CINCINNATI -- To even the most committed of University of Cincinnati fans, it can feel like today's successful UC Bearcat Football team is an over-night sports sensation.
But it's actually a football franchise that's been over a century in the making, starting with the building of Nippert Stadium in 1904. A stadium that has a big future ahead of it.
Nippert Stadium is, in many ways, a century old labor of love for University of Cincinnati sports. The 5th oldest operating college football stadium in the country was built in sections, as the money became available.
It's named for football player Jimmy Nippert, who suffered a deadly football spike injury during a game with Miami University and died in 1924 of blood poisoning. The next year, the stadium was named after him.
Then starting in the mid-1930s, Nippert Stadium was slowly expanded, every few decades. It started with the playing field being sunk 12 feet to add more seats, with the last major additions coming in 1990 and 1991, with more stadium seats and the addition of a press box area.
By early next year; we'll learn how the UC Athletic Department wants to respond to the football team's success and fans repeatedly selling out Nippert's 35,000 seats.
UC Athletic Director Mike Thomas tells 9News, "It's just telling us that we need more seats. We need more premium opportunities. We need better amenities to serve those fans that are coming to Nippert Stadium."
Former 9News sports reporter and Good Morning Tri-State anchor Kathrine Nero thinks she knows why fans like Nippert so much. "It's got personality and in college football stadiums, that's what it's all about. That's what makes a cool stadium is personality," Nero says.
The good news for Nero and other fans is initial Nippert Stadium expansion suggestions focus on keeping the historic stadium where it is. Thomas says, "The primary interest for us is to continue to be one campus. Continue to play in this foot print and find a way to get it done. It will be a challenge."
One of the first future improvements for Nippert and the UC football program probably won't happen here at Nippert Stadium. Instead, it will most likely be seen where the football team and other athletes will be able to practice: come rain or shine.
The parking lot across from the Edwards Center, off Jefferson Avenue is, by next September, set to become the new Jefferson Avenue Sports Complex.
Thomas adds, "It will be one-and-a-half football fields. It will have outdoor lights and an indoor bubble that will be put up three to four months a year so our teams can practice in inclement weather."
A $13 million practice field complex and a bigger Nippert are also on the radar of Sheakley group CEO Larry Sheakley. He's a local benefactor, who has committed $1 million of his own money to improve athletic facilities at UC. Sheakley says, "I can't speak for the University, but they are going to happen. The practice fields will be built. We've raised in excess of 80 percent of the money we need to build them."
With support of the university administration, Sheakley predicts the money will be there, as soon as plans are approved for a bigger Nippert Stadium at UC.
