Talk:Edwards Stadium

Stadium?

Edwards was known as Edwards Field at least through the 1970s. When was the change, if any, made to "Stadium"?Tmangray (talk) 00:38, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I never heard it called anything but Edwards Stadium (first cognizant of it in the early 70s) and the official UCB history page never refers to an Edwards Field: http://www.calbears.com/facilities/edwards-stadium.html Also, a 1966 Sports Illustrated story talking about Jim Ryun's world record set there also calls it Edwards Stadium: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078820/index.htm--Fizbin (talk) 15:57, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

And I never heard of it called Edwards Stadium until I came across this article. All historical materials I've seen refer to it as Edwards Field. Here, for example, is one of many I found googling: [1]. Another: [2]. Another: [3]

I don't seek to be contentious, so I will guess that there may be some explanation as to why we have different observations. Perhaps there is an "official" name that was rarely observed in practice. Perhaps the field that was renamed for the Goldmans was the thing that people referred to as Edwards Field, and in practice, the stadium as a whole was not commonly referenced. This bears (!) looking into so that the article rings fully true. Tmangray (talk) 21:34, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

> Another: [4]

Funny, both links on that Edwards Field entry go to other web pages that call it Edwards Stadium.--Fizbin (talk) 21:32, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

There must have been a conscious change in referring to the facility at some point, I'm thinking maybe at the time of the Goldman's donation. The field at Edwards is now named for them. The photo is an old one, and the original name in the architectural archives of the University is in fact Edwards Field, even though the link from the archives page leads to the much more recent webpage show the usage "Stadium". I recall friends of mine who participated in track events there, and their mementos show "Edwards Field" in the early 1970s. We need something definitive to clarify why and how the two usages exist. I haven't come across anything yet. Tmangray (talk) 01:01, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

I traded emails with Dave Johnson, past editor of Track & Field News and widely regarded as one of the world's preeminent track and field historians. His response was "It was Edwards Stadium as early as mid-April 1932, which was it's inaugural year. Edwards Field and Edwards Stadium seem to be used interchangeably ever since." This is consistent with any web search of both Edwards Stadium and Edwards Field. The fact that Cal Berkeley currently refers to it as Edwards Stadium on the web site I linked above, plus the signage on the stadium itself calling it Edwards Stadium, I think the article is fine as is with your addition in the lead sentence.--Fizbin (talk) 18:33, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

I have no problem with leaving it as is. BTW, the deletion of yesterday was because I thought it was a stray edit of my own. I'm puzzled however by it since it duplicates my own posted examples. Tmangray (talk) 18:39, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

I put that link there with the > in front so that folks could tell what my statement was referring to. Of course it took another number in sequence which confused things.--Fizbin (talk) 18:59, 2 April 2009 (UTC)