Beaver Stadium: Difference between revisions

'''Beaver Stadium''' is an outdoor [[college football]] [[stadium]] on the campus of [[Pennsylvania State University]] in [[Penn State University Park]]. It&nbsp;has been home to the [[Penn State Nittany Lions football|Penn State Nittany Lions]] of the [[Big Ten Conference]] since [[1960 Penn State Nittany Lions football team|1960]], though some parts of the stadium date back to 1909. It was also the site of university [[Graduation|commencement]]s until 1984.<ref name=stadium>{{cite web |first=Geoff |last=Rushton |url=https://news.psu.edu/story/157346/2011/06/13/beaver-stadium-home-penn-state-football |title=Beaver Stadium: The Home of Penn State Football |website=Penn State News |date=September 12, 2011 |orig-year=June 13, 2011 |access-date=April 22, 2019 }}</ref> The stadium, as well as its [[New Beaver Field|predecessors]], is named after [[James A. Beaver]] (1837–1914), a [[List of governors of Pennsylvania|governor of Pennsylvania]] (1887–91), president of the university's board of trustees,<ref>{{cite news |first=Ron|last=Musselman|title=Why Is It Called Beaver Stadium?|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08260/912571-215.stm|newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]|date=September 16, 2008|access-date=September 17, 2008}}</ref> and native of nearby [[Millerstown, Pennsylvania|Millerstown]]. Officially, the stadium is part of the municipality known as [[College Township, Pennsylvania|College Township, Pennsylvania]], although it has a [[University Park, Pennsylvania|University Park]] address.

The stadium has been expanded six times, reflecting Penn State's rise to national prominence under [[Joe Paterno]]—more than doubling in size in the process. Expansions in 1972 brought capacity to 57,538. Another expansion in 1976 increased capacity to 60,203. In 1978, 16,000 seats were added when the stadium was cut into sections and raised on hydraulic lifts, allowing the insertion of seating along the inner ring of the stadium where the track had previously been located, raising capacity to 76,639. This expansion is particularly noticeable, as there’sthere's a distinct color change when crossing from the original, New Beaver Field steel grandstands onto the newer, stone and concrete additions. In 1980, maximum capacity increased to 83,770. In 1985, walkways were added around the tops of the end zones and entry ramps at the stadium's corners resulted in lowering the capacity to 83,370. An expansion was completed for the 1991 football season, placing an upper deck addition over the north [[end zone]] and raising capacity to 93,967.