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1955 College Stadium Diagrams including Rutgers Stadium

Ronnie_B

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Dec 30, 2011
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I love this old stuff!

Cz0fKT8WgAAedEE.jpg:large
 
In my head, all those little rectangles in the open end of Rutgers Stadium are picnic blankets.
Have no idea what they represent and don't remember them. The old track ran around the edge of the field except where the teams ran onto the field. All the other sections were in the stands above field level. There was only shrubbery at the north end, either side of the end zone. South end was the scoreboard.
When we played Army home for the first time, (1966) bleachers type seating was added at the north end in front of the shrubbery and across the south end zone. Stadium was full, Maybe about 30,000. Close game, but we lost.
Tulane Stadium ( Sugar Bowl) at 80,000 is funny as their home field. Early on when most teams only played 4 or 5 home games, they probably didn't get 80,000 for the season.
 
Go figure, Tulane and Yale are the two largest capacity stadiums in that picture.
Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia and us have more than doubled capacity.
NC State is more than doubled also, but not sure if their current stadium is completely new.
 
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Go figure, Tulane and Yale are the two largest capacity stadiums in that picture.
Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia and us have more than doubled capacity.
NC State is more than doubled also, but not sure if their current stadium is completely new.
NC State's Riddick Field closed for good in 1965. It became the parking lot for the new stadium. The fieldhouse (locker room) was turned into the campus police station for a while.
 
I have to look up Temple Stadium - didn't know they had their own stadium at one time - always figured they played at Franklin Field or some other stadium in the city before moving to the Vet.
 
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I have to look up Temple Stadium - didn't know they had their own stadium at one time - always figured they played at Franklin Field or some other stadium in the city before moving to the Vet.
Remember seeing Temple on TV in the early 60's at their stadium. Think it was there for about 50 yrs. But also thought we played Temple at Franklin Field.
 
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Check out Fitton Field, stadium for Holy Cross, that's an odd one.
 
What I always found interesting about the old stadium was that the 3 main structures each had 7 sections.. which could have been painted to read..

R-U-T-G-E-R-S
S-C-A-R-L-E-T
K-N-I-G-H-T-S

..and we weren't even the Scarlet Knights when it was built!
 
What I always found interesting about the old stadium was that the 3 main structures each had 7 sections.. which could have been painted to read..

R-U-T-G-E-R-S
S-C-A-R-L-E-T
K-N-I-G-H-T-S

..and we weren't even the Scarlet Knights when it was built!
What I always found interesting in the old stadium was the barricades they put between the north end zone and both the east and west stands.
Never understood that.I have never seen it anywhere else.Never seen it since
 
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I live in wake forest, and now the old wake forest forest college is a baptist seminary. I have no idea where this 29k seat stadium is. I have been in the basketball complex as my son trains there with his personal coach, but the local high school here uses a lot of the seminary's facility. Saw Bryce Love play a game at home but that was not 29k seating. Gonna have to ask around now but very cool! Does Yale bowl really hold 70k?
 
Yale Bowl 70000?
Original capacity. Maybe when the NYG played there in 73-74 thay could have put that many people in the seats. Speaking of seats, if you've never been there, you have to be a Victoria Secret's model to fit comfortably. Don't know if they made adjustments with the new renovations, but capacity dropped to around 60,000.
Definitely the grandfather of old stadiums and the Rose Bowl was fashioned from the same design.
 
Yale Bowl 70000?
Yale Bowl still seats 64,000. A lot of the Ivy stadiums are the original ones and still have huge capacities, see Franklin Field, Harvard Stadium, and Princeton kept the outside wall but renovated the inside to lower capacity. But the Yale Bowl is definitely the classic "Bowl" for which many stadiums are modeled after.
 
Tulane Stadium ( Sugar Bowl) at 80,000 is funny as their home field. Early on when most teams only played 4 or 5 home games, they probably didn't get 80,000 for the season.
On the contrary, Tulane used to be a power. They were an original member of the SEC, which many do not know. That was their stadium and they filled it. There was a reason when they knocked it down that they moved to the Superdome. I don't know if they ever filled it but they have had crowds that span portions of the upper deck there.
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tulane_stadium.jpg
 
On the contrary, Tulane used to be a power. They were an original member of the SEC, which many do not know. That was their stadium and they filled it. There was a reason when they knocked it down that they moved to the Superdome. I don't know if they ever filled it but they have had crowds that span portions of the upper deck there.
Image-5406850-142936275-2-WebSmall_0_6d2cbfb2c89e3b3c293487d7cee393ed_1


tulane_stadium.jpg
Most of the current ACC and SEC were part of the Southern Conference. A lot of teams came and went from the conference. The SEC broke away from the Southern Conference. Eventually Tulane left the SEC because they disagreed with the direction of the conference which was sports centered. Georgia Tech also left the SEC. The ACC was formed from teams that left the Southern Conference. Georgia Tech end up joining the ACC a few years later after its formation. Tulane never recovered once they left the SEC Conference.
 
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Yale Bowl still seats 64,000. A lot of the Ivy stadiums are the original ones and still have huge capacities, see Franklin Field, Harvard Stadium, and Princeton kept the outside wall but renovated the inside to lower capacity. But the Yale Bowl is definitely the classic "Bowl" for which many stadiums are modeled after.
Pretty sure Princeton's old Palmer Stadium was completely demolished - the walls of the new stadium are architecturally similar but are new walls.
 
On the contrary, Tulane used to be a power. They were an original member of the SEC, which many do not know. That was their stadium and they filled it. There was a reason when they knocked it down that they moved to the Superdome. I don't know if they ever filled it but they have had crowds that span portions of the upper deck there.
Image-5406850-142936275-2-WebSmall_0_6d2cbfb2c89e3b3c293487d7cee393ed_1


tulane_stadium.jpg

It was a time when programs like Navy and Army were the Alabama's and Ohio State's of that era.

And for the longest time college football was King over the NFL. In fact the top college players were not a given to play in the NFL like they are today. No one really went into the college game looking to play in the NFL, if the money was good enough, they would go. But it wasn't a priority.
 
It was a time when programs like Navy and Army were the Alabama's and Ohio State's of that era.

And for the longest time college football was King over the NFL. In fact the top college players were not a given to play in the NFL like they are today. No one really went into the college game looking to play in the NFL, if the money was good enough, they would go. But it wasn't a priority.
In 1909, Tulane went 4-3-2 for the season. 7 of the games involved zero points for one of the teams and the ties were 10-10 and 5-5. They played the Havana AC on New Year's Day in Cuba and lost 0-11.
 
What I always found interesting in the old stadium was the barricades they put between the north end zone and both the east and west stands.
Never understood that.I have never seen it anywhere else.Never seen it since

What "barricades"? Do you mean the empty corner sections that were overgrown with poison ivy?

Or do you mean after they remodeled the stadium and built in the upper decks and the corner sections on the north side?

That the north endzone doesn't quite mesh with the 2 sides makes sense in that the place was cobbled together from existing part. Think of the south endzone and all the talk about the "gap"... which amounts to a "barricade" now. Same thing happened in the north endzone.
 
I have to look up Temple Stadium - didn't know they had their own stadium at one time - always figured they played at Franklin Field or some other stadium in the city before moving to the Vet.
There are photos of it out there. It's from before my time, but from the photos, it looks like it was a pretty nice looking place. Most Owls fans remember it fondly.

Actually, I just found one:
Temple-University-Stadium-660x515.jpg
 
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Remember seeing Temple on TV in the early 60's at their stadium. Think it was there for about 50 yrs. But also thought we played Temple at Franklin Field.
I went to an RU/Temple game at Franklin.I think Bruce Arians was their Coach at the time.We Won.
 
Go figure, Tulane and Yale are the two largest capacity stadiums in that picture.
Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia and us have more than doubled capacity.
NC State is more than doubled also, but not sure if their current stadium is completely new.

Tulane was once one of the big Southern football superpowers and a member of SEC. Yale of course was one of the biggest draws in CFB back in early days, the Rose Bowl was based on their stadium.
 
Original capacity. Maybe when the NYG played there in 73-74 thay could have put that many people in the seats. Speaking of seats, if you've never been there, you have to be a Victoria Secret's model to fit comfortably. Don't know if they made adjustments with the new renovations, but capacity dropped to around 60,000.
Definitely the grandfather of old stadiums and the Rose Bowl was fashioned from the same design.

Actually I think when the Giants played there they were lousy and I don't think their games sold well at all...Doug, good points on Tulane. They truly are one of the more interesting 'what ifs' in college FB in that it would have been interesting to see what happened if they decided to go 'all in' on FB/sports 50 years ago. LSU may be looked at the same way GT is to Georgia (Tulane in this case) when it comes to sports.

Joe P.
 
What I always found interesting in the old stadium was the barricades they put between the north end zone and both the east and west stands. Never understood that.I have never seen it anywhere else. Never seen it since

I believe those drawing of boxes near the playing field of Rutgers Stadium represent where the "overflow" bleachers were put. For example, in the final game of the 1961 season where Rutgers defeated Columbia to finish 9-0, you can see pictures of fans sitting in temporary bleachers right on those spots. It boosted temporary capacity from around 23,000 to around 30,000.

Harvard Stadium is still in use and is America's first all-concrete stadium. Yale Bowl was constructed in the years prior to WWI. Did they draw? Well here's a blurb from the Daily Home News of November 21, 1923 quoting the New York Evening Post column of the game in New Haven, CT:
“Saturday’s victory of Yale over Princeton before 80,000 spectators marked the 50th anniversary of football contests between the two colleges but not the 50th anniversary of intercollegiate football.
 
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[EDIT: wow.. old thread brought to surface.. I had already responded to the "barricade" idea.. my bad.. maybe SOURCE can find out what the design element was in those north side corners. Looks like some kind of ivy here. Maybe it was not a natural bowl.. but a made bowl by cutting into the Raritan River flood "plateau" there.

oldaerial.jpg
 
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I had already responded to the "barricade" idea.. my bad.. maybe SOURCE can find out what the design element was in those north side corners. Looks like some kind of ivy here. Maybe it was not a natural bowl.. but a made bowl by cutting into the Raritan River flood "plateau" there...

Don't know what "design element" means but the original Rutgers Stadium was created out of a natural "bowl". It was built by WPA funds during the Great Depression and the corners were left unbuilt. Grass, weeds, ivy, bushes grew in the untouched corners around the Stadium. Fans could stand in them if they wished (and for the biggest games ever, they did). Temp stands went behind and to the sides of the goal posts at both ends, first, and other places around the track that lined the football playing field, later.

Those triangular patches were crated for track and field events like the discuss, javelin throw, etc.
 
Palmer Stadium had concrete step seats on the visitors side. Very cold to sit on during damp rainy late Sept. games in early '50s. The fun at the old R U stadium was getting in free at end zone cause you knew the ticket taker, then trying to sneak past the guy manning the barricade between end zone and east side stands where there were good vacancies.
 
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