Neyland Stadium History

Neyland Stadium is the Knoxville, Tennessee home of the Tennessee, Volunteers football team, one of the top teams in the always strong SEC. The stadium first opened in 1921 and has been the home of the Volunteers ever since as well as one of the most exciting places in the country to attend an elite college football game. The stadium has undergone 13 expansions since first opening with the first one coming a mere five years after it opened, in 1926. The idea of the stadium first came from Colonel W.S. Shields, who initially named the stadium Shields-Watkins Field in honor of his wife. The name of the stadium was changed in 1962 to Neyland Stadium to honor General Robert Neyland who was a former athletic director and coach of the football team.

Neyland Stadium Events

Neyland Stadium is one of the most highly attended football stadiums in the country and being in the stands for a Vols game is an experience not to be missed. Game days at Neyland Stadium are full of all the excitement, pageantry, and big plays you would expect from a big time college football game, but the intensity is ratcheted up a notch in Knoxville because of the intense passion and dedication Vols fans have for their favorite football team. Each game at Memorial stadium fans will find thunderous, bone rattling hits, incredible displays of speed and agility, clutch field goals, and game breaking plays that fill up the day of world class college football. These are some of the best student athletes you can find anywhere and some of them will go on to be the NFL superstars of tomorrow.

Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville is the third largest city in Tennessee and was its first capital. There is a vibrant arts and music scene in Knoxville, and its contributions to country music are all too often overlooked and sit in the shadow of Nashville and Memphis. Blender magazine named it the 17th most rocking city in the United States and it has given the music world the Everly Brothers, Flatts & Scruggs, and Homer & Jethro. Several annual events take place in Knoxville that attract thousands of participants including Dogwood Arts Festival, Big Ears Festival, Bacon Fest, Knoxville Brewers Jam, and more. Of course, there are also plenty of parks and museums that reward the casual stroll through the city center and are well worth checking out.

Neyland Stadium Seating Layout

Neyland Stadium is currently able of holding more than 102,000 screaming Vols fans. There is not a bad seat in the house and once you have spent a Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium cheering on the Vols with 102,000 other Tennessee fans you will never be satisfied with merely watching the game at home again.

Trivia

The attendance record at Neyland Stadium was set on September 18,2004 when the Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Florida Gators 30-28 in front of 109,061 fans. Although the stadium is primarily used for college football, it has occasionally hosted a concert including three performances by the Jacksons in 1984 during their Victory Tour.