PAGE 20
MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MEMORIAL STADIUM
Athletics: Players will be safer without track
BLAIR SHEADE
BLAIR SHEADE
sports@kansan.com
From the outside of Memorial Stadium, it will look untouched and the same as it did in 1921. But, for the first time in nearly a century the KU football team will walk onto a new and safer Kivisto Field.
The track and field presence in Memorial Stadium lay far beyond the eight-lane running track, which was one of the last tracks to surround a football field in the BCS. There were runways for long jump and for pole vaulting, sand pits for long jump and divots for the pole vaulting. Those were all hazards for the football team when practicing or playing in Memorial Stadium said Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchiony.
"Landing on those is hard on the body," Marchiony said.
To replace the track, turf will cover the 37-foot area behind both sidelines and the 80-foot area behind the north end zone. This will help when players get tackled out of bounds; instead of being brought down on the track or having to slow down on the track, the players can run through the sidelines to decrease speed or a defender can finish a tackle without thinking where the track was.
Former Kansas running back and punt returner Connor Embree, who graduated in May, said the track was always in the back of his mind when he was running out of bounds.
"I wanted to avoid it at all times," Embree said. "The track is unsafe because it is so close to the field and there were many occasions of players getting tackled out of bounds and landing on the track instead of the turf."
Embree and Marchiony both mentioned senior running back Tony Pierson getting hurt by being tackled on the track during a game last sea-
I was pretty upset they didn't take it out earlier. There was no need for it.
CONNOR EMBREE
Former Kansas running back
Pierson suffered a concussion during the Texas Tech game on Oct. 5 when a defender tackled him out of bounds onto a long jump straight away. Pierson missed five of the remaining eight games of the 2013-14 season due to the injury.
son.
Embree said that could have been avoided because the track has no positive contributions, and the track is nothing but a safety hazard. Embree also expressed his displeasure for the timing of the track removal because it has always been a safety hazard.
"I was pretty upset they didn't take it out earlier," he said. "There was no need for it."
Marchiony confirmed that there was a $500,000 donation made by an undisclosed donor, who chooses to stay unnamed. There won't be any additional project funding by the athletic department, Marchiony said. The athletic department thought that the track removal was a safety issue, but a cosmetic issue, as well.
"Safety always comes first," Marchiony said.
Marchiony continued to say that the reasons for the track to be replaced with turf, in this particular order, were safety, practice space and optics for the fans. The renovation process, which the athletic department said that the track removal was the start, will continue after the season.
"We want to go through this season and see how this works, then we will discuss what the priorities are for the stadium," Marchiony said.
The six-week project that will remove the track has not rendered any setbacks, but did being a day later than anticipated. It will be set in time for the start of fall football practice and the first home game on Sept. 6.
"The removal is going very well," Marchiony said. "Plenty of time for practice and the regular season."
Edited by Ashleigh Lee
JAMES HOYT/KANSAN
On Wednesday, June 25, workers used a backhoe to determine how deep the miller machines used to demolish the Memorial Stadium track will need to go. The track, which has been in Memorial Stadium since its construction in 1921, is being demolished as the first step in a plan to renovate the stadium.