Beaver Field (1892–1908), was the first official home to the

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and baseball teams. Retroactively known as "Old Beaver Field", it had a capacity of 500 and stood between present-day Osmond and Frear Laboratories, now the site of a parking lot. Until the construction of Beaver Field, sports teams of the then Pennsylvania State College, known as the Nittany Lions, played on the Old Main Lawn, a grassy area outside the main classroom building. Beaver Field served as the first official home for the

and baseball teams. The football team moved in 1909 to New Beaver Field, which held 30,000 fans and served as Penn State's home stadium until 1959, when it was disassembled and moved to the current location of Beaver Stadium in 1960. After the move to New Beaver Field, the original field became known as Old Beaver Field. The field had a grandstand that seated 500. This took the form of a

hip-roofed A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thu ...

building with no side walls, supported by rows of six columns at the front and rear plus one on each side. A gable at the front bore the name "Beaver Field", below it the year, 1893, and "P.S.C." Beaver Field was named in June 1892 for James A. Beaver,

governor of Pennsylvania A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

from 1887 to 1891. Although the state did not usually fund athletics in its public colleges, leaving that to student fees and alumni gifts, Beaver had a line added to the legislative appropriation for Pennsylvania State College that provided $2,000 in 1891–92 and $1,000 in 1893–94 for improving its athletic grounds. These funds made it possible to lay out a quarter-mile track enclosing baseball and football grounds, tennis courts, and a grandstand. The field opened on November 6, 1893, after a two-day weather delay, with a game against Western University of Pittsburgh that Penn State won 32–0.

History

Beaver Field began as a plot of grass on Penn State's campus located in the academic village. The land was designated for athletics by faculty in 1875 with growing demand for sport. By 1890 the grass field had a dirt running track, a baseball diamond and a football field and a set of covered wooden bleachers with a seating capacity of 100. Calls from students pushed the university to begin exploring its options to expand its athletic facilities. Then university president James A. Beaver was able to use his political influence as the former Governor of Pennsylvania to push Pennsylvania's legislature to appropriate funds to build a proper athletics facility. Penn State received $2,000() in 1891, and an additional $1,000() in 1893 to help construct Beaver Field, a stadium with a grandstand, football field, and quarter mile track.

References

Defunct college baseball venues in the United States Defunct college football venues Penn State Nittany Lions baseball Penn State Nittany Lions football Pennsylvania State University campus American football venues in Pennsylvania Baseball venues in Pennsylvania 1893 establishments in Pennsylvania Sports venues completed in 1893 1909 disestablishments in Pennsylvania {{Pennsylvania-sports-venue-stub