Nippert Stadium
For anyone who has walked across the University of Cincinnati’s sprawling campus, it is easy to understand why Nippert Stadium is essentially its heart. It is centrally located and open at all times, welcoming students to play on the field, socialize in the stands, or simply pass through it as they please. Very few colleges today have stadiums that remain open year round and allow their students to use them in this manner. As unique as this trait is, the particular history of the field and stadium is just as interesting.
Nippert Stadium was originally erected in 1916 around a playing surface known as Carson Field. This field was named after Dr. Arch I. Carson, who was the director of the University of Cincinnati campus in 1895 when he proposed that an athletic field be built on campus.1 The construction of Carson Field cost approximately $5,000, collected from public donors; construction began in 1901 and was completed in 1910. The University of Cincinnati had been playing football since 1885, but did not have a field of its own until this development. Dr. Carson even had the honor of acting as referee during the first official game played on the field.2 To this day the field is still referred to as Carson Field while the actual stadium and stands that surround it are collectively known as Nippert Stadium.
As it stands, Nippert Stadium is the sixth oldest Division I field in the country, behind only those belonging to Harvard, Georgia Tech, Princeton, Yale, and Cornell.3 The stadium is located on what was once a lagoon that was drained and filled with excavated soil from previous construction jobs around campus.4 This spot was chosen for the field and surrounding stands because it was the general area in which a freshman hazing ritual called the “Flag Rush” was held and it was affectionately referred to by the students as the “athletic field.” The “Flag Rush” was an event in which both the freshman and sophomore classes had a flag that they had to protect while attempting to capture and burn the one from the other class.5 Additionally, this particular area of land was naturally outlined by the lagoon terrain and already within the confines of the campus. The stadium settled into the moist soil and gave the appearance of being somewhat sunk into the ground.
The original stands around Carson Field were intended to be built in an oval shape, but previous football bowl stadiums had proven that this style of construction did not lend itself well to comfortable air circulation within the stands. Instead, the wooden stands were built in the shape of a horseshoe around Carson Field. These seats proved to be so poorly constructed and uncomfortable that most spectators watched the game from outside the stadium. At one point a member of the press commented that more people were outside the stadium than there was inside during a game.6 Funds for new concrete stands were provided by municipal bonds and nine sections were built in 1916. Two additional sections were built in the same manner in 1920. In 1921 three more sections were constructed from funds raised by the student body.
Carson Field and the surrounding stands in 1923.
Image courtesy of the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Collection.
The first night football game in the United States was played at this stadium on September 29, 1923, in which Cincinnati defeated Kentucky Wesleyan 17-0. The lighting system for this game was a larger-scaled version of the original system designed by Jack B. Silverman, an engineering co-op student at the university at that time.7
How the stadium would come to be known as Nippert Stadium revolves around the story of one James “Jimmy” Gamble Nippert. Born to Alfred Kuno Nippert and Maud Gamble Nippert on March 6, 1900, Jimmy grew up around the Cincinnati area and went to Hughes High School in 1914. In 1916 he enrolled in the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, and graduated in 1918. Promptly after graduation Jimmy enlisted in the United States Army and quickly rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant, one of the youngest to ever reach that rank in the country. He was discharged in December 1918 and enrolled in the law program at the University of Cincinnati.8 He was a senior at the university in 1923 when an unfortunate set of circumstances would change the rest of his life.
Image of Jimmy Nippert when he was a student at the University of Cincinnati.9
Image courtesy of the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Collection.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1923, Jimmy was injured in the early part of the second half of the game against Miami University. He was an exceptional athlete who played the center position for the Bearcats and was regarded as being the heart and soul of the team. Jimmy was kicked in the leg by an opposing player’s cleat and the wound penetrated all the way to the shinbone. However, due to the mud covering up his uniform the extent of his injury was not determined at that time and he continued to play the entire game. Afterward, doctors told Jimmy to stay in bed for several weeks to allow the wound to heal properly. Unfortunately, after two weeks his wound became infected and he contracted blood poisoning. It was believed that a blood transfusion could have saved his life, and after the other members of the football team found out they all offered to donate blood.10 Jimmy was deemed too weak for the procedure and passed away on Christmas morning, 1923. His last words were “Five more yards to go – then drop,” as he was hallucinating and still believed he was playing in the game.11
After Jimmy’s death his grandfather, James N. Gamble, of the Procter & Gamble Co., donated $270,000 to the university to help complete the stadium with additional seating and amenities, including “dressing rooms, bathrooms, and two fully equipped dispensaries, one for each contending team, so that in case of even the slightest injury to a player the best and most scientific treatment may be administered immediately.”12 Obviously, the inclusion of dispensaries, or areas where medications can be handed out and utilized, was directly related to the circumstances under which Jimmy died. The stadium was subsequently renamed in honor of Jimmy Nippert. The official dedication was held prior to a game on November 8, 1924. A ten foot tall relief memorial, sculpted by Ernest Bruce, was erected at the main entrance to the stadium, with a plague displaying Jimmy’s last words: “Five more yards to go – then drop.”
After the renovations due to Gamble’s contributions, the stadium could hold approximately 12,000 spectators. In 1936 Carson Field at Nippert Stadium was lowered twelve feet in elevation to allow for expanding the seating capacity to 24,000. The Reed A. Shank Pavilion was completed and dedicated on November 25, 1954, exactly one year after Reed A. Shank passed away. Shank was a fanatical Bearcats football fan and was a distinguished physician, surgeon, alumnus, and member of the University Board of Directors. This pavilion, located on the eastern side of the stadium, added 4,000 more seats to the stadium and brought the capacity total to 28,000. In 1970 the field was changed from having a natural grass surface to Astro Turf, a type of artificial surfacing.
Nippert Stadium as it appeared in the late 1980’s, prior to renovations.
Image courtesy of the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Collection.
The field and stadium underwent major renovations between 1989 and 1992, to improve the condition of deteriorating facilities and to address structural instabilities discovered in the lower concourse area. Repairing these structural faults alone cost nearly $300,000.13 The university hired the architecture firm of Baxter Hodell Donnelly & Preston, the same firm that worked on Harvard’s football stadium, to work on the expansion and renovation.14 Upgrades and changes made during this time included adding additional seating, repairing the cracked foundation, adding a three-tier press box, new lighting, a new scoreboard, and a renovated playing surface.
These alterations helped to beautify and upgrade Nippert Stadium, and subsequently fans flocked to it on game days. The modern amenities were a boon to both the players and the fans. The major success of these additions is evident in the way the stadium was renovated without losing its historical integrity. Nippert Stadium has a long and unique history and is an icon of the University of Cincinnati.
Endnotes
1. "The Evolution of Nippert Stadium," The Cincinnati Gridiron, September 26, 1936, p. 42.
2. "History of Carson Field," Athletic Review, November 8, 1924, p. 14.
3. Michael Perry, "The New Nippert Stadium Opens New Era of UC Football," Game Day Handout – Cincinnati vs. Penn State, September 5, 1992, p. 4.
4. Paul Bennett, University of Cincinnati, An Architectural Tour, (Princeton Architectural, 2001), p. 47.
5. Grace, Kevin, and Greg Hand. The University of Cincinnati, (Community Communications, Inc., 1995), p. 81.
6. “The Evolution of Nippert Stadium”, p. 42.
7. Reginald C. McGrane, The University of Cincinnati: A Success Story in Urban Higher Education, (Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1963), p. 264.
8. We were unable to locate information about why Nippert was discharged from the military.
9. "In memoriam James Gamble Nippert, March sixth, 1900, Christmas morning, 1923," Archives and Rare Books, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati.
10. Josh Katzowitz, Bearcats Rising - Rags to Division I Riches: How a Gridiron Minority Bludgeons Its Way Into the Big Time, (Orange Frazer Press, 2009), p. 95.
11. Katzowitz, p. 95.
12. McGrane, p. 264.
13. Perry, p. 4.
14. Bennett, p. 48.