Portal:Oklahoma/Selected article/September, 2007



The Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium is the on-campus football facility for the University of Oklahoma Sooners in Norman, Oklahoma. The official capacity of the stadium following recent renovations is 82,112, making it the 15th largest college stadium in the United States and the 3rd largest in the Big 12 Conference (behind Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas and Kyle Field at Texas A&M University). The record attendance for the stadium was set during a 2006 home game against Texas Tech with 85,313 in attendance. The stadium is also the site of Spring Commencement exercises for the University.

The stadium is a horseshoe-shaped facility with its long axis oriented north/south, with the north end enclosed and the south end open. Visitor seating is in the south end zone and the southern sections of the east side. The student seating sections are in the east stands, surrounding the 350-member Pride of Oklahoma which sits between the 20- and 35-yard lines. The Sooners' bench was also located on the east side with the students, but the home bench was moved to the west (shady) side in the mid-1990s so the Sooners can take respite in the tall shadow of the press box from the sweltering August and September heat – a key advantage for the Sooners against teams from cooler climates or with inadequate heat conditioning. A new Big 12 Conference rule requires schools to move their bands from behind the opposing team's bench starting in 2007; no decisions have been made concerning the 2007 seating configuration.

There are two main reasons why the stadium is not a fully-enclosed "bowl" like, for example, Michigan Stadium or the Rose Bowl. First, access to the three outdoor football practice fields, which are behind the south end zone seats, would have been restricted by completely enclosing the south end of the stadium. Secondly, any enclosure would have forced the baseball field, which shared its outfield with the practice fields until 1982, to shorten its left field line considerably. (See this 1976 photo, an aerial view of the stadium from northeast to southwest. The baseball field is clearly visible in the top left, behind the then-temporary south end zone stands.)