Growing up in Norman, Oklahoma, I have been going to OU football games my whole life starting since I was born, so I have spent a significant amount of time in Gaylord Memorial Stadium. Whenever I think about fall, I think about ou football and the tailgates with my family in the football stadium parking lot that is connected to the stadium’s west side, we would pull up in the parking lot and go to the fifth floor, and we would go to the end of the parking garage floor and park our cars and set up tables next to the parking garage wall. When my family was done tailgating, we would go into the stadium, would sit in the middle section of the west side, and as a kid, the stadium looked so big and never-ending. As a kid, there was no bowl. It was open, and on the south end, there was a free-standing section of seating, and you could see outside the stadium looking between the sides. As I got older, the Gaylord Memorial Stadium looked more stunning, and though it doesn’t look as big anymore, I can respect the new bowl aspect of the stadium. When I think about October, I think about the Gaylord Memorial Stadium.

Gaylord Memorial stadium was built in 1923 and originally had seating for 500 people on both sides of the stadium, and in 1925 they built 16,000 more seating on the west side of the stadium. In 1923 the stadium was named Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in honor of the University students and others who were killed in action during ww1. During the 1920s, the stadium got its nickname Owens field in honor of coach Benni Owen. The reason it was not bowled at first was that it needed openings to get to the practice fields at the ends of the stadium. Also, the baseball team shared the field so they needed to keep the stadium open so that the baseball field would not be cut off by the bowl, in 1949 the north side of the stadium was closed off and seating was added and then in 1957 the south side added bleachers and in the 70s the upper decks were added. It wouldn’t be until 2016 almost 100 years after the stadium was built that it would finally start to be completely bowled.

The architecture of Gaylord Memorial Stadium is very unique because the stadium is a combination of almost 100 years of building. Every section of the stadium is unique because it was either added on to or built upon the original stadium and it shows the changing needs of the fans and team throughout the past 100 years. The rich history of the architecture and the memories of the stadium from growing up going has left a positive influence on me and when I think about it or go there it brings back good memories.

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