1928-1929: From Iowa Field To Iowa Stadium.

The **very first “home” Iowa Hawkeye football game** was played on an empty field west of Old Capitol, adjacent to the Iowa River, on **October 18, 1890**. In 1893, SUI President Charles A. Schaeffer led the push to build an athletic park on campus – a multi-purpose facility that could offer a variety of outdoor sports activities, including baseball, and that new sport that was sweeping the nation: football! *Read more here.*

**SUI Sports Complex on the Iowa River.** Opening in 1895, here’s a beautiful photograph (circa 1920’s) of the SUI Athletic Park with its SUI Baseball Stadium (upper middle), the SUI Armory/Pavilion (upper right), and Iowa Field (football and track) via the camera of Fred W. Kent. This strip of land (see map below) was so narrow that the upper portion of the west stands of the football stadium stuck out over the Iowa River and the upper section of the east stands rose directly over the CRANDIC railroad tracks! *Read more here.*

**#1 – Armory #1** (1879-1904), **#2 – Close Hall** (1891-1904), **#3 – Iowa Field** (1895-1928), **#4 – Athletic Pavillion** (1904-1927), **#5 – Women’s Gymnasium** (1913-1927).

Our good friends at The Johnson County Historical Society recently posted on Facebook a beautiful montage of iconic photographs of the first SUI football stadium – Iowa Field (1895-1928) and the creation of Iowa Stadium (1928-1929). Of course, as we all know, Iowa Stadium was renamed for Nile Kinnick in 1972, but what follows here are twenty of those JCHS photographs – ranging from 1923 to 1929, plus a few more we added from our collection along the way. Enjoy the journey! On Iowa! Go Hawks!

*Here, in 1923, we find the largest section of the **SUI Athletic Complex** which included the baseball stadium (left) and Iowa Field (right).* *Read more here.*

*At the turn of the century, baseball was much more popular than the new game of football. Here is a game at the SUI Sports Complex in 1895.*

**Iowa Field** became the new home to Hawkeye Football from 1895-1928. The first football game played in the new **Iowa Field** was on **October 12, 1895**. *Sadly, the Hawkeyes lost that one to Doane College (Nebraska) 10-0. The first win in Iowa Field didn’t come until the following year: **October 3, 1896** vs. Drake 32-0.*

**November 13, 1915 season** – note the fans watching the game from the telephone poles! Click here to read more about the long-standing rivalry between Iowa (SUI) and Iowa State (Ames).

*Of course, being located adjacent to the Iowa River, **Iowa Field** was highly susceptible to spring-time flooding.*

*This view of Iowa Field is taken from Burlington Street looking north and east. Note Old Capitol in the background.*

**Iowa Field.** Prior to 1927, there was very little student activity on the west side of the Iowa River. The interurban railroad line (CRANDIC) ran adjacent to both the baseball and football fields, and train conductors would often slow their train so that both they and their riders could view a part of the games.

*This pic from the northeast corner of Iowa Field looks to the south and west. Notice the Burlington Street bridge in the distance.*

**Iowa Field** – being the largest outdoor facility on the SUI campus – was used for a variety of University events.

Be it issues with flooding or the fact that the university was expanding westward, SUI ultimately decided to move all of its athletic activities – including basketball and track – west of the Iowa River, playing the final football game at **Iowa Field** on **November 3rd, 1928**. In only seven months, Iowa Stadium – today’s Kinnick Stadium – would be constructed on the west side – opening in October of 1929. *Read more here.*

*Click here to read more about the four remaining icons left from Iowa Field..*.

Renamed Kinnick Stadium in 1972, **Iowa Stadium** first opened in 1929, replacing **Iowa Field**. It was constructed in only seven months with groundbreaking and construction beginning on **March 6, 1929**.

*Workers labored around the clock using lights by night with horses and mules as the primary heavy-equipment movers.*

*Here’s the final project – Iowa Stadium – completed just in time for the 1929 football season.*

*Both the SUI Field House and Armory had moved to the west side of the Iowa River by 1927, leaving only the women’s gym on the east side.*

As you can see from the photos above and below, the west side of the Iowa River, where Iowa Stadium was built in 1929 was quite empty. Who knew that years later the University Hospital would grow to such an extent that there would be a complicated competition for land between the Athletic Department and the UI Hospitals & Clinics.

*The new Iowa Stadium – looking south toward the Iowa City airport.*

The westward movement of SUI across the Iowa River first began with the University Hospitals re-locating from Iowa Avenue in downtown Iowa City to the west side – beginning in the 1920’s. Read more here.

*Opening on **October 5, 1929**, the famed Hawkeye football field was christened as **Iowa Stadium** when its $497,151.42 construction ended with enough seating for roughly 53,000.*

**Iowa Stadium** was dedicated two weeks later, on **October 19, 1929** – a rainy Saturday afternoon – when the Hawkeyes tied Illinois 7–7. My dad, George Boller, age 8, was there for both of these games!

On October 29, 1929 – ten days after Iowa Stadium was dedicated – the stock market crashed, and over the next decade, nearly every family across America struggled to make ends meet. For the SUI football program, things were doubly bad. The Big Ten temporarily suspended Iowa from conference play, leaving the Hawkeyes to schedule games with lessor schools. Crowds were sparse (see pic from 1938 below), but still, the Hawkeyes played on. My dad, George Boller, shared his memories (below right) with Iowa City sports editor – Al Grady – in 1976.

**Circa 1930’s** – **Iowa Stadium**. Note in the original plans (above left), Iowa Stadium was to be enclosed at both the north and south end zones. Due to the depression of 1930’s these plans were scrapped and temporary bleachers were built in both end zones after WW II. Those bleachers were improved a bit but still there even after we moved to Iowa City in 1966. I remember sitting on the grassy areas in the corners of the south end zone – called knot hole seats – with friends while my Dad and older brother, Eric, sat in good seats on the west stands!

*Fortunately, by 1939 – ten years after its dedication, Iowa Stadium began to fill up once more. It was the year of Nile Kinnick’s famed Heisman Trophy-winning season*, and even with WWII breaking out in 1941, Iowa Stadium would rarely be empty on a Saturday afternoon. *Read more here.*

Once Evy brought the Hawkeyes onto the national football scene in the 1950’s, Hawk fans flocked to Iowa Stadium. Even during the long drought years (1961-1978), during which Iowa Stadium was renamed for Kinnick (1972), the stadium rarely had an empty seat.

*On **September 23, 1972** – Iowa Stadium “officially” becomes Nile Kinnick Stadium and the field transitions to modern-day AstroTurf. Read more here.*

*When Hayden Fry arrived in 1979, the Hawkeyes returned to national prominence, and with numerous updates and expansions, Kinnick Stadium, today, is one of the best-known stadiums across the USA.*

*Click here to read about The Wave – Kinnick’s newest tradition*.

*Kudos to JCHS’s webmaster Ottis Bunning for providing us with these pics (below) dating from 1925 (**Iowa Field**), from 1930 to 1964 (**Iowa Stadium**), to 1972 to today (**Kinnick Stadium**)…*

*Today, **Kinnick Stadium** is the 28th largest college-owned stadium in the U.S. and seats 69,250 fans.*

**Read more about Hawkeye Football History by using this index.**

On July 1, 1976, The Iowa City Press-Citizen published a special 76-page Bicentennial edition. In that edition there were articles and pictures related to stories found on this page. You can read more here.