Amon G. Carter Stadium is an open-air football

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

on the campus of

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Discipl ...

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the List of cities in Texas by population, fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the List of United States cities by population, 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, T ...

. It is the home stadium of the TCU Horned Frogs football team. It is named after Amon G. Carter, a prominent Fort Worth businessman, newspaper publisher, and city booster. Amon G. Carter stadium has several popular nicknames, the most popular being "The Carter" and "Hell's Half Acre" (a reference to the site in Fort Worth's wild west past, which was located near the stadium). Between 2010 and 2012 the stadium underwent a $164 million reconstruction project. In 2019 the stadium underwent an additional $118 million East side expansion.

History

Planning and construction

Texas Christian University Stadium (20106230)

In 1923, TCU received a private donation from Mary Couts Burnett, the widow of a wealthy and well known Texas rancher. The Burnett donation constituted the egg for TCU's endowment. One condition of the Burnett donation was that a portion of it would be used for the construction of a new library, and it was decided to build the

Mary Couts Burnett Library Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also call ...

where the school's athletic field, Clark Field, was then located. The removal of Clark Field necessitated the construction of a new field for athletic competition, especially in the sport of football. TCU played its first season of football in 1896, and since then had built a reputation of excellence garnering national attention, and joined the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma ...

in 1923. In 1928, the school received a private financial donation from Amon G. Carter, publisher of the ''

Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Carte ...

'' and a fervent civic booster of Fort Worth in general. Carter asked Andrew Poyar, one of the designers of Shields-Watkins Field (now

Neyland Stadium Neyland Stadium ( ), is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Fo ...

) at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...

, to create the blueprints for the structure. Amon Carter stadium was constructed from 1929 to 1930 with an original

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile tha ...

of 22,000. The stadium hosted its first football game on October 11, 1930, when TCU defeated the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkans ...

. In the 1930s under head coach

Dutch Meyer Leo Robert "Dutch" Meyer (January 15, 1898 – December 3, 1982) was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU) from 1934 to 1952, compiling a record ...

, the Horned Frogs won national championships in 1935 and 1938.

Expansion

The first expansion of the stadium took place in 1948, with construction raising the capacity by 8,500 to a total of 30,500. In 1951 and 1953, 2,500 and 4,000 more seats were added which raised capacity to 37,000 seats. An upper deck, topped by a two-story press box and highlighted with a large stylized "TCU", was added in 1956. This brought the stadium's capacity to 46,083. In 1985 and 1991, improvements were made to the seating. This involved replacing the old seats in the lower bowl with aluminum bleachers. The upper-deck seats were later replaced in the same way. This reduced the stadium capacity to 44,008 spectators. In 1992, the artificial turf, which had been in place since 1973, was replaced with natural grass. In 2002, the David E. Bloxom, Sr. Foundation helped install a new scoreboard and videoboard. New club seats and luxury suites were added prior to the 2008 season, increasing capacity to 44,358, and again in 2020.

Renovation/Reconstruction

In August 2010, TCU announced a $105 million renovation of the west side and north end zone of Amon G. Carter Stadium to better enhance football fans' experience, upgrade amenities, and transform the historic Fort Worth icon into the "

Camden Yards The Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a baseball stadium located in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the home field of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early ...

" of collegiate football stadiums. The planned renovation quickly expanded into a rebuild of the entire stadium above ground level, and partially below. Only the below-ground-level playing field and lower seating bowl were retained. Everything else, including much of the subterranean infrastructure, was rebuilt. The West-side stands were imploded on December 5, 2010, and the East-side stands were demolished during the early winter 2011. The stadium reconstruction was funded completely by donor support (no bonds or debt). The project was fully completed in 2012 at a total cost of $164 million. In 2019 the stadium underwent an additional $118 million East side expansion.

Features

Attendance

The highest ever recorded attendance at Amon G. Carter was 50,307, which occurred in 2009 against the University of Utah. The 2012 home season was the first time an entire season was sold out at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Largest Crowds

Playing surface

Since 2003, the stadium's playing surface has been named W.A. "Monty & Tex" Moncrief Field, usually shortened to Moncrief Field, after W. A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr. and his father W. A. "Monty" Moncrief Sr. The naming came following a $3 million donation by Tex to the football program.

Usage

Armed Forces Bowl

The Armed Forces Bowl, previously the Fort Worth Bowl, has been played annually at Amon Carter Stadium since 2003. The bowl game was temporarily moved, however, to SMU's Gerald Ford Stadium in Dallas for the 2010 and 2011 bowl seasons due to the reconstruction. An earlier bowl game, the

Fort Worth Classic The Fort Worth Classic was a postseason college football bowl game played only once, on January 1, 1921, at Panther Park in Fort Worth, Texas, between Centre Praying Colonels of Centre College and the TCU Horned Frogs of Texas Christian Universi ...

, was played in Fort Worth at the predecessor to Amon Carter Stadium in 1921.

TCU Horned Frogs

Located on the TCU campus, Amon Carter Stadium is the home field of the

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competing mostly in the Big 12 Conference. The sc ...

football team and

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, o ...

COVID-19 Vaccinations

In February 2021, the parking lots of the stadium were used to stage a drive-through

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

vaccination site. The operation is a collaboration between TCU,

Baylor Scott & White Health Baylor Scott & White Health is a healthcare system based in Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States a ...

and Tarrant County Public Health, with doses being administered in part by faculty and students from both the TCU/UNT Health Science Center and TCU's Harris College of Nursing. Over the course of twelve weeks, more than 19,000 vaccine doses were administered at the site.

Gallery

file:EastStandsAmonCarterStadium.jpg, Grandstands in 2007 File:Wiki agcs aerial.jpg, Aerial view, 2012 File:Wiki stadium-6203.jpg, Champions Club, 2012 File:Texas Christian University June 2017 87 (Amon G. Carter Stadium).jpg, Entrance, 2017 File:Texas Christian University June 2017 89 (Amon G. Carter Stadium).jpg, Exterior view, 2017 File:Southern Methodist vs. Texas Christian football 2019 05 (Southern Methodist kicking off).jpg, Football game, 2019

References

External links

* {{Texas college football venues College football venues NCAA bowl game venues TCU Horned Frogs football Sports venues in Fort Worth, Texas American football venues in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex 1930 establishments in Texas Sports venues completed in 1930 Amon Carter family