Kinnick Stadium

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Kinnick Stadium

Location	Hawkins Dr Iowa City, IA 52242
Broke ground	March 6, 1929
Opened	October 5, 1929
Owner	University of Iowa
Operator	University of Iowa
Surface	Natural Grass
Former names
Iowa Stadium (1929 to 1972)
Tenants
Iowa Hawkeyes (NCAA) (1929 to present)
Seats
70,585

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).

1 Construction
2 Renovation
3 Pink locker room
4 References
5 External links

[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 team would be playing in a new stadium within a year. Construction and groundbreaking began on the stadium on March 6, 1929. Working around-the-clock, under lights by night, the construction continued. Horses and mules were the primary heavy-equipment movers of the stadium's construction, and animals that died during construction 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 resignation of the athletic director and a slight redesign of the stadium, it was completed and the first game was played October 5, 1929 against Monmouth College. Iowa won the game, 46-0.

[edit] Renovation

Students rushing renovated Kinnick Stadium

After 75 years of operation, the Iowa Board of Regents gave permission to begin a renovation of Kinnick Stadium on March 10, 2004. The $86.8 million project was to build a new state of the art press box, a new scoreboard with a new sound system, replaced south endzone bleachers, triple the restrooms, and more than double the number of concession stands, as well as smaller changes such as a new locker rooms, a statue of Nile Kinnick and the dedication of the Krause Family Plaza to which Kinnick Stadium now belongs. At the end of August 2006, the project was nearly completed and was rededicated on September 1, 2006 with only finishing touches to the press box remaining. Among other things, the rededication featured a flyby by a F4F Wildcat, the aircraft Kinnick flew in World War II.^[1]

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. 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.