Brown Stadium

Brown Stadium is a football stadium located in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the home of Brown University's football and outdoor track teams. The athletic teams at Brown University, known as the Bears, compete in the Ivy League.

Location and description
Brown Stadium is located on Elmgrove Avenue in the city's East Side, approximately 3/4 of a mile from the rest of the athletic facilities and over a mile from the main campus. The architectural design features a trapezoid-shaped southwest stands and a smaller section of concrete bleachers on the northeast side. Stands sit on both sides of the field along with a running track. The press box traverses the entire top of the southwest stands, and the rear of the southwest side includes several ornate "B" logos and the university's seal, as well as two stone bear's heads on either end of the stands.

The stadium's current capacity is 20,000. The largest crowd ever recorded at the stadium was for the Brown vs. Colgate game on Thanksgiving morning 1932; portable bleachers were brought in to accommodate 33,000 fans.

History
Before the stadium was built, Brown's football teams played at Adelaide Park in Elmwood or on the university campus. Around 1900 a new field was opened on Hope Street called Andrews Field.

Brown Stadium, originally known as Brown University Field, was financed entirely by subscription. The new field was dedicated on October 24, 1925 before a crowd of 27,000 spectators. The north stands are considerably smaller than the south ones, designed to allow for future expansion to mirror the large south ones and bring the stadium's fixed seating capacity to 32,000, but this expansion was never constructed. Adjacent to the field was Aldrich Baseball Field, and across Elmgrove Avenue was Marvel Gymnasium, completed in 1927.

In 1978 the stadium was completely renovated as part of the football team's 100th anniversary. The original wooden benches were replaced with aluminum. The concrete was restored and waterproofed, and the restrooms, press box, and graphics were painted. an underground sprinkler was installed.

In 1991 a new home team locker room and reception room were constructed.

The stadium's first night game was played on September 25, 2010, as Brown defeated Harvard 29–14 before a crowd of 17,000 fans.

Notable events
Brown has had many successful teams since the stadium opened, including the Iron Man team of 1926, when eleven players played the entirety of two games and most of a third; the 1976, 1999, 2005, and 2008 Ivy League championship teams; as well as players such as  Joe Paterno '50, former head football coach at Penn State, and several former NFL stars such as Don Colo of the Cleveland Browns and Steve Jordan of the Minnesota Vikings. The stadium hosted the Division I NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship in 1976 and 1985 and two quarterfinal matches of the 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship.