James G. Pressly Stadium
Encyclopedia
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
located on the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
campus in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
. The stadium is home to the Florida Gators women's soccer team and the men's and women's Florida Gators track and field teams. The facility was renamed in honor of university alumnus James G. Pressly, Jr. The track was named in honor of Percy Beard
Percy Beard
Percy Morris Beard was an American college and international track and field athlete who specialized in the high hurdles event, and won an Olympic silver medal. Beard later became a nationally prominent college track and field coach at the University of Florida.- Athletic career :Percy Beard was...
, a 1932 Olympic silver medalist and the former Gators track and field head coach for twenty-seven years.
In anticipation of the new Florida Gators soccer team, James G. Pressly Stadium was completed renovated in 1995. The stadium seating facilities and field received a $750,000 facelift and the pole vault
Pole vault
Pole vaulting is a track and field event in which a person uses a long, flexible pole as an aid to leap over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the ancient Greeks, as well as the Cretans and Celts...
and long jump
Long jump
The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength, and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a take off point...
pits were moved from the infield to outside of the Pearcy Beard Track. This move made the soccer field of the right proportions, and had an area of approximately 115 yards by seventy yards. Over 2,500 bench seats were added to the existing 2,000-seat concrete grandstand
Grandstand
A grandstand is a large and normally permanent structure for seating spectators, most often at a racetrack. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap all or most of the way...
, bringing the total capacity to 4,500.
The Florida Gators soccer team ranked eighth overall the nation for its 2007 total attendance of 16,889, or an average of 1,299 spectators per game.
See also
- Becky BurleighBecky BurleighRebecca Lund "Becky" Burleigh is an American college soccer coach and former college soccer player. She is the current head coach of the Florida Gators women's soccer team of the University of Florida...
- Florida GatorsFlorida GatorsThe Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams...
- List of University of Florida buildings
- Mike HollowayMike HollowayMike Holloway is an American college track and field coach. Holloway is the current head coach of the Florida Gators track and field and Gators cross country programs of the University of Florida...
- University Athletic AssociationUniversity of Florida Athletic AssociationThe University Athletic Association, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that is responsible for maintaining the Florida Gators intercollegiate sports program of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida...