Kenan Stadium
Kenan Stadium is a college football stadium located on Stadium Drive in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Opened in 1927, it is home to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's football team, which competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The facility replaced Emerson Field, where the school's football program had been based since 1916. Plans for the stadium began as attendance increased. Ground was broken on the stadium in December 1926 and work completed in August 1927. The stadium hosted its first game on November 12, 1927, when the Tar Heels faced the Davidson Wildcats, where the Tar Heels won 27–0 in front of 9,000 spectators. On November 24, 1927, the stadium was officially opened and dedicated during a game where the Tar Heels hosted the Virginia Cavaliers and won 14–13.
Background and construction
Planning and fundraising
The North Carolina football team had been playing in Emerson Field since 1916 and by the mid-1920s the stadium, which sat 2,400 was too small for demand. When the school played their annual rivalry game against Virginia in 1925, 16,000 fans stood on the sideline or sat in wooden bleachers which were not "favorably situated" to view the game. The issue was so great for some fans that they refused to attend any more football games in Chapel Hill until the seating issue was resolved. Captain Isaac Edward Emerson, who was now living in Baltimore, Maryland, offered in late 1925 to give $22,000 to improve Emerson Field. The Winston-Salem Journal wrote that the stadium was needed for increasing attendance demand, hosting intramurals, and "the need of the state for a convocation place for large gatherings." At the time the stadium could not seat the entire student body and had the smallest stadium of all regional schools for those with "similar importance." Interest was growing for students to attend athletic events at the time. In addition, the school desired to schedule larger Southern institutions like Alabama, Georgia, and Tulane, among others. At the time larger schools avoided playing smaller schools since the gate receipts were split between teams. Larger teams would avoid smaller schools since they could not afford the difference in gate receipt revenue.A meeting was held at Washington Duke Hotel in Durham, North Carolina on Monday May 24, 1926 to start a fundraising drive to raise money for a new stadium that North Carolina was in "dire need" of to host its athletic events. The meeting led to the creation of the Durham Stadium Committee and a sub-committee whose goal was to determine the exact needs for the school and to prepare a report to deliver to a general alumni meeting that will be held at the same hotel on June 4 at noon, with lunch to follow. It was hoped that the meeting would be largely attended since commencement was to happen around it. In the days preceding the meeting, the stadium plans were rumored to cost around $500,000 and the stadium was planned to seat 35,000 people in a horseshoe shaped venue that was immediately south of Emerson Field in a natural amphitheater. The plans were readily accepted by the General Alumni Association and Alumni Monogram Club and the meeting confirmed the estimated cost of $500,000, but the seating capacity was estimated to be around 33,500 with an ability to later increase capacity to 55,500. The goal was to have the stadium completed by the North Carolina–Virginia game in 1927 on Thanksgiving Day. Work on the stadium was to begin once funds were properly secured. Within the first couple days of the plans announced, two people had pledged $5,000 each to the cause and it was thought Emerson would contribute what he offered in 1925.
The committee decided to allocate 2,500 seats on either side of the stadium around the 50 yard line to be sold to persons willing to donate $100 per seat and receive the seat of choice for 10 years. Three tiers of donation levels were created: donors giving between $100 and $1000 would be known as "Subscribers", those giving between $1,000 and $5,000 would be "Donors," and those giving above $5,000 would be called "Founders." Any "Founder" would have their name placed on to a bronze tablet in the stadium. All other donors would get their names placed on plaques with other similar donation levels.
On November 13, 1926, 1894 graduate William R. Kenan Jr. donated $275,000 to build a new football stadium on campus in a meeting with then school president Harry Woodburn Chase, Charles T. Woollen, and two members of the fundraising team organized to run a campaign to fund the stadium. While at North Carolina, Kenan played for the baseball team all four years and the football team for two. Kenan performed research in the summer with Professor Francis Preston Venable where the two, along with other students, discovered calcium carbide's formula and how to make acetylene gas from it. At the time of donation, Kenan was a chemical and electrical engineer in New York City and president of the Florida East Coast Railway. He made the donation in memory of his parents Mary Hargrave and William Rand Kenan for the stadium to be called Kenan Memorial Stadium. With Kenan's donation, the fundraising campaign was now unnecessary. When the donation was made, the exact location of the stadium had not been determined. The stadium was to feature 12,000 seats on each side, to seat 24,000 in total. The endzones were to have no seats in order to have no bad seats and allow air to pass through the field. A quarter-mile "cinder track" around the field was planned to be used to host the school's track and field events. In addition, the stadium will host band concerts, commencement, and other attractions. The Tar Heel wrote that donations had been progressing and Kenan's donation ended the campaign, which was great as the stadium could be finished "in ten months instead of perhaps two or three years." Work was to begin soon after the donation. In honor of Kenan's donation, the school annual Yackety Yack in 1927 was dedicated to Kenan.
After Kenan's donation, there was still no decision over where the exact location of the stadium would be. The Board of Trustees committee on buildings planned to met on Monday November 29, 1926 to determine the location. The location south of campus at the time, a ravine, was highly thought to be the location of choice. It was believed by building in this location would cheapen the construction costs compared to building it on a level ground. The location is covered with dense woods, so clearing the landing will be the first part. It was believed that there still would be several trees that would be left around the stadium, which would allow for some beautiful sights with the changing of the leaves colors. The trees cut were to be fed into the saw mill to provide planks for seating. A steam shovel located in Carrboro, North Carolina was at the ready to be used once the land was cleared. Engineers in the planning phase felt the whole process would take ten months.
The committee met on the 29th, but adjourned the meeting without making a decision and those planned to meet again the following Monday. The site in the ravine had been ruled out because it was thought that when the university expanded further south that "noisy athletic celebrations would be too near the precincts devoted to scholarly pursuits," in particular a library to be built. The decision was pushed back in part because of President Chase's absence and as one committee member stated "It's too important a question to be settled hastily. The University is growing, and we've got to look a long way ahead." After the meeting two additional sites were being considered: one 400 feet down from the ravine and southeast of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. By December 3, surveyors were working on the two new sites, as well as the original proposed location in the ravine, and they were to prepare reports for the committee's meeting the following Monday. The site 500 feet down from the ravine was chosen and during the meeting, the committee walked through the future site where areas had been staked marking limits of the field and the stands. Woollen, who was on the committee, reaffirmed the prior statements that the stadium would be completed before Thanksgiving 1927.
Construction
By December 9, most of the undergrowth had been removed and some tree felling had started. The tree stumps were to be "grubbed up," dynamited, or removed with the steam shovel. Once those were removed, the grading process was to begin. The dynamited earth will be collected and dumped into the lower levels. A brook flowed through the ravine at the time and a concrete culvert was constructed to bypass the stadium. Due to the ongoing construction around the university, a rock crusher was already present around campus was thought to have saved time. The stands made of brick were to be curved slightly in order to center the spectators' view on midfield. In total the stadium was to be 500 feet in length and the distance from the back of each set of stands to the other was 480 feet. Parking was planned to be hosted on the open athletic fields as the trees surrounding the stadium were to be kept to "preserve the beauty of the woods," which meant fans would get to the stadium on foot. The underbrush was to be cleared to allow for walkways through the Longleaf pine and oak trees to reach the stadium. The site of the new stadium was believed to be roughly 600 feet from the proposed library. Many traveled to visit the construction site when it began.By February the steam shovel had been joined by three tractors to help move the dirt and crews had started working double shifts with the main goal of building up the northeast end of the field where the land falls away. The playing field was announced to be planted June 1, which then required frequent maintenance to be ready in time for use on Thanksgiving Day. Throughout the construction process many people came to watch the process take place throughout all times of the day. Since the start of January, the superintendent of T.C. Thompson & Bros. spoke that since January, the crews had only lost a half a day due to weather.
Prior to receiving the final layer of top soil, the field received an underground wiring system that will allow for flood lighting to be used in the stadium for "night spectacles" and also included telephone and telegraph wires. Architects Atwood-Nash and Woollen made plans for a covered area for press members to write up reports, use the typewriter and transmit reports by radio. By the end of February, the field was almost completely leveled. T. C. Thompson and Bros. started construction once the excavation was finished. In total about 55,000 cubic yards of dirt was relocated and the stadium was projected to have around 4,000 cubic yards of concrete. All of the concrete provided for the project came from the Atlas Portland Cement company. Final gift total $300,000. Prior to the concrete being poured on the dirt, it was steamrolled. The stands were planned to have 41 rows of seats.
In late February and early March, the excavation team led by Teer began to encounter large amount of granite rock and were forced to dynamite the blocks and then remove the pieces with chains and Caterpillar tractors. By mid-March, T. C. Atwood felt the excavation was over halfway and the concrete would be laid by June 1 and the stadium was on track be done by their target date. At this point, the playing field's middle section was completed and settling. A group of four students were bombarded with stone following a dynamite blast as they wandered around the southern woods of campus, which led to the crew sounding a horn before firing to alert surrounding areas and people. None of the students were injured. As the excavation stretched into April, it was slowing down. The blasts impact broke nearby university windows at Old East, Swain Hall, and the Campus YMCA and nearby private homes' windows and fine china, who began to protest and reach out to the Teer company. This led to the reduction in the amount of dynamite being used to lower the blast size.
By early May, the blasting was still being performed and superintendent of the excavation T. L. Higgs felt the excavation phase would not be done by July 1. This would push the targeted finish date to around January 1 from October 1. It was believed ten-fold of the blasting was done relative to initial estimates. The Teer company lost heavily with the contract because greater need for blasting. The company utilized a rock crusher to reduce 6,000 cubic yards of rock and sold it to the Thompson Co. to use for when making the stands. Due to the amount of blasting done by the Teer company, some of the excavation workers began calling it "Teer Stadium" as he was believed to have lost around $10,000 by May 1927. Within two weeks of this report, the Graduate manager Woollen stated November 1 was the tentative finish date and most of the rock had been blasted away and in total led to a six-week delay. This delay also led those to believe that seeding would not take place and instead grass would be brought in and planted. Concrete was ready to be poured into the wooden formers on the east side of the project.
By mid-June, the seats were being made at a rate of 500 per day which is the amount of seats in one section, the stadium was to hold 48 all together. In addition, the excavation was completed and the steam shovel was removed. The progress made by the crews allowed the university to move the completion date up to October 15. Sand and topsoil were brought in over the next few weeks and laid across where the playing field would be. The final stands of the east section were poured on July 9. At this point, it was confirmed there were plans to erect a building to house lockers, showers, and fitting rooms for both teams on the south side of the project. In addition, the playing field was near ready for planting after hundreds of truckloads brought a total of 10,000 cubic yards of sand and topsoil. A parapet was constructed 15 feet behind the eastern stands. This building was expected to be completed in early September. The west stand was to house at the top of the press box, while the edge of the field would have telephones placed so that reporters can have exact yardage, plays, penalties, and more relayed to them. The south end zone housed the score board, while the east stands housed the Governors Box at the top. On July 27, two tons of fertilizer was spread over the field, with the grass previously sowed, it was estimated the grass would sprout by the middle of August. T. C. Thompson used a Bermuda grass and lawn grass which was found best for football fields at the time.
The stadium was completed on August 6, when the last of the eastern stands were poured and only some minor finishing touches remained. In total it was completed three months prior to the original finish date, with construction taking seven months total. Around the middle of August, the grass in the center of the field was reportedly off to a "good start" believed to be due to the soil used and a "vigorous fertilizer." The Washington Douglas fir wooden seats half the width of the concrete steps were next to be installed and Douglas were chosen for their durability. The seats were painted once before being installed and received a second coat after being placed into the concrete with iron brackets. Four restrooms were to be placed behind each set of stands. The whole stadium area was surrounded by a wire fence from Charlotte's General Equipment company and concrete pillars were constructed on the north end in the valley between entry gates. It was confirmed that the Carolina–Virginia game would be where the stadium is dedicated.
In the week preceding the Davidson game, the goal posts were placed and painted white and the pedestrian walkways around the stadium were covered in gravel. The field house's scaffolding was removed and the red tile roof was placed.