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April 1, 1999

OUT with the old and IN with the new

OUT with the old and IN with the new

Last month's decision by the Board of Trustees to move Panthers football off campus came nearly 75 years after ground was broken for Pitt Stadium — which, at the time, met the University's need for a bigger, modern alternative to 32,000-seat Forbes Field, where Pitt had been playing since 1908.

The Pittsburgh Steelers played at Pitt Stadium in 1958 and from 1965 through 1969. But one Pitt athletic director had a grander plan for sharing a field with the Steelers.

Let the Panthers, Steelers and even the Pirates all play in Pitt Stadium, AD Tom Hamilton proposed 40 years ago.

His plan called for converting Pitt Stadium into a state-of-the-art municipal arena, adding an upper deck and increasing capacity to 73,000 for baseball and 80,000 for football. The University would demolish Forbes Field (which the Pirates had recently sold to Pitt) and construct an academic building on that site.

Hamilton surprised everyone — including Pitt Chancellor Edward Litchfield — on Feb. 11, 1959, by announcing his plan.

Litchfield declined to endorse the "Hamilton plan." Steelers President Arthur J. Rooney Sr. hated it, preferring an earlier plan to build a multi-sport municipal stadium on the North Side.

Ultimately, the city opted for the "North Side plan" and constructed Three Rivers Stadium. Forbes Field made way for Forbes Quad. And the Panthers remained in Oakland, where they are expected to continue playing through fall 1999 before moving to Three Rivers Stadium (for the fall 2000 season) and then to the Steelers' new facility.

The Panthers will once again share a field with the Steelers — but it will be on the North Side, not in Oakland.

— Bruce Steele


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