snuffy
06-15-2009, 07:46 AM
OSU’s new baby: Boone Pickens Stadium
The Main Event: OSU's West End Zone
http://www.newsok.com/osus-stadium-renovations-its-not-your-fathers-lewis-field/article/3377908?custom_click=lead_story_title
By John Rohde
Published: June 15, 2009
Hiding underneath the west end zone of Boone Pickens Stadium are new digs for the football team and staff. Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman
STILLWATER — When Bill Young arrived as a student at Oklahoma State in 1964, the seating capacity of Lewis Field was 39,000.
The facility hadn’t been expanded since 1950, and a dirt track circled the football field.
In one end zone, there were cedar trees and a scoreboard that was so bad "no high school would dare want it,” according to Young.
"The stadium looked like an erector’s set,” Young explained. "The old press box looked like it had come off a submarine or something.”
There was no weight room. Conditioning drills were conducted in the dirt basement of Gallagher Hall.
"You’d get down there on these hair mats and have your offseason program,” Young said. "You’d come out of there with dirt in your nose and in your eyes. It was just a dust storm down there whenever anybody started running. It was atrocious.”
On the plus side, with OSU being an agricultural school, the natural grass surface was immaculate. "The field was great,” Young said.
After stints as a player, a graduate assistant/junior varsity coach (1968-69) and offensive/defensive line coach (1976-78), Young is back for another stint inside the program, this time as defensive coordinator.
This OSU is nothing like the old OSU in terms of facilities.
Young hardly recognizes the place.
"It looks like they tore the old place down and built a new stadium,” Young said. "It’s hard to look out there right now and visualize what it could have looked like back when I played. It’s absolutely amazing what they’ve done facility-wise.”
Through the years, various Band-Aids were applied to Lewis Stadium to hide its wounds.
The most popular tale is paint being used to cover up the stadium’s rust.
Not so, said OSU athletic director Mike Holder, who arrived as a golfer in 1966 and has remained ever since.
"We didn’t even have enough money to buy paint to paint over the rust,” Holder said. "You had to look at it. That’s a vivid memory for me.”
What began as Athletic Field in 1913 and initially seated 8,000 fans in 1920, the same piece of property has now become 60,218-seat Boone Pickens Stadium, with $282 million of renovations on the verge of completion — $47 million for the stadium’s south side; $55 million for the north side; $180 million for the west end zone, video scoreboards, etc.
In the last two weeks, the team has moved into the training room, weight room, equipment room and dressing rooms. Next month, coaches will move into their offices.
Asked if new facilities could be heavily influential in recruiting, Young said: "Oh, there’s no question. It’s going to help us immensely. When you drive into Stillwater and see the facilities now compared to the erector set they had when I was here, it’s not even the same.
"We certainly are taking a huge, giant step, and we’re not stopping. We’re going to continue."
The Main Event: OSU's West End Zone
http://www.newsok.com/osus-stadium-renovations-its-not-your-fathers-lewis-field/article/3377908?custom_click=lead_story_title
By John Rohde
Published: June 15, 2009
Hiding underneath the west end zone of Boone Pickens Stadium are new digs for the football team and staff. Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman
STILLWATER — When Bill Young arrived as a student at Oklahoma State in 1964, the seating capacity of Lewis Field was 39,000.
The facility hadn’t been expanded since 1950, and a dirt track circled the football field.
In one end zone, there were cedar trees and a scoreboard that was so bad "no high school would dare want it,” according to Young.
"The stadium looked like an erector’s set,” Young explained. "The old press box looked like it had come off a submarine or something.”
There was no weight room. Conditioning drills were conducted in the dirt basement of Gallagher Hall.
"You’d get down there on these hair mats and have your offseason program,” Young said. "You’d come out of there with dirt in your nose and in your eyes. It was just a dust storm down there whenever anybody started running. It was atrocious.”
On the plus side, with OSU being an agricultural school, the natural grass surface was immaculate. "The field was great,” Young said.
After stints as a player, a graduate assistant/junior varsity coach (1968-69) and offensive/defensive line coach (1976-78), Young is back for another stint inside the program, this time as defensive coordinator.
This OSU is nothing like the old OSU in terms of facilities.
Young hardly recognizes the place.
"It looks like they tore the old place down and built a new stadium,” Young said. "It’s hard to look out there right now and visualize what it could have looked like back when I played. It’s absolutely amazing what they’ve done facility-wise.”
Through the years, various Band-Aids were applied to Lewis Stadium to hide its wounds.
The most popular tale is paint being used to cover up the stadium’s rust.
Not so, said OSU athletic director Mike Holder, who arrived as a golfer in 1966 and has remained ever since.
"We didn’t even have enough money to buy paint to paint over the rust,” Holder said. "You had to look at it. That’s a vivid memory for me.”
What began as Athletic Field in 1913 and initially seated 8,000 fans in 1920, the same piece of property has now become 60,218-seat Boone Pickens Stadium, with $282 million of renovations on the verge of completion — $47 million for the stadium’s south side; $55 million for the north side; $180 million for the west end zone, video scoreboards, etc.
In the last two weeks, the team has moved into the training room, weight room, equipment room and dressing rooms. Next month, coaches will move into their offices.
Asked if new facilities could be heavily influential in recruiting, Young said: "Oh, there’s no question. It’s going to help us immensely. When you drive into Stillwater and see the facilities now compared to the erector set they had when I was here, it’s not even the same.
"We certainly are taking a huge, giant step, and we’re not stopping. We’re going to continue."