Athletics

'Lair of the Lion': New book tells the history of Beaver Stadium

Featuring over 200 photos, "Lair of the Lion" is a celebration both of the ways in which Penn State fans, students and athletes have experienced home games from the 1880s to the present day, and of the monumental structure the Nittany Lions now call home. Credit: Penn State University Press / Penn State. Creative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — This July, Penn State University Press will release the first-ever history of the home of the Nittany Lions football team, "Lair of the Lion: A History of Beaver Stadium."

Written by two longtime Penn Staters, Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering Harry H. West and Librarian Emeritus Lee Stout, "Lair of the Lion" shows how Beaver Stadium came to be. It includes a look at its predecessors, “Old” Beaver Field, built in 1893 on a site centrally located northeast of Old Main, and “New” Beaver Field, built on the northwest corner of campus in 1909, and details the many expansions made to the current field, including the feat of engineering undertaken in 1978 when hydraulic jacks were used to lift the stadium and add 16,000 seats along the inner lower ring of the structure.

Featuring over 200 photos, "Lair of the Lion" is a celebration both of the ways in which Penn State fans, students and athletes have experienced home games from the 1880s to the present day, and of the monumental structure the Nittany Lions now call home.

It is currently available for preorder through Wednesday, May 31, at a special price of $20 (tax and shipping included). Visit the link or call Kathleen Scholz-Jaffe at 814-867-2224 for more information.

See all of Penn State University Press’s forthcoming Fall/Winter 2017 titles here: http://www.psupress.org/catalogs/PDFs/Fall2017Web.pdf.

Last Updated May 15, 2017

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