Old Oval, also called The Oval or University Oval, was a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

. The field, located open field south of the

Hall of Languages The Hall of Languages is a Syracuse University building designed by Horatio Nelson White in the Second Empire architectural style, and built in 1871–73. It was the first building constructed on the Syracuse University campus and the building ori ...

, opened in 1895 and was the first on-campus home to the Syracuse Orangemen

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 ...

team prior to the opening of

Archbold Stadium Archbold Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Syracuse, New York. It opened in 1907 and was home to the Syracuse Orangemen football team prior to the opening of the Carrier Dome in 1980. History After organizing athletics events at various ...

in 1907.

History

The Old Oval at Syracuse University has a rich history dating back to the 1880s, when it was first developed as a

baseball diamond A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refers ...

and

cinder track A cinder track is a type of race track, generally purposed for track and field or horse racing, whose surface is composed of cinders. For running tracks, many cinder surfaces have been replaced by all-weather synthetic surfaces, which provide gre ...

. The oval-shaped field was roughly laid out in 1887. The field originally was a crop field. At the time, most team sports were played in the various " Star Parks" around the city of Syracuse, but the university, under presidents

Charles N. Sims Charles N. Sims (May 18, 1835 – March 27, 1908) was an American Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist preacher and the third chancellor of Syracuse University, serving from 1881 to 1893. Sims Hall and Sims drive on the Syracuse campus is named ...

and later

James Roscoe Day The Rev. James Roscoe Day, D.D., L.L.D. (17 October 1845 – March 13, 1923) was an American Methodist minister, educator and chancellor of Syracuse University. Early life and education Day was born in Whitneyville, Maine, on October 17, 1845 ...

, wanted to make the Oval the center of athletics on campus. To achieve this goal, work was started in the fall of 1887 on the sloped baseball ground and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

commenced in the spring of 1890 with regrading of the field. Finally, on June 8, 1895, the Oval officially opened as the new athletic field. It was financed by

John D. Archbold John Dustin Archbold (July 26, 1848 – December 6, 1916) was an American businessman and one of the United States' earliest oil refiners. His small oil company was bought out by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Archbold rose rapidl ...

, who refused to let the field be known by his name. In 1895, the grandstand was constructed and the field was formally opened on June 8, 1895, with George H. Bond serving as the master of ceremonies. Archbold later donated $600,000 to build the

. This was the Orangemen's first real home field. In the first game played at the stadium on 1895, the 1895 Syracuse Orangemen football team beat Syracuse Athletic Association by a score of 24–0. Other sports programs also used the field, notably, three-time Olympic gold medallist and Syracuse student

Myer Prinstein Myer (or Meyer) Prinstein (born Mejer Prinsztejn, December 22, 1878 – March 10, 1925) was a Polish American track and field athlete and member of the Irish American Athletic Club. He held the world record for the long jump and won gold medals ...

amazed the crowds at track and field meets.

Later use

However, in 1907, most

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is ...

athletic events were moved to the newly built

, which was considered a more suitable location for such events. No longer an athletic field, the Old Oval was put to variety of uses over the years. In 1906, architecture professors Frederick William Revels and Earl Hallenbeck, created a plan to convert the Old Oval into a Great Quadrangle. Their work resulted in the construction of Bowne, Carnegie library, Sims, and Machinery halls and

Archbold Gymnasium Archbold Gymnasium is a gymnasium located on the campus of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. History It was built in 1908 with money donated by John Dustin Archbold, a major benefactor of the university, who also funded the building of ...

, which were all completed by 1909. It has served as a 200 ft. by 150 ft.

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses m ...

, a skating rink, and was even used for

military drill A drill is a tool or machine for cutting holes in a material. Drill may also refer to: Animals * Drill (animal), a type of African primate * Oyster drill, a type of snail Military * Military exercise * Foot drill, the movements performed on a p ...

s during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was also the terminus of a toboggan slide from Mount Olympus. By 1914, the Oval had come to be known as the ''"Old Oval"'', and in 1929 it was filled in with earth from various excavations to create the central lawn area known simply as ''the quad''. The quad was the site of the 1970 student strike following the

Kent State massacre The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...

and the site of ''Sheets of Expression'', in which students spontaneously taped bed sheets to the sidewalks and wrote their observations following the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Suicide attack, suicide List of terrorist incidents, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, ...

. On November 6, 2010, the Old Oval was dedicated as the '' Kenneth A. Shaw Quadrangle'', honoring the former Syracuse University chancellor. Today, the Shaw quad, as it is more commonly called, is a popular spot on campus for students to relax, study, and socialize. It is now an open green space bounded by Hendricks Chapel, Link Hall, Carnegie Library, Hinds Hall and Huntington Beard Crouse Hall.

References

External links

Old Oval - Syracuse University Archives
{{Sports in Syracuse Sports venues in Syracuse, New York Defunct college football venues Demolished sports venues in New York (state) Syracuse Orange football Syracuse Orange soccer Multi-purpose stadiums in the United States Syracuse Orange sports venues 1890 establishments in New York (state) Sports venues completed in 1907 1906 disestablishments in New York (state) American football venues in New York (state) College soccer venues in the United States College track and field venues in the United States Athletics (track and field) venues in New York (state) Defunct athletics (track and field) venues in the United States