Kyle Field
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Kyle Field is the
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...
stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...
located on the campus of
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
in
College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East-Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin. ...
, United States. It has been the home to the
Texas A&M Aggies football The Texas A&M Aggies football program represents Texas A&M University in the sport of American football. The Aggies compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Divisio ...
team in rudimentary form since 1904, and as a permanent concrete stadium since 1927.Historical timeline of Kyle Field
/ref> The
seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
of 102,733 in 2021 makes it the largest in the
Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
and the fourth-largest stadium in the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
, the fourth-largest stadium in the United States, and the sixth-largest non-racing stadium in the world and the largest in
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. Kyle Field's largest game attendance was 110,633 people when Texas A&M lost to the
Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893. Originally known as th ...
by the score of 35–20 on October 11, 2014. This was the largest football game attendance in the state of Texas and SEC history at the time. The record for a game involving an SEC team was surpassed by the
Battle At Bristol The Battle at Bristol was an American college football game played at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on Saturday, September 10, 2016, between the University of Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies. It holds the recor ...
.


History


Beginning

In the fall of 1904,
Edwin Jackson Kyle Edwin Jackson Kyle (July 22, 1876 – December 26, 1963) was the U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala from 1945—1948. He was also the first Texan to advocate agricultural teaching in state schools successfully. He is the namesake of Kyle Field, an ...
, an 1899 graduate of Texas A&M and professor of
horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
, was named president of the General Athletics Association. Kyle wanted to secure and develop an athletic field to promote the school's athletics. Texas A&M was unwilling to provide funds, so Kyle fenced off a section of the southwest corner of campus that had been assigned to him for agricultural use. Using $650 of his own money, he purchased a covered
grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...
from the Bryan fairgrounds and built wooden
bleacher Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a row ...
s to raise the
seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
to 500 people.Dethloff, Henry C., ''A Centennial History of Texas A&M University, 1876-1976'', p.505. On November 11, 1904, the Texas A&M Board of Directors set this area as a permanent athletic field, which served as the home for the football and baseball teams. After the stands were built, students supported naming the field after its founder and builder. Accordingly, in 1906, the Corps of Cadets unofficially named the field "Kyle Field" in Kyle's honor. Though some sources suggest the November 21, 1921 game between the
Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M Aggies refers to the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname "Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also referred to as "A&M" or "Texas Aggi ...
and their archrival the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
at Kyle Field became the first college football game to offer a live, play-by-play broadcast on radio, this claim is incorrect. The first live, play-by-play broadcast on radio of a college football game occurred October 8, 1921 at
Forbes Field Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of t ...
when
KDKA-AM KDKA () is a Class A, clear channel, AM radio station, owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. and licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Its radio studios are located at the combined Audacy Pittsburgh facility in the Foster Plaza o ...
broadcast a Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia game. The
Texas Historical Commission The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Historic La ...
installed a
historical marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...
at Kyle Field in 2005 indicating that, while it was not the first broadcast in the US, it is believed to be the first in Texas.


Facility improvements

The Aggies enjoyed an undefeated season in 1919, accumulating a combined score of 275–0. Aggie supporters began to clamor for a permanent stadium, but only $2,400 was raised by 1920. In 1927, the school chose to build a new concrete stadium, at a cost of $345,001.67 or $365,000, depending on the source. The new stadium—roughly corresponding to the lower half of the current structure's east and west grandstands—opened later that year. By 1929, the stadium had become a 32,890-seat horseshoe, with temporary seating for an additional 5,000. The space inside the horseshoe was sufficient to allow a track surrounding the field. Capacity was raised to 41,500 in 1953 when a partial second deck and a pressbox were added at a cost of $346,000.Dethloff, ''A Centennial History of Texas A&M University, 1876–1976'', p.524 In 1956, the Texas A&M Board of Regents officially named the stadium "Kyle Field," though it had been unofficially called by that name for over half a century. Although some believe that the field was instead named after Dr. J. Allen Kyle, a member of the Board of Directors from 1911 to 1915, the Board of Directors decreed that Kyle Field was in fact named for E.J. Kyle (Class of 1899). More of second deck and other improvements were added in 1967 to raise the capacity to 48,000 at a cost of $1.84 million. In 1974, two large flagpoles were added at the south end of the stadium in memory of Lt. William B. Blocker, (Texas A&M Class of 1945). Expansion continued in 1980, when a third deck was added to Kyle Field, bringing the capacity to 70,000. Construction took place during the football season, and students were allowed into the area as each row of seating was added. In 1981, letters spelling out "KYLE FIELD" were installed. The Bernard C. Richardson Zone was added in 1999 at a cost of $32.9 million raising the capacity to 82,600. For high-demand games, temporary bleachers were installed in the south
end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...
and folding chairs were placed on the sidelines. In the fall of 2003, the Bright Football Complex was completed on the south end of the stadium. The facility (named for its principal donor, former
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...
owner Bum Bright) includes a players' lounge overlooking Kyle Field, dressing rooms, one of the largest training and rehabilitation facilities in the country, and a state-of-the-art academic center. The field had a grass playing surface until 1970, when
Astroturf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...
was installed. Natural turf was reinstalled on the field for the 1996 season. Since that time, the turf has consistently received praise from players and coaches. For their efforts, the groundskeepers were honored in 2004 as the winners of the STMA College Football Field of the Year.


2013–2015 renovation

On May 1, 2013, the Texas A&M Board of Regents approved a $485 million rebuild of Kyle Field. The renovation would temporarily raise the official seating capacity to 106,511 people for the 2014 season, making it the largest football stadium in Texas and the SEC (surpassing
Neyland Stadium Neyland Stadium ( ), is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Footb ...
by 57 seats) and the third largest football stadium in the country. The renovation was done in two distinct phases geared around the football season, and began immediately after the conclusion of the final 2013 season game in November with the implosion of the student section side. The stadium renovation was complete by the beginning of the 2015 season bringing the official capacity to 102,733. Per local media,
KBTX KBTX-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed in Bryan, Texas, United States, serving the Brazos Valley as an affiliate of CBS. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on East 29th Street in Bryan, and its transmitter is ...
, major milestones for the Kyle Field project were as follows, with construction sequenced and phased to allow the playing of regular home football games in the stadium for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasons. The renovation was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. * Phase I (November 2013): Demolition of the first deck of the east side of the stadium, reconstruction of the first deck, and construction of the south end zone, which includes seating, media interview areas, 12th Man Productions and related gameday support, and a commissary and recruiting area. * Phase II (November 2014): Demolition of the entire west side of the stadium (including the last remnant of the original 1927 stadium), complete construction of the south end zone, and reconstruction of the west side. Other significant items included in the scope of work for the Kyle Field redevelopment included: * Demolition of the Read Building, G. Rollie White Coliseum, and the Netum Steed strength and conditioning facility, all of which are adjacent to or part of Kyle Field * Construction of a new strength and conditioning laboratory training area on the university's west campus * Lowering of the playing field by approximately 7 feet and relocation of the playing surface approximately 18 feet to the south allowing for an additional six rows of seating around the stadium * Relocation of the existing south end zone scoreboard and video board reusing appropriate components to provide a scoreboard facility on the exterior of the north end zone structure: New interior scoreboard locations will be established in the south end zone and the northeast and northwest corners of the developed stadium. * Construction of widened, tree-lined walkways along both sides of Houston Street from George Bush Drive to the stadium east mall area * The new "South Side Upper Level" (with addition of an upper seating deck and concourse), has an estimated seating capacity of 12,000 with the future potential of an additional 7,000 seats, with seating to be located both below and above the new upper concourse.


Notable events

On November 26, 1999, just one week after the collapse of the
Aggie Bonfire The Aggie Bonfire was a long-standing annual tradition at Texas A&M University as part of the college rivalry with the University of Texas at Austin. For 90 years, Texas A&M students—known as Texas A&M Aggies, Aggies—built a bonfire on campu ...
, the Aggies beat the 5th-ranked Texas Longhorns 20–16 in an emotional comeback game before a then-record crowd of 86,128. Another notable event occurred on September 22, 2001, 11 days after the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
and the first game for the Aggies after the attacks, where the students organized a "Red, White and Blue-Out". Students assigned each deck a different color (red on third deck, white on second deck, and blue on first deck) to wear for the game against
Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
. Despite the short notice, attendees followed the instructions, resulting in a red, white, and blue stadium. More than $150,000 was raised in shirt sales, which was donated to
FDNY The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...
charities. Texas A&M's last Big 12 Conference football game and the last scheduled game against the University of Texas Longhorns occurred on November 24, 2011. Texas A&M's first Southeastern Conference (SEC) football game occurred on September 8, 2012 against the University of Florida Gators.


Intimidating venue

Kyle Field has at times been regarded as one of the most intimidating college football stadiums in the nation by various media outlets and sportswriters. Contributing to its reputation in the 1990s, Texas A&M boasted one of the nation's best home records at 55–4–1, including 31 straight wins at Kyle Field from 1990 to 1995 and 22 straight from 1996 to 2000. From 2000 through 2015, however, the record of Texas A&M at Kyle Field was 70–37 (a winning percentage of 65.4%, down from 93.2% in the 1990s). Through November 14, 2015, the overall Kyle Field record at the site of the playing field is 402–161–19 (70.7%) while the overall record since the stadium's construction in 1927 is 301–147–12 (66.7%).


Stadium features


Bernard C. Richardson Zone

The Bernard C. Richardson Zone, named for a 1941 petroleum engineering graduate and a Texas A&M Distinguished Alumnus, is located at the north end of Kyle Field, replacing the former single-deck horseshoe which connected the east and west wings of the stadium. This $32.9 million expansion added over 20,000 seats, and sits closer to the field than the previous seating. The Zone unofficially opened for the memorial vigil following the 1999 Texas A&M Bonfire Collapse, and then at full capacity the next day for the grudge match against the University of Texas, setting a then-state-record of 86,128 fans attending. For the next several years the Aggies saw consecutive record-breaking attendance figures for the season. The ground level of The Zone contains the Texas A&M Sports Museum, the nation's only all-sports museum funded primarily by former athletes (The Texas A&M Letterman's Association). The museum contains rotating exhibits focusing on various varsity sports at Texas A&M, while permanent exhibits trace the history of the school sports and some of the more treasured traditions. The Zone contains four levels of seating areas, with the first and fourth deck containing bench seating. One deck is comprised completely of luxury boxes, while the last deck is armchair seating. Known as The Zone Club, the 1,900 open-air armchair seats are considered the premier seating area of Kyle Field. The Zone Club sits underneath the fourth deck, meaning the inhabitants are protected from rain, wind, and the blazing Texas sun. The area boasts a full-service bar and concession areas, with a pre-game buffet offered for those with seats in the area. The Zone Club also has sixteen televisions stationed in various areas so that attendees can also keep an eye on other games being played around the country.


Old press box

The old Kyle Field press box was located at the top of the west deck of the stadium, sitting over above the field. The pressbox had two tiers, accommodating over 250 members of the press, with print journalists stationed in the upper tier and radio and television journalists sitting in the lower tier. During the singing of the
Aggie War Hymn The Aggie War Hymn is the war hymn of Texas A&M University; officially, the school does not have a fight song. Lyrics Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck! Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck! First verse All hail to dear old Texas A&M Rally around Maroon and White ...
, in which Aggie fans link arms and sway in unison throughout the stadium, the entire west upper deck (including the press box) actually swayed, even though the press box was supported by three concrete pillars. This often startled journalists who haven't covered an Aggie home game before, even though a sign in the press box warned, "Please do not be alarmed, the press box will move during the Aggie War Hymn." In 2003, the press box was declared a high-rise building, and Texas A&M was forced to renovate it to meet federal, state, and local regulations regarding fire safety and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Renovations before the 2014 season lessened the swaying effect somewhat.


12th Man TV

During the 2006 offseason, the older Jumbotron was removed and replaced by a
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
Diamond Vision enhanced resolution
LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
videoboard in the south end zone, at the time the second largest in college athletics and one of the ten largest in the world. The Texas A&M Athletic Department has dubbed the new screen "12th Man TV", although some fans refer to it as the "Gigatron". The structure contains 590,000 pixels on 154 video panels with a screen size of . The athletic department also updated the media equipment to allow production and broadcast of enhanced definition video to the screen. This addition to Kyle Field was accompanied by LED ribbon boards installed along the facade of the second deck encircling the stadium. At , it is the second-longest ribbon board in collegiate sports and second worldwide only to
Hard Rock Stadium Hard Rock Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The stadium is the home field for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) and the Miami Hurricanes, the University of Miami's NCAA Division I college ...
in
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
. In conjunction with this project, additional upgrades included video board upgrades to
Reed Arena Reed Arena is a sports arena and entertainment venue located at the corner of Olsen Boulevard and Kimbrough Boulevard in College Station, Texas. This facility is used for Texas A&M University basketball games and commencement ceremonies, concerts, ...
and
Olsen Field Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park is a baseball stadium in College Station, Texas, that is home to the Texas A&M baseball program. The stadium was dedicated on March 21, 1978, and is named in honor of C. E. "Pat" Olsen, a 1923 graduate of Texas ...
. Unveiled in September 2014, an LED videoboard that is 47 by 163 feet () was installed at the south end zone above the new seating, remained as the largest in college athletics until
Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...
unveiled a 57-by-190-foot, LED videoboard at
Jordan–Hare Stadium Jordan–Hare Stadium (properly pronounced n central Alabama dialectas ) is an American football stadium in Auburn, Alabama on the campus Auburn University. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Auburn Tigers football team. The stadium ...
which was completed in August 2015.


Reveille cemetery

When the first Aggie mascot,
Reveille "Reveille" ( , ), called in French "Le Réveil" is a bugle call, trumpet call, drum, fife-and-drum or pipes call most often associated with the military; it is chiefly used to wake military personnel at sunrise. The name comes from (or ), th ...
, died, she was buried at the north end of Kyle Field so that the score of the Aggie football games was always visible from the site. Subsequent Reveilles were buried alongside her. Construction of the Bernard C. Richardson Zone disrupted the mascot graves, so the graves were temporarily moved across the street from the stadium. Following the completion of the addition, an improved graveyard was dedicated directly outside the Zone and a small electronic scoreboard was mounted on the Zone so that the score would remain visible. Traditionally, when a current or former Reveille died, a military funeral was held at Kyle Field. Over 10,000 people attended the service for Reveille IV. In 2013, Reveille VII, who was retired in May 2008, was given a toned-down memorial service at Reed Arena, rather than a funeral service. According to the Commandant of the Corps, as she is a dog, not a person, he did not believe a 21-gun salute or the playing of "Taps" was appropriate, although he had no involvement in the planning of the memorial service. Some fans were displeased with the changes. It was also announced that the bodies of the previous Reveilles will be exhumed as part of the Kyle Field renovations and relocated across the street, similar to what was done in the previous renovations.


Other events held at Kyle Field

During summers, young athletes are invited to Kyle Field for football training camps. In the fall, the stadium plays host to various Texas high school football playoff games. The stadium is the home to the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets annual Parents' Weekend Review and Final Review. From 1990 to 2013 it was the venue for the "Cross-Town Showdown" high school football game between the Bryan Vikings and the A&M Consolidated Tigers, arguably the most popular game of the Vikings/Tigers football season. Traditionally the last game of each team's football schedule, beginning in the 2006 season, Texas A&M University requested that the game be held earlier in the year so as not to interfere with Aggie games. In 2013 due to the renovations including a new turf field; Texas A&M requested the Bryan Vikings vs. A&M Consolidated game be held at their home fields beginning 2014 until the renovations are completed. Kyle Field also hosts the Texas A&M University football team for the Maroon & White practice scrimmage during Parent's Weekend each spring.


Top 10 largest crowds


See also

*
List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums This is a list of stadiums that currently serve as the home venue for Football Bowl Subdivision college football teams. These include most of the largest stadiums in the United States. Conference affiliations reflect those in the current 2022 ...


References


External links

*
Aggie Athletics Press Release regarding 12th Man TVVirtual Views per Section Website
{{Texas college football venues College football venues Texas A&M Aggies football Sports venues in College Station, Texas American football venues in Texas Defunct athletics (track and field) venues in the United States Sports venues completed in 1927 1927 establishments in Texas