Stadium Size, Football Droppers, and Deemphasizers: NYU

This series reviews the program history and stadiums of colleges that dropped or deemphasized football. Click here for the series introduction. The schools included in the review are listed below.

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NYU began playing football in 1873, before football was football, since American football's rugby-derived rules did not arrive until 1876. During its early football playing days, NYU's sole campus was in the Washington Square area of Greenwich Village, on the lower west side of Manhattan. Overcrowding led to NYU acquiring a 23-acre tract of land 10 miles north in the Bronx in 1894, where they located some undergraduate colleges. The next several years witnessed the construction of the University Heights campus, including its athletics facilities at Ohio Field. The track team held its first meet there in the spring of 1896, but the football team played at Berkeley Oval in Harlem that year.

A bird’s eye view of the planned University Heights campus with a grandstand-less Ohio Field. (NYU Archives)

The football team's first game at Ohio Field came in 1897, and by then, they likely had built the grandstand, though I cannot confirm it was there until 1899.

Ohio Field and Grandstand c. 1915 (NYU Archives)

NYU's chancellor at the time was Henry Mitchell MacCracken, who made two significant football-related contributions. One was his vision to build the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, the domed building in the image above. It was the first Hall of Fame built in America, an idea he borrowed from Munich's Ruhmeshalle or Hall of Fame, so those places in Canton and Atlanta might not exist without him.

His second impact came in 1905 following the death of Union College halfback William Moore in a game against NYU on Ohio Field. MacCracken led the revolt against football's existing rules committee, gathering other colleges to develop reforms and organizing the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). The IAAUS reformed football's rules for 1906 and continued their rulemaking before being renamed the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910. Without the reforms that resulted from MacCracken's efforts, football might not exist without him.

NYU football continued with limited acclaim for the next 15 years before reaching its zenith in the late 1920s. NYU filled its schedules of the 1920s and 1930s with Eastern independents. Most Eastern schools had large alumni networks in New York City, and with NYU playing their home games in the newly-opened Yankee Stadium, the large gates made teams eager to play at NYU. Teams from farther afield also wanted to take part in the action. Among the visitors that came a'callin that did not receive a return visit from NYU were Oregon, Tennessee, Purdue, Tulane, and Texas A&M. The Violets also had home-and-home exchanges with Ohio State, Missouri, Nebraska, UNC, and Carnegie Tech. NYU had some seasons with every game played at home or the Polo Grounds (Fordham's home field), resulting in the Violets playing only 14 true road games in the 14 years from 1927 to 1941.

Their biggest crowds came in the late 1920s, when Chick Meehan was the coach, and Ken Strong was their All-American back and the national scoring leader. The 1928 team drew over 50,000 for games with Fordham, Colgate, and Georgetown, while the 1929 team averaged nearly 37,000 during a 10-game season. The NYU-Fordham game sometimes attracted 70,000+.

Ken Strong (1929 NYU yearbook)

NYU's crowds began falling off in the 1930s. They played lesser teams at Ohio Field; even their intersectional games had smaller crowds. For example, the 1936 Ohio State game drew 72,000 in Columbus, while the 1938 game at Yankee Stadium drew 20,000. The 1930s also saw one of their players become the model for the Heisman Trophy.

NYU did not play football in 1942 and 1943 due to the war. Following its return in 1944, it played only Eastern teams, and an increasing number were not 'big-time' programs. Mainly playing road games, they shifted their home games to Ohio Field until it was condemned and torn down in 1947. Then, their games moved to Triborough Stadium, where crowds of 5,000 became the norm for all but its end-of-season battle with Fordham.

The University Heights campus in 1950 after Ohio Field’s grandstand was torn down. (NYU Archives)

The team's popularity reduction resulted from local issues and national trends. The team had only two winning seasons after 1937, and the drop in attendance left the impression that their fans would support only a winning team. They also faced challenges from the football-playing students at their Washington Square campus in Greenwich Village, who had to take a 10-mile subway ride to practice at Ohio Field in the Bronx. Class schedules also made it difficult for the team to practice before 5:00 PM, leading to night practices.

The national and local trends also combined in New York City since NYC was among the first markets with a substantial television presence and popular professional football teams. Then, following the start of two-platoon football in 1945, college teams increasingly required more players, scholarships, equipment, and coaches. Unfortunately, NYU's costs increased as its revenues tanked.

After going 4-17-2 from 1949 to 1952, despite being the largest school in the country with 55,542 students, NYU faced a $100,000 football deficit that the chancellor could no longer accept. After forty colleges dropped football in 1951, nine more did so in 1952, and NYU became the first school to drop football in 1953.

Due to financial pressures, NYU sold the University Heights campus in 1973. It now houses Bronx Community College, where Ohio Field serves its athletic community.

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2024 Concept Uniform

My brother, Steve, dabbles in sports team logos and uniforms. Here are his concept uniforms for NYU’s imaginary 2024 team.

Next up: Boston U.

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Ranking by Stadium Size

Below are the schools reviewed to date, ranked by stadium size. The stadiums’ opening and demolition years (if applicable) are also noted.

1. Catholic (Brookland Stadium): 30,000 | 1924 | d. 1985

2. Marquette (Marquette Stadium): 24,000 | 1924 | d. 1977

3. Xavier (Corcoran Stadium): 15,000 | 1929 | d. 1988

4. Gonzaga (Gonzaga Stadium): 12,000 | 1922 | d . 1949

5. California State University, Fullerton (Titan Stadium): 10,000 | 1992 | still in use

6. Boston University (Nickerson Field): 10,000 | 1915 | still in use

7. NYU (Ohio Field): 5,000 (est.) | 1897 | d. 1947

Schools to Review

• California State University, Long Beach

• University of California, Santa Barbara

• Carnegie Mellon

• Case Western

• Chicago

• CCNY

• Creighton

• Denver

• DePaul

• Detroit

• Drake

• Loyola (Chicago)

• Nebraska-Omaha

• Pacific

• St. Louis

• St. Mary's

• San Francisco

• Santa Clara

• Sewanee (University of the South)

• Tampa

• Vermont

• Washington University in St. Louis

• Wichita State

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