Army West Point Athletics
Michie Stadium Ranked Among Top 10 College Venues
July 16, 2007 | General
WEST POINT, N.Y. Michie Stadium, the home of the Army football and lacrosse teams, is ranked No. 7 in a Sports Illustrated’s List of Top 10 College Venues.
Sports Illustrated, in its On Campus section, has a photo slide show with the top facilities. The Army entry is accompanied by a photo of the American Flag stretching from end zone to end zone and reads “from the pregame cadet parade to the ear-shattering cannon blasts that reverberate throughout the 83-year-old stadium, Michie Stadium is still a must-see for any college football fan.”
Only 15 Division I-A stadiums, and just six located east of the Mississippi River, are older than fabled Michie Stadium. The original stadium structure was formally dedicated to the memory of Dennis Mahan Michie, who was instrumental in starting football at the U.S. Military Academy in 1890. It was Michie who organized, managed and coached the first football team in history at West Point. There have been several facelifts since that first game in 1924 when Army defeated Saint Louis University 17-0.
Temporary East stands and upper stands were added before construction of permanent East stands was completed in 1962. In the summer of 1969 an upper deck on the West side was added, boosting the seating capacity to 41,684. Capacity has since been adjusted to 40,000.
In honor of legendary mentor Earl "Red" Blaik, Army christened the Michie Stadium playing surface "Blaik Field" in 1999. Blaik, a gridiron innovator, compiled an 18-year Army record of 121-33-10 and brought Army its only three national championships (1944, 1945, 1946). The winningest coach in Army annals, Blaik is enshrined in the College Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
A new playing surface was installed in 2001 and construction of the $7 million Hoffman Press Box was completed in 2003 and offers a full-service operations center for the media. The $40 million Kimsey Athletic Center, just outside the south end zone, was also completed in the spring of 2003. The facility houses state-of-the-art locker rooms, coaches' offices, athletic training facilities, equipment rooms, meeting rooms and the Kenna Hall of Army Sports, a large display area that chronicle’s Army's vast athletics history.
To see the complete list, visit: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0707/campus.top10.venues/content.4.html
Sports Illustrated’s Top 10 College Sports Venues
1. The Rose Bowl, Los Angeles, Calif.
2. Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke University basketball
3. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, University of Florida football
4. Michigan Stadium, University of Michigan football
5. Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha, Neb.
6. The Palestra, Philadelphia, Pa.
7. Michie Stadium, West Point, N.Y.
8. Mariucci Arena, University of Minnesota hockey
9. Charles River, Massachusetts
10. Allen Fieldhouse, University of Kansas basketball
