Kinnick Stadium , formerly known as Iowa Stadium , is a stadium located in Iowa City, Iowa. Primarily used for American football, it is the home stadium of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, in the sport of college football. First opened in 1929, it currently holds up to 70,585 people, which according to Bill Foval, makes it the 3rd largest stadium in the Big Ten. It is named for Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner and the only Heisman winner in university history, who died in service during 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 filled to capacity, Kinnick Stadium would be the fifth-largest city in Iowa (after Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, and Sioux City). [1] The stadium does not have field lights and when night events do occur special lights must be temporarily installed usually by Musco Lighting.

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Construction

Kinnick Stadium was constructed in only 7 months between 1928 and 1929. Groundbreaking and construction began on March 6, 1929. Workers worked around the clock using lights by night and horses and mules as the primary heavy-equipment movers. There was a rumor for many years that horses that died during the process were buried under what now is the North end zone, when infact all the animals that died during the process were thrown into the Iowa River. 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 the game 46–0. The stadium was dedicated two weeks later, when the Hawkeyes tied Illinois 7–7. ^[2]

Renovation

After 75 years of operation, the Iowa Board of Regents endorsed a major renovation of Kinnick Stadium on March 10, 2004. The US$86.8 million project was to build a new state of the art press box, a new scoreboard with a new sound system, replace the "temporary" south endzone bleachers with permanent seating, triple the restroom facilities, and more than double the number of concession stands, as well as smaller changes such as a new locker rooms, a bronze statue of Nile Kinnick and the dedication of the Krause Family Plaza to which Kinnick Stadium is now adjacent. At the end of August 2006, the project was nearly completed and was rededicated on September 1, 2006 with only finishing touches to the new Paul W. Brechler press box remaining. Among other things, the rededication featured a flypast by a F4F Wildcat, the aircraft that Kinnick flew in World War II. ^[3]

The stadium also underwent major renovations in 1956, 1983 and 1990 where capacity was gradually taken from 53,000 to 70,397. The most recent renovations in 2004–06 pushed the capacity to its current level at 70,585.

Pink locker room

Kinnick Stadium is well-known for its pink visitors locker rooms, a tradition started by emeritus Iowa coach Hayden Fry. ^[4] Fry majored in psychology at Baylor University and remained interested in the subject. Believing that pink tends to suppress aggressive and hostile behavior, creating a calming effect on opposing teams, Fry had the visiting locker rooms decorated completely in the color 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. ^{[5] [6]} Despite these protests, however, the locker room remains pink.

Gallery

References

1. Iowa Almanac
2. Kinnick Stadium
3. Kinnick set to reopen The Daily Iowan, 8/30/06
4. Keeler: Hayden lives on: Visitors' quarters still pretty in pink, Des Moines Register.com article
5. Opponents seeing red over Iowa's pink locker room, Associated press article at MSNBC with photo.
6. Iowa pink visitors' locker room under fire, article at Gay.com