Kinnick Stadium
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Kinnick Stadium is a stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the University of Iowa "Hawkeyes". Kinnick Stadium opened in 1929 and holds 70,585 people. It is named after Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner and the only Heisman winner in school history, who died in World War II. It was named Iowa Stadium until 1972, when longtime lobbying by Cedar Rapids Gazette sportswriter Gus Schrader successfully convinced the UI athletic board to change the name.
The playing surface is currently natural grass, although it was AstroTurf from 1972 until grass was reinstalled for the 1989 season. The installation of artificial turf came at the same time that Iowa Stadium was renamed Kinnick Stadium, in honor of the Heisman winner who had perished 29 years earlier.
When full, Kinnick Stadium becomes the fifth-largest city in Iowa (behind Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Sioux City).
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[edit] Construction
Kinnick Stadium (then Iowa Stadium) was constructed in only 7 months between 1928 and 1929. Its planning was announced at the Iowa homecoming in 1928 by the athletic director, who promised that the Hawkeyes would be playing in a new stadium within a year. Groundbreaking and construction began on March 6, 1929. Working around the clock and under lights by night, the the crew used horses and mules as the primary heavy-equipment movers. Animals that died during the process were buried under what now is the North end zone. The round-the-clock construction came to an end in July. Despite several problems to overcome, including the athletic director's resignation and a slight redesign, the stadium was completed and the first game was played October 5, 1929 against Monmouth College. Iowa won 46-0.
[edit] Renovation
The stadium also underwent major renovations in 1956 (expanded from 53,000 seats to 61,160), 1983 (when it was expanded from 61,160 seats to 67,700) and 1990 (when it was expanded to 70,585).
[edit] Pink locker room
Kinnick Stadium is well-known for its pink visitors' locker rooms, a tradition started by former Iowa coach Hayden Fry.[2] Fry majored in psychology at Baylor University and remained interested in the subject. Believing that pink tends to suppress aggressive and hostile behavior, Fry had the visiting locker rooms decorated completely in pink. He once remarked that when he got an opposing coach talking about the pink locker room, "I know I've got 'em." The pink locker room tradition has been continued with the newly renovated locker rooms, which include everything from pink urinals to pink lockers. Controversy flared during the 2005 season when a visiting law professor, along with other university faculty and students protested the pink coloration as demeaning to women and homosexuals. [3][4] Despite these protests, however, the locker room remains pink.
[edit] References
- ↑ Kinnick set to reopen The Daily Iowan, 8/30/06
- ↑ Keeler: Hayden lives on: Visitors' quarters still pretty in pink, Des Moines Register.com article
- ↑ Opponents seeing red over Iowa's pink locker room, Associated press article at MSNBC with photo.
- ↑ Iowa pink visitors' locker room under fire, article at Gay.com
[edit] External links
- Kinnick Stadium at HawkeyeSports.com
- Map of the Kinnick Stadium area
