Home of the Cincinnati
Bearcats, Nippert Stadium is the sixth oldest stadium in college
football. Football at the site of Nippert Stadium dates back over 100
years. Arch Carson was instrumental in starting the football program at the University of
Cincinnati in the late 1880s and helped found the field that the team
began playing on in 1902. By 1916 , construction began on the brick and
concrete stadium for the Bearcats. It was built section by section as
funding became available for construction. In the mid 1920s James
Gamble provided $250,000 to complete the stadium, it was dedicated
in November 1924 and had a seating capacity of 12,000. The stadium was
named after Gamble’s grandson, Jimmy Nippert, who died from a spike
wound while playing football for the Bearcats.
The first of several
improvements and expansions to Nippert Stadium came before the 1936
season when the field was lowered 12 feet allowing for the seating
capacity to be increased to 24,000. Nearly two decades later, the Reed
Shank Pavilion was completed boosting the seating capacity by an
additional 4,000. Astroturf replaced the grass field before the 1970
season and it has maintained an
artificial playing surface since then.
Prior to the 1992 season, $10.1 million in renovations occurred at Nippert Stadium.
This included new luxury areas
and a new seating
configuration that increased the seating capacity to 35,000 with an
upper deck extension. A new scoreboard was also installed but replaced
with a new video/scoreboard before the 2001 season. Plans in the
future call for Nippert Stadium to be expanded by 15,000 to seat
50,000 fans.
Nippert
Stadium
artificial playing surface since then.
Prior to the 1992 season, $10.1 million in renovations occurred at Nippert Stadium.
This included new luxury areas
and a new seating
configuration that increased the seating capacity to 35,000 with an
upper deck extension. A new scoreboard was also installed but replaced
with a new video/scoreboard before the 2001 season. Plans in the
future call for Nippert Stadium to be expanded by 15,000 to seat
50,000 fans.
