BEAVER STADIUM DEMOLITION
- Thread starter step.eng69
- Start date
Engineers, man, they rock. My grandfather was a civil engineer in DC.
Also, I find this mind boggling: this press box was part of Old Beaver Field near West Halls. I have a hard time believing it.
Also, I find this mind boggling: this press box was part of Old Beaver Field near West Halls. I have a hard time believing it.
I guess it’s too much to hope that John Surma was locked in one of the boxes! And Dave Jones!
As are about 30,000 seats from the original horseshoe seating, which was all brought over to the east campus just prior to the 1960 season. The guts of it are really old!
And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is your Portland Cement Crack of the Week.
The original stadium brought over from west campus was Youngstown Sheet and Tube steel where my grandfather worked his entire career. The president of YS&T at the time was a former Penn State all American Pete Mauthe. That is my tie to Penn State and Beaver Stadium.
My avatar is my grandfather’s brother who was a big star RB in HS, 3 year starter at NC State (first in the immigrant family to attend college) and HS teammate of Steve Belichick. My grandfather was a smaller, older version of his brother and did not have the luxury to attend HS, having graduated 8th grade as was common in those days.
My avatar is my grandfather’s brother who was a big star RB in HS, 3 year starter at NC State (first in the immigrant family to attend college) and HS teammate of Steve Belichick. My grandfather was a smaller, older version of his brother and did not have the luxury to attend HS, having graduated 8th grade as was common in those days.
Last edited:
The guts of me are really old! As is everthing else!
Engineers over the press in an A$$. BEATING. 
.
.
Where exactly was Old Beaver Field? What’s there now? Idle curiosity, thanks in advance for any responses.
As I understand it, the new press box will be a reproduction of the original one, just like the postcard.
My dad was an ironworker and worked on the expansion of Beaver Stadium in 1978
Joe Paterno came down to the site and talked to the workers and my dad asked if he could bring his son up to meet him and Joe told him to call his secretary and make an appointment and he would gladly make time for us. My dad made the call and he and my mom and I drove to University Park from our home in Loganton and went to Joe's office in Rec Hall and had a nice visit. I have some photos and somewhere an autographed coke tray.
Joe said to young QBKeeper, "if your hands get to be as big as your old man's you'll probably be playing for me" and I remember thinking later how there was no way he'd still be coaching when I was old enough to be in college (I was 9 when I met him lol). When Joe coached his final season in 2011 I was 42 haha.
Joe Paterno came down to the site and talked to the workers and my dad asked if he could bring his son up to meet him and Joe told him to call his secretary and make an appointment and he would gladly make time for us. My dad made the call and he and my mom and I drove to University Park from our home in Loganton and went to Joe's office in Rec Hall and had a nice visit. I have some photos and somewhere an autographed coke tray.
Joe said to young QBKeeper, "if your hands get to be as big as your old man's you'll probably be playing for me" and I remember thinking later how there was no way he'd still be coaching when I was old enough to be in college (I was 9 when I met him lol). When Joe coached his final season in 2011 I was 42 haha.
That’s a cool story - so Joepa.
Beaver Field (1892–1908), was the first official home to the Penn State football and baseball teams. Retroactively known as "Old Beaver Field", it had a capacity of 500 and stood between present-day Osmond and Frear Laboratories, now the site of a parking lot.
I was always under the impression that was closer to Rec Hall? Maybe I misinterpreted it.
Beaver Stadium - Centre County Encyclopedia of History & Culture
Beaver Stadium, the home of Penn State football, provides a venue for the passionate connection of students, alumni, and fans to the University and the communal experience of a football Saturday. With its 106,572-seat capacity, Beaver Stadium is the second-largest stadium in the United States...
centrehistory.org
I was always under the impression that was closer to Rec Hall? Maybe I misinterpreted it.
Beaver Stadium - Centre County Encyclopedia of History & Culture
Beaver Stadium, the home of Penn State football, provides a venue for the passionate connection of students, alumni, and fans to the University and the communal experience of a football Saturday. With its 106,572-seat capacity, Beaver Stadium is the second-largest stadium in the United States...
What was moved across campus to the current location was actually the New Beaver Field, which was located along Park Avenue, next to the Nittany Lion Inn.
Here’s a campus map from 1957.
The field was never named until it was moved up near Park Avenue in 1909 and dedicated in honor of James A. Beaver. The original field near Osmond was just called the Athletic Field. It gets confusing since even the University refers to the original field as Old Beaver Field even though it was never named that.
Here’s a bit of trivia for you. Charles Klauder, the architect for many buildings on campus, including the Beaver Field expansion in the 1930s, drafted a campus plan that would have built a new stadium on Atherton Street, where the Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel is. Imagine the traffic that would have caused over the years.
’New’ Beaver Field from the 1950s
‘New’ Beaver Field from the 1920s-30s (I think) You can see that they moved the original grandstand up to this location.
‘Old’ Beaver Field, which was down in the area of Osmond. This view shows it behind the old Chemistry Building which no longer exists.
Here’s another view of campus from the tower of the original Old Main @ 1905-1909
Last edited:
Looking at that campus map I see the sheep barn on there. Is it true that the sheep barn required extra security when Pitt and WVU came to town for a game?!
No more security than was needed to protect the dairy, beef, and chicken barns from the Penn State populace.
It was cool seeing all the camera flashes from members of the media inside the press box just before it fell.
Not every day one gets to blow something up, besides balloons.
that would be cool, they would need to get more use out of it to pay for it.
of course we would leave the roof open if we host Bama in a playoff and it’s 20 degrees and snowing.
A landing strip would be great......
Considering how some complain about the current airport.
So when is this new state of the art press box to be completed? No way it can be ready by the Blue/White game.