Knowlton (Austin E.) Athletics Complex

Date

2014-present

Location

200 Woodland Street

Architects/Collaborators

Hastings+Chivetta, St. Louis, MO (architects, planners & engineers)

Style

Postmodern

History

The new Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex and Dick Bailey Field, funded by an $8 million donation from the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation and private donors and dedicated in September 2014, replaced the outdated 90-year old Savage Football Stadium. It features an all-weather, multipurpose field with artificial turf and lights, suitable for nearly every athletics team or club sport on campus, grandstands for home and visiting spectators, a separate alumni event area with seating for 5,000, and a state-of-the-art press box.

The field is named for Richard C. Bailey, who graduated from the College in 1951, a long-time member and former treasurer of the John W. Heisman Club (named after Oberlin's first football coach). His signature is stitched into the turf in white on one side of the field. The complex is the new home for the Yeomen football team, field hockey team and men's and women's lacrosse teams. It offers numerous firsts to the College--locker rooms for both men and women at the field house, night football games, and artificial turf. The complex encompasses what was once the Beatty Williams Ice Rink, converted to an all-season enclosed, artificial turf field.

See also Jones Field House.

Source

Oberlin College Archives, College General Records, Buildings and Dedications.