Drake Stadium is an 11,700-capacity stadium in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

on the campus of the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA). The home of the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...

men's and women's

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

teams, it was built in 1969 and is named for UCLA track legend Elvin C. "Ducky" Drake, a student-athlete, track coach, and athletic trainer for over 60 years. Drake was also the home of the men's and women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

teams until 2017, when the nearby Wallis Annenberg Stadium opened.

History

There was a proposal in 1965 to build a 44,000 seat "Multi-Purpose Stadium" on campus, for UCLA Bruins track meets and varsity

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

games, rather than the Bruins using the

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the Los Angeles Coliseum or L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Conceived as a hal ...

for their home field. In both spring and fall 1965, UCLA students "voted by a two-to-one majority against the proposal to use fee funds to build a football stadium." Additionally, the proposal was opposed by influential area residents and politicians. By February 1966, UCLA had scaled back the project to the Drake Stadium configuration. Although the football stadium never became a reality, there have been scrimmage games in the stadium. Drake Stadium has hosted the Pacific-10 (now Pac-12) Track and Field Championships, the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in 1976-77-78, the Pacific-8 Championships in 1970 and 1977 and the CIF California State Meet for high schools in 1969-71-77. The facility hosted the first-ever California-Nevada Championships on April 30-May 1, 1994. It also has hosted other student events such as concerts and graduation ceremonies. The track at Drake Stadium is named for gold medalist Rafer Johnson and his wife Betty. The field is named for UCLA alumnus Frank Marshall, a film producer. On May 20, 1990, Randy Barnes set the world record of in the

Shot Put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

in Drake Stadium. The record lasted over 31 years until it was beaten by Ryan Crouser in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

. On May 27, 2023, Crouser improved upon his world record with a at the Los Angeles Grand Prix, returning the record to Drake Stadium.

Notable athletes

* Carlos Bocanegra * Ato Boldon * Jonathan Bornstein * Tom Bradley * Lauren Cheney * Danny Everett * Benny Feilhaber * Dawn Harper * Joanna Hayes * Monique Henderson * Florence Griffith-Joyner * Jackie Joyner-Kersee * Meb Keflezighi * Rafer Johnson * Cobi Jones * Steve Lewis * Mike Powell * Jackie Robinson * Mike Tully * C.K. Yang * Kevin Young * Marvell Wynne

References

External links

* {{UCLA Bruins men's soccer navbox UCLA Bruins track and field UCLA Bruins men's soccer venues UCLA Bruins women's soccer venues University of California, Los Angeles buildings and structures Athletics (track and field) venues in Los Angeles College soccer venues in California College track and field venues in the United States Soccer venues in Los Angeles Sports venues completed in 1969 1969 establishments in California