Neyland Stadium

Neyland Stadium, is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Football League (NFL) exhibition games. The stadium's official capacity is 101,915. Constructed in 1921 as Shields–Watkins Field (which is now the name of the playing surface), the stadium has undergone 16 expansion projects, at one point reaching a capacity of 104,079 before being slightly reduced by alterations in the following decade. Neyland Stadium is the sixth largest stadium in the United States, the eighth largest stadium in the world, and the second largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference. The stadium is named for Robert Neyland, who served three stints as head football coach at the University of Tennessee between 1926 and 1952. History The Tennessee Volunteers football team originally played at Baldwin Park, which was once located between Grand Avenue and Dale Avenue, north of Fort Sanders. From 1908 to 1920, the team played at Wait Field, which was located where the Walters Life Science Building now stands. The stadium was first conceived in 1919. Colonel W.S. Shields, president of Knoxville's City National Bank and a University of Tennessee trustee, provided the initial capital to prepare and equip an athletic field. Thus, when the original stadiumthe lower level of the current stadium's West Standswas completed in March 1921, it was called Shields–Watkins Field in honor of the donor and his wife, Alice Watkins-Shields. However, the project ran out of funds and was suspended temporarily until MacGregor Smith suggested at a meeting of the university's Scarabbean Senior Society in mid 1921 that the students and faculty finish the project together. At the group's behest, students and faculty finished the field over a two-day period. An invitational track meet was then held as a celebration and thus became the very first event at Neyland Stadium. The first UT football game at the stadium took place on September 24, 1921, with the Vols defeating Emory & Henry, 27–0. The first night game at Neyland Stadium was played on September 16, 1972, with the Vols defeating Penn State, 28–21.