Vanderbilt University - Commodore Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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p OERB LT- (jDt ODo forty-five thousand, and of the third, with the closing of the north end. to sixly-five thousand. Beneath the stadium will be rubbing rooms, lockers, showers, for the use of both the home and visiting teams, lavatories for men and women, and a six-lap running track with a 120-yard straight- away. There will be another track in the open air around the field twenty yards wide with a 220-yard straightaway. The entire field will be underdramed with tile. and will be built up with a foundation of six inches of stone, on lop of which will be eighteen inches of cinders, and above that, eighteen inches of soil, on which will be sown blue grass and red-lop. so that it can be used in any sort of weather without any danger of slipping by the players. The excavation began the middle uf February, and the stadium proper was under way by the first of April. This stadium will be a great asset to Vander- biit athletics. It has been the history of every stadium thai when the first section is completed that it is immediately filled and the income real- ized from the sale of tickets is sufficient to pay any debt that may remain on the first section and ultimately to complete the stadium, so that the beginning of the Vanderbilt stadium means a new era in football attendance in Nashville. This is true because many of those who attend a foot- ball game attend not so much because of their knowledge of football as because they want to be a part of the crowd and to see the spectacle. Nor will the stadium benefit Vanderbilt ath- letics alone. It will be the focal point to which Vanderbilt alumni will journey on the days of great football games and when Auburn or Georgia or Virginia play there, their alumni loo will gather from all parts of the South. Likewise the stadium will be a great commer- cial asset for Nashville. It will bring the greatest crowds that gather for any athletic event in the South to Nashville several times every fall. Nash- ville is within a night ' s ride of Chattanooga. Atlanta. Birmingham. Memphis. St. Louis and Louisville; and of course the near-by towns will send their quota to every game. Furthermore, the stadium will become a great civic center for Nashville, where pageants may be staged, and the practice fields near the stadium itself will furnish a place for high school and preparatory school football games, and then too there will be a great baseball field and space for track meets. This movement is probably the greatest step in advance that has been taken for Vanderbilt ath- letics for the last score of years. i i ille nncf. Vanderbilt Stadium Plans M tminq--Conmipdores Win 20-13 WORK JO BECIH 0,V SEW VAUDY STADILX EARLY in THE SPRISG Page nine

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i — -— . n cot f obof TKe Ne Stadium Bv William R. Manier. Jr.. LL.B., 08 f ' -f . COACH McGl ' CIN Chairman Stadium In vestigation Com milt ».m-. Vanderbilt has had great football teams — a team that van- quished the Carlisle Indians, a team that played the Navy to a drav f, a team that held Yale to a score- less tie. and teams that won the undis- puted supremacy of the South and forced Harvard and Michi- gan to do their utmost to beat them; yet these teams, unless they played away from home, played their games on a field which. in many parts of the country, would be deemed unworthy of a championship prep school eleven. But that day is done. Vanderbilt again has a team whose record equals that of Vanderbilt s past. Prospects are that we are entering upon another series of victorious years in football; and our victorious teams are going to play in a stadium worthy of their prowess. You who have seen the great crowds at Sol- diers ' field in Cambridge or Franklin field in Philadelphia or Ferry field at Ann Arbor or the Yale bowl or the Princeton U. come to the games at Vanderbilt next year and see the cheering throngs that will fill the ' anderbill stadium. This stadium has been a dream ever since the Athletic Association ten years ago purchased eleven acres of ground west of the campus; and now the dream is coming true; and it ' s coming true before the first football game next year. If you don ' t believe it arrange to attend the fust game in 1922. And it ' s the civic orgtinizatlons of Nashville that made all of this possible. On Wednesday. November 9. Mr. Vernon I upper, president of the Naihville Chamber of Commerce, mvited the ofTiccrs and directors of the Rotary Club, of the Kiwanis Club, of the Lions Club, of the I.x- change Club and of the Civilan Club to meet him at lunch. At that meeting, a plan, previously ap- proved by the cabinet of the Chamber of Com- merce, was presented for the building of a $ISO.- 000 stadium and the civic clubs were asked to lurnish the man power for a campaign to raise the money, and to the plan the Rotary, the Ki- wanis, the Lions, the Exchange and the Civitan clubs gave enthusiastic response. The campaign b y the various civic clubs of Nashville to raise $75,000 from Vanderbilt alumni and citizens of Nashville was completely success- ful, and the loan of an additional $75,000 on easy terms was therefore assured. There seems no doubt but that the stadium will be ready for the opening game with the University of Michigan in the fall of 1922. The building committee selected by the Board of Directors of the Vanderbilt Athletic Associa- tion appointed Mr. Martin S. Roberts of the firm of Freeman Roberts, as architect, and Mr. Russell E,. Hart of the firm of Hart Nevins, as associate architect, and both are busy perfecting plans. A committee consisting of Coach Dan McGugin. Mr. Roberts and Mr. Hart to inspect some of the leading stadia of the North and Last have just returned from an inspecting tour on which they examined the stadia of Yale, Prince- ton. Harvard, Pennsylvania. Ohio State. College of the City of New York, the New York polo grounds, the University of Michigan, and the University of Chicago. As a result of these visits the architects now have very definite ideas as to what Vanderbilt stadium is to be. The stadium will be of reinforced concrete, bowl-shaped with eliptical sides, the north end of which is lo be left open for the present. There are lo be fifty-four rows of seats, the back row standing fifty feet from the ground. It is so ar- ranged as to give a perfect view of the field from any position and also to enable every spectator to be seen as well as lo see. which latter considera- tion is of the highest importance from the stand- point of mass psychology, as the experience at other colleges is that thousands attend games as much to be seen as to witness the contest. I here will be twenty-four portals of extrance and exit .ipproached from four or perhaps six mam gates. I he first section, to be completed by the fall of 1922, will seat twenty thousand; the completion of the second section will bring the capacity lo ' ugi- eiglil

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mrr . OERB Lr rZT WILLIAM LOFLaKD DUDLEY B.S..M.DI.L.O. IS53 1314. PRflfESSOR OF CHEMISTRY liafi-1814 OEaH 8FTHE filEDICALQEPARTMEMT 1886-1913 A LQVER OF VANOERBILT A SCIEMUrr V fHflSE FAME SHEO LUSTEi? OK THE k ' AME DF THE UKIVERSITY ■ PIOHEER AKQ UKOiUmO CHiMPIQM IM THE STRUGGLE FOR PORITY IM COLLEGE ATHLETICS PRESIOEKTQFTHE SQUTHERK IKTERCQLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIOK FROM ITS ORGAMIZATIOtf IN DECEMBER 1894- TO DECEMSER (8f3 A WISE COUNSELLOR A»D SYMPATHETIC FRIEND OF COLLEGEKIEW. THIS TABLET IS AFFECTIORATELY DEDICATED BTTHESTUDERTSflllY JUNE Z, 19(5 TO LIVE 19 HEARTS ffE LEAVE ftHMQ IS IWTTB {«£, K ' --f- J. Farew ell to Old Dudley Amid all ihf enthusia m Jind happiness over having? a new modern sladium, there is still a jxHuliar sadness m the minds of many of V ' anderbill ' s sons and dauj hters at the thou iht of deserting old Dudley Field as the scene of our classic gridiron contests. About this field rests a halo of wonderful memories. Most of the great victories that have made the name of Commodore famous are associated with it. It is on the campus and the new field is not. That makes a difference. Many of the old loyal supporters of the Gold and Black, while enjoying the luxury of the new structure, will not exactly feel at home until victories in the new arena dim the memories of the jilonous past achieved on the old campus stamping ground. As we sadly say farewell to old Dudley I ' leld. the mcmoiy of the reat man for whom it was named looms up Dr. illiam Dudley, whose picture and the tablet erected in his honor appear above. But Dr. Dudley in his ardent effort lo build up athletics, not only at Vanderbilt. but all over the South, was always forward-looking and progressive. He was the first to advocate a modern stadium, and now, eight years after his death, we are about lo realize his ambition for Vanderbilt. It is altogether fitting and proper that the new bowl should be called Dudley Memorial Stadium, thus commemorating anew his wonderful achievements for our Alma Mater. Page ten