Skelly Field at H. A. Chapman Stadium

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox venue Skelly Field at H. A. Chapman Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the south central United States, located on the campus of the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Commonly known as H. A. Chapman Stadium, it is the home field for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane of the American Athletic Conference.

The HA Chapman Stadium opened Template:Time ago in 1930 and its current seating capacity is around 30,000 for football, following the renovation of 2008.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The FieldTurf playing field has a traditional north-south alignment at an approximate elevation of Template:Convert above sea level.

History

The 14,500-seat stadium opened in 1930 as Skelly Field, named for its primary benefactor, William Skelly, the founder of Skelly Oil. Tulsa defeated Arkansas 26–6 at the inaugural game on October 4.<ref name="skelly">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1947, the north stands were added and the stadium was renamed Skelly Stadium. In 1965, the track was removed, the field was lowered, the west stands were expanded and the south stands were added, bringing the capacity to 40,385 seats. In February 2005, the north stands were demolished to make way for the new Case Athletic Complex, reducing the seating to 35,542.<ref name="skelly"/> In 2007–2008, the stadium was renovated, reducing capacity to 30,000 <ref name="TU Chapman Stadium">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Located on historic U.S. Route 66, the stadium hosted the Oklahoma Outlaws of the United States Football League (USFL) in 1984. Skelly was once the principal home field for two American football legends – future NFL Hall-of-Famer (and later U.S. Congressman) Steve Largent when he played for the University of Tulsa and Doug Williams of the Oklahoma Outlaws, who later was a Super Bowl MVP for the Washington Redskins. The stadium was also home to the Tulsa Roughnecks of the North American Soccer League 1978–1984 and the short-lived Tulsa Mustangs of the AFA.

On April 26, 2007, it was reported that, with a renovation project underway, the stadium was renamed as Skelly Field at H. A. Chapman Stadium after the primary benefactor of the renovation.<ref name="world">Template:Cite news</ref>

The stadium is also used for the Jenks–Union football rivalry games.

Attendance

The stadium's attendance record was established Template:Time ago in 1987, when 47,350 watched top-ranked Oklahoma shut out Tulsa 65–0 on September 26.<ref name="skelly"/><ref name=oklaso>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="tulsahurricane.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Top ten single-game attendances

style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;" | Rank	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;" | Attendance	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;" | Date	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;" | Opponent	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;" | Result
1	47,350	September 26, 1987	No. 1 Oklahoma	L, 65–0
2	41,235	September 13, 1986	Oklahoma State	W, 27–23
3	40,785	September 9, 1989	Oklahoma State	W, 20–10
4	40,385	September 18, 1993	Oklahoma State	L, 16–10
		September 20, 1997	Missouri	L, 42–31
		September 12, 1998	Oklahoma State	W, 35–20
		September 9, 2000	Oklahoma State	L, 36–26
		August 30, 2002	No. 1 Oklahoma	L, 37–0
9	40,248	November 17, 1990	Montana State	W, 20–2
10	40,235	September 29, 1984	No. 10 Oklahoma State	L, 31–7

Largest season attendance average

The highest attendance average in a season was 31,236 in 1991 with 7 games.<ref name="tulsahurricane.com"/>

style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;"|Rank	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;"|Season	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;"|Average	style="Template:CollegePrimaryStyle;"|Games
1	1991	31,236	7
2	1965	28,899	4
3	1982	28,355	5
4	1989	25,388	5
5	1993	25,077	5
6	1992	24,883	6
7	1996	24,814	5
8	1995	24,538	6
9	1987	24,074	4
10	1990	23,917	5

Renovation

Exterior of west grandstand in 2009

The stadium was renovated following the 2007 season. The project included new seating, a new pressbox, club and loge seating, and a new scoreboard. With the removal of the upper section of the west stands, seating capacity dropped to approximately 30,000, which made Chapman Stadium the smallest stadium in Conference USA.

See also

• List of NCAA Division I FBS football stadiums

External links

• Template:Official website