Scott Stadium
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Scott Stadium
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Scott Stadium is the home of the Virginia football team. It sits at the heart of the UVa Grounds, across from first-year dorms on Alderman Road. Constructed in 1931, it is the oldest Division I football stadium in the state of Virginia. It has been home to Atlantic Coast Conference football games since 1954.
The facility's official name may be the longest for a sports venue in the United States, and possibly the world:
- Carl Smith Center, Home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium
Smith and Harrison were both major donors to the school's athletics program; Smith funded most of the facility's most recent expansion.
Known for its classical construction (with features such as the pergola) as well as its unique "grass-seating" area called The Hill, it is regarded as one of the best places in America to watch a college football game. Expanded in 2000, the stadium holding 61,500 is abnormally large for a school of just 13,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduates, but it has recently been filled past capacity for several games.
A new tradition has recently taken hold at Scott Stadium. Beginning in 2003, students, fans, and alumni have taken to wearing orange shirts -- and even orange hats -- to all of the games. (See photo at right and notice the orange-colored student section, to the left of where the band was sitting.) Previously, males would wear coats and ties while females would wear sundresses, which is also the tradition at Auburn, Georgia, and Ole Miss.
Though ties and especially sundresses can still be easily found at Virginia football games, many have compromised to wearing ties with orange shirts. Some very creative ladies have even been spotted in orange sundresses! However, many more students have begun wearing orange t-shirts (with slogans like "Orange Crush", "Orange Fever", and "Sea of Orange") and abandoning the coats and ties or sundresses altogether.
There are two UVa bands present at each game in the stadium, the Cavalier Marching Band visible in the photo at right, and the Virginia Pep Band, which though relieved of many of its official duties, still exists.
