Autzen Stadium
The home for Oregon football, widely considered as one of the nation’s loudest stadiums, enters its 37th season this year.
Autzen Stadium was originally built in 1967 for only $2.5 million, and Oregon football moved its games there from its original home at Hayward Field.
Since its opening, the Ducks have enjoyed great success at home behind a strong fan base that has regularly created a tremendous home-field advantage. So far, Oregon has accumulated a home-field record of 118-82-5 (.588 winning percentage), including a 32-4 (.889) record since the start of the 1997 campaign. The Ducks have gone undefeated at Autzen Stadium in four seasons (1990, 1998-2000).
In 1995, the athletic department named the playing surface after the head coach with the most wins in Oregon history, Rich Brooks. The year before, Brooks led the Ducks to its first Pacific-10 Conference championship.
With Oregon’s success in recent years, officials launched a $90 million renovation project two years ago. In 2002, Autzen Stadium increased its capacity from 41,698 to 54,000 fans and added 32 luxury boxes.
Students, fans and alumni have flocked to Autzen year after year, and the team enters this season holding a school-record 24 consecutive sell-outs.
The first game ever played at Autzen Stadium was a loss to Colorado 17-13 on Sept. 23, 1967. The first win in the stadium’s history occurred nearly a month later in a 31-6 victory over Idaho on Oct. 21, 1967.

— Alex Tam

McArthur Court
On January 14, 1927, the Oregon men’s basketball team played and won its first game — a 38-10 victory over Willamette — in its newly finished basketball arena.
Seventy-six years later, the building still stands on a foundation of adjectives: hallowed, classic, reverent, electric.
Named after Clifton N. (Pat) McArthur, a student-athlete and the University’s first student body president, Mac Court is hailed as one of the primary features of Oregon’s athletic program.
Mac Court was built in 1926 after the Associated Students of the University of Oregon decided to “tax ourselves to build what we want,” and fulfill their desire for an indoor arena. The arena was thus paid for from a $15 fee imposed by the ASUO.
Inside, Mac Court is routinely packed to the ceiling with 10,000 fans, filling its four levels of seating. The maple floor, used for the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, bounces under the weight of the student
section encircling the court.
In recent years, Mac Court was deemed as a Pacific-10 Conference visiting team’s least favorite place to play. In 2001, Sporting News named it the “best gym in America.” In 1995 Sports Illustrated listed it as one of the 12 toughest places to play in the country at the collegiate level.
Tradition, however, does take its toll. The building has undergone more than $5 million in renovations over the last decade. In 1996, a new roof was installed to the tune of $1.6 million.
Mac Court may be steeped in tradition and lore, but the pressure to
replace it has intensified the past few years. Plans are currently on hold for a new court to be built right next to the old one.
What can never be replaced, however, are the magical moments that have taken place. Ridnour. Jackson. Brandon. Jones. To them and the fans who have packed the seats for 70-plus years, history and tradition boil down to something much simpler.
The Pit.

— Brian Smith

Hayward Field
Fabled Hayward Field is considered the cream of the crop of track and field stadiums in the nation and in the world. The facility is named after former Oregon head coach Bill Hayward, who coached the Ducks for 44 years (1904-1947) until his death.
The facility was originally constructed for football in 1919 for that season’s homecoming game. In 1921, a six-lane cinder track was installed for track and field. Track and football shared Hayward Field until 1967, when football moved into Autzen Stadium.
Hayward Field has hosted several prominent national events, including nine NCAA Track and Field Championships, the 1999 U.S. Championships, three consecutive U.S. Olympic Trials (1972, 1976 and 1980), the U.S. Junior Olympics and the annual Prefontaine Classic.
Many of the nation’s top track and field athletes have competed at the stadium, which is also known as the “Carnegie Hall” of U.S. track and field venues. Those include Maurice Greene, Marion Jones, Carl Lewis, Gail Devers and the late, great Steve Prefontaine.
Over the years, several renovations have been made to Hayward Field including the $2-million Bowerman Building. The two-story brick building was named after Bill Bowerman, who coached at Oregon from 1949 to 1972 and led the Ducks to four NCAA titles. The building is used for athletic treatment, locker rooms, meeting rooms and memorabilia exhibits. A statue of Bowerman is displayed just outside the building.
Hayward Field has become a staple of Eugene, known now as “Tracktown, USA.”

— Alex Tam
Papé Field
In 1998, a state of the art athletic facility was built on the campus of the University of Oregon that did not involve the football or basketball programs.
Built in conjunction with the Ed Moshofsky Sports Complex, Papé Field stands as one of the nation’s finest collegiate soccer venues. It is home to the University of Oregon women’s soccer and lacrosse programs.
The field — at 81,000 square feet — sits adjacent to three football practice fields, with the entire area also utilized by other varsity teams during off-season conditioning. The venue also features concession areas, restrooms, ticket booths and a sheltered press row and scorer area with seating for 20. In case of dour Oregon weather, the program can also practice next to the field with a quick shift to the Moshofsky Center.
Crowd seating was added in 1999, and welcomed a record 1,588 fans when the Ducks faced No. 1 ranked North Carolina on Sept. 29, 2002. In recent times, World Cup fever came to Eugene for a night, as 1,239 fans cheered and showed their support in a ‘friendly’ exhibition with the Ghana National Team on Sept. 3, 2003.
Papé Field’s natural grass playing surface is regarded as one of the best surfaces on the West Coast. The field consists of an original blend of Perennial Ryegrass and Kentucky Bluegrass, with all the seed locally grown in Linn County at Malpass Farms in Harrisburg.
Underneath the turf, the drainage system is touted as equally state-of-the-art. A herringbone design, lateral piping every 15 feet and a sand base facilitates quick drainage. A fully automatic irrigation unit is also permanently in place, and its 64 heads provide a quarter-inch of water every 45 minutes.

— Brian Smith
Student Tennis Center
On Nov. 17, 2000, the Oregon men’s and women’s tennis teams enjoyed the opening of their new indoor facility — the Student Tennis Center — located behind the Student Recreation Center and McArthur Court.
The $2.1 million, 48,000-square-foot facility has been the home for all indoor matches for the tennis teams the past four years. When the weather was good, the tennis teams played their matches outdoors at the 15th Avenue Tennis Courts.
However, with the construction of the new on-campus residence hall on 15th Avenue that demolished the outdoor courts, the Ducks will play all of this season’s matches at the Student Tennis Center.
The center “is an ideal environment for tennis and one of the top venues for tennis in the Northwest,” men’s head coach Chris Russell said. The facility includes six tennis courts with scoreboards for each court.

— Alex Tam