"The Blue Oval" | |
Location | 2719 Forest Avenue Des Moines, Iowa, 50311 United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°36′18″N93°39′18″W / 41.60500°N 93.65500°W |
Public transit | DART |
Owner | Drake University |
Operator | Drake University |
Capacity | 14,557 (2006–present) 18,000 (1925–2005) |
Surface | FieldTurf |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1925 |
Opened | October 10, 1925 [1] |
Renovated | 2005 |
Construction cost | $15 million (2005 renovation) [2] |
Architect | RDG Planning & Design (2005 renovation) [3] |
Tenants | |
Drake Bulldogs football (NCAA) (1925–present) Drake Relays (1926–present) Des Moines Menace (USL2) (2019–present) |
Drake Stadium is a stadium on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Best known as the home of the Drake Relays, it also serves as the home field of the university's football team. It opened in 1925.
Drake Stadium opened on October 10, 1925, as the Bulldogs defeated Kansas.
Drake Stadium has seen the Bulldogs win thirteen conference championships in football, while advancing to five college football bowl games. The stadium is also the home field for nearby Des Moines Roosevelt High School and occasional home games for Dowling High School. It is currently the largest stadium in the Pioneer Football League.
Drake Stadium is also the home to the Drake Relays, one of the premier track and field meets in the country. Thousands of high school, college, and professional track athletes come to Drake Stadium in late April to compete in one of the largest track meets in the United States. The prominence of the Relays has led to Drake hosting various other national and regional professional, collegiate, and youth meets. Fourteen world records have been set at the Relays.
The stadium also hosts the Iowa boys and girls high school track state championships.
It also serves as a secondary venue for the university's men's and women's soccer teams. In 2019, the Des Moines Menace, a local USL League Two soccer club, played its home schedule at the stadium. [4]
The football field at Drake Stadium is named in honor of Drake alumnus and football great Johnny Bright. The track is named after famed announcer Jim Duncan. [5]
The installation of a $175,000 tartan track in 1969 replaced the cinder track. It was a magnificent 60th birthday present for Drake Relays competitors and fans. In 1976, all individual events at the Drake Relays went metric; in 1978, the conversion was completed with rebuilding of the track into a 400-meter oval so that relay races, too, could go metric. The Jim Duncan Track was resurfaced in the summer of 1989 in Drake blue school colors, featuring a combination of polyurethane coating and EPDM rubber granules. Since this installation, track and field athletes and fans frequently refer to the venue as the "Blue Oval". [6] [7]
The 2005–2006 renovation project improved many aspects of the stadium. The surface area of the stadium was flattened (previously the infield sat several feet lower than the track surface). It created a reconfigured track to meet NCAA and international standards, improved seating, and added a "safety lane" on the outside of the track for athletes (in the old configuration, fans could easily make contact with a competitor in lane 8). In addition, a new scoreboard with video screen was placed at the northeast corner of the stadium. Widening the track reduced the stadium's seating capacity from 18,000 to 14,557. [8] As a result, throwing events were moved to an area north of the stadium.
The Bulldogs played their 2005 home games at Waukee High School's Warrior Stadium due to renovations at the stadium.
In the summer of 2016, the field and track were resurfaced. [9] New turf was installed and the track surface was replaced using the same material used at the Beijing and London Summer Olympics.
Drake Stadium has hosted the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on four occasions:
The 2008 championships doubled the previous four-day record crowd with a total attendance of 41,187 (including over 11,000 for the final day) despite heavy flooding in Des Moines.
Drake Stadium has also hosted the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships four times: [10]
Additionally, the facility has hosted the AAU Junior Olympic Games four times.
Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The University offers over 140 undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, education, law, and pharmacy. Drake University Law School was founded in 1865, which makes it one of the 25 oldest law schools in the United States.
Mike A. Myers Stadium and Soccer Field is a stadium owned and operated by the University of Texas at Austin. It is home of Texas Longhorn track and field and soccer teams and also home to the USATF Elite Running Circuit Austin Track Club. The 20,000-seat stadium hosts the historic Texas Relays annually in April, as well as the University Interscholastic League track and field state championship in May.
The Drake Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Drake University, located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The Bulldogs' athletic program is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) and competes at the NCAA Division I level. Drake also sponsors teams in the Pioneer Football League, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and Summit League. Drake's live bulldog mascot is Griff II; the costumed mascot is Spike; and the school colors are blue and white.
The Drake Relays is an outdoor track and field event held in Des Moines, Iowa, in Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University. Billed as America's Athletic Classic, it is regarded as one of the top track and field events in the United States. In 2020, the Drake Relays was named a Silver Level event on the World Athletics Continental Tour, one of only two competitions in the United States to earn Silver Level status.
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Rick Wanamaker is an American track and basketball athlete who won the decathlon in the 1971 Pan American Games, and blocked a shot against Lew Alcindor in the 1969 NCAA national basketball semi-finals.
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Isiah Young is an American track and field athlete who competes in the sprints. He was selected to compete for the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 200-meter dash.
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Jenna Elizabeth Prandini is an American track and field athlete who has competed in both sprinting and long jump. She is a two-time national champion at 200 meters, and a two-time Olympian in 2016 and 2020. She won a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics as part of the United States 4x100 m relay team, and won a gold medal with the US 4x100 m relay at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Raevyn Rogers is an American middle-distance athlete. She won a bronze medal in the 800 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, becoming the fourth fastest woman in U.S. history in the event. At the 2019 World Championships, Rogers came from seventh with 100m remaining in the race to place silver over USA teammate Ajeé Wilson in bronze. She earned a world indoor title as a member of national 4x400 m relay squad that took gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships.
Ameer Kenneth Webb is an American sprinter specializing in the 100 m and 200 m.
The 1970 NCAA University Division Outdoor Track and Field Championships were contested June 16−18 at the 48th annual NCAA-sanctioned track meet to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate University Division outdoor track and field events in the United States.
Shaquille Walker is an American retired track runner competing for the United States and a former Brigham Young University track student-athlete.
Brian Brown is an American male former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. His career best was 2.34 m, set in 1990. He was the national champion at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1989 and won the NCAA Indoor Division I title in 1990.
Christopher Nilsen is an American athlete specialising in pole vault and high jump. He won the silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the pole vault event with a jump of 5.97 m.
The Drake–Northern Iowa rivalry is the American collegiate athletics rivalry between the Drake Bulldogs sports teams of Drake University and Northern Iowa Panthers sports teams of the University of Northern Iowa.