Neyland Stadium is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several NFL exhibition games with the last between the Washington Redskins and Houston Oilers during the Oilers transition to Nashville in 1998. It is the largest football stadium in the South, and the third largest in the United States. After 79 years and 16 expansion projects, Neyland Stadium now has an official capacity of 102,037 seats.

The present-day Neyland Stadium, Shields-Watkins Field, had its beginning in 1919. Col. W.S. Shields, president of Knoxville’s City National Bank and a University of Tennessee trustee, provided the initial capital to prepare and equip an athletic field. Thus, when the field was completed in March 1921, it was called Shields-Watkins Field in honor of the donor and his wife, Alice Watkins-Shields.

The stadium, apart from the field it grew to enclose, came to bear its own name—Neyland Stadium. It was named for the man most responsible for the growth and development of Tennessee’s football program. General Robert Neyland served as head coach from 1926-1952, with two interruptions for military service. After retiring from coaching, General Neyland was the university’s athletics director until his death in 1962.

The latest addition to the facility are the East Club Seats in 2006, bringing capacity down to 102,037. In 2009, the university will add west club-level seats bringing capacity down to 100,000.

Shields-Watkins Field

From 1921 to the end of the 1967 season the field surface was natural grass.

1964 saw the addition of the now famous checkerboard end zones done in orange and white. This was one of the many changes initiated by new head coach Doug Dickey, who also added the ‘T’ logo to the football helmet and had the team run onto the field through the ‘T’ formed by The Pride of the Southland Marching Band, and moved the Tennessee bench from the east side line to the west side line.

In 1968, coinciding with the addition of the East Upper Deck, Tennessee-Turf (Astro-Turf) was installed as the playing surface. One of the reasons being that there was not adequate drainage during heavy rains. The checkerboard end zones were initially not included as part of the Tennessee-Turf playing surface. End zone designs used through the years on the artificial surface included having TENNESSEE and VOLUNTEERS in orange turf lettering and the end zone green turf, or having the same design but with the endzones in orange turf with white turf lettering. The end zones, as well as the mid-field logo were unique in that they were separate pieces of contrasting turf rather than painted turf. The artificial surface, as many from this era, was blamed for excessive leg injuries.

In 1989, the orange and white checkerboard endzones were brought back, along with an interlocking ‘UT’ at the 50-yard line.

1993 saw the final game on the artificial surface, a 62-14 win over Vanderbilt. Afterwards the surface was ripped up and sections were auctioned off to raise funds for the university.

Natural grass returned to Shields-Watkins field in 1994. The checkerboard end zones and mid-field logo were carried over. In 1997, the interlocking ‘UT’ was replaced with the same Power T logo as seen on the football helmets. The grass used was Tiftway Bermuda.

In 2007, the entire surface was resodded for the first time since the transition from artificial turf. The new surface is Patriot Bermuda, and rests on a bed of 12 inches of sand, which allows for adequate drainage.

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