, it was announced that Neyland Stadium was one of the 70 stadia named for the United States' bid to either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.
Read more about this topic: Neyland Stadium
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