Early history of the University of Tennessee football stadium: Neyland Stadium and Shields-Watkins Field

Neyland Stadium, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, is one of the largest stadiums in the United States and is home to the University of Tennessee Volunteers football team. In addition to the more well-known stadium name, the playing surface actually has a separate name, as it is known as Shields-Watkins Field.

In addition to serving as the primary location for home football games in Knoxville, Neyland Stadium has also been used for professional football exhibition games, major conventions, and concerts. The stadium is located at an address named after veteran Volunteers coach Phillip Fulmer (Fulmer spent some 30 years coaching in Tennessee), whose namesake provided the direct inspiration for Phillip Fulmer Way, Neyland Stadium’s official address.

During the approximately 80 years of the stadium’s existence, a total of 16 expansions and renovations have taken place over the years, with an official maximum capacity of 104,079. Renovations in 2006 and 2009 to add East and West Club seating actually reduced the total maximum capacity to just over 100,000 (100,011). As the stadium is currently at a peak occupancy of just over 100,000, it is the fifth largest American stadium if racing arenas are excluded. The difference from racing stadiums is due to the fact that, in general, racing operations provide seating for a large number of people, in part due to the size of the tracks being several miles long, but the seats do not necessarily done consistently with the traditional concept. of a stadium.

Interestingly, the sports facility known as the Neyland Stadium has not always been called the Neyland Stadium. When the project was first completed in March 1921, the name Shields-Watkins Field was given to the venue that would eventually become known as Neyland Stadium. The name Shields-Watkins comes from the name of the original donor, Colonel WS Shields and his wife Alice Watkins-Shields. Although the massive stadium has since been renamed, the field that the University of Tennessee football team plays on most Saturdays in the fall is still known by the name “Shields-Watkins Field,” a name that has stood the test of time.

Future University of Tennessee football coach and athletic director General Robert Neyland is the man whose name now adorns the stadium entrance. General Robert was honored with the name change in 1962 after being credited with making the Volunteers (or Vols, as they are also called) a powerful football program while coaching squads from 1926 to 1952 (Coach Neyland missed two seasons during those twenty-six years). period of continuous military service). Before his death in March 1962, manager Robert Neyland began an effort to make the first significant expansion of the stadium. Neyland’s plans for the home of the Vols were so extensive that a portion of his overall plan was incorporated into every subsequent expansion over the past 40 years.