Neyland Stadium, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, is one of the largest stadiums in the United States and is home to the University of Tennessee Volunteers football team. In addition to the better-known stadium name, the playing surface actually has a separate name, as it is known as Shields-Watkins Field.

In addition to serving as the primary location for home football games in Knoxville, Neyland Stadium has also been used for professional football exhibition games, large conventions, and concerts. The stadium is located at an address named after longtime Volunteers coach Phillip Fulmer (Fulmer spent some 30 years coaching in Tennessee), whose namesake provided the direct inspiration for Phillip Fulmer Way, the official address for Neyland Stadium.

During the approximately 80 years of the stadium’s existence, a total of 16 expansions and renovations have taken place over the years, with an official maximum capacity of 104,079. Renovations in 2006 and 2009 to add East and West Club seats actually brought the total maximum capacity down to just over 100,000 (100,011). As the stadium currently sits at a peak occupancy of just over 100,000, it is the fifth largest American stadium if racing stadiums are excluded. The difference from racing stadiums is due to the fact that racing operations generally provide seating for a large number of people, in part due to the size of the multi-mile long tracks, but the seating is not necessarily they do in a manner consistent with the traditional concept. of a stadium.

Interestingly, the sports facility known as Neyland Stadium has not always been called Neyland Stadium. When the project was first completed in March 1921, the name Shields-Watkins Field was given to the location that would eventually become known as Neyland Stadium. The name Shields-Watkins comes from the name of the original donor, Colonel WS Shields and his wife Alice Watkins-Shields. Although the massive stadium has since been renamed, the field where the University of Tennessee football team plays on most Saturdays in the fall still goes by the name “Shields-Watkins Field,” a name that has stood the test of time.

The eventual football coach and athletic director of the University of Tennessee, General Robert Neyland, is the man whose name now graces the stadium’s entrance. General Robert was honored with the name change in 1962 after being credited with making the Volunteers (or Vols, as they are also called) a powerhouse football program while coaching the squads from 1926 to 1952 (Coach Neyland missed two seasons during those twenty-six years). period of continuous military service). Before his death in March 1962, manager Robert Neyland began an effort to make the first significant expansion to the stadium. Neyland’s plans for the home of the Vols were so extensive that a part of his overall plan was incorporated into every subsequent expansion for the past 40 years.