I’m going to write first about Zable Stadium. My most regular involvement with this part of the campus involves going to football games, played on Cary Field before it was called Zable Stadium.
First, a little history:
The stadium in this location was built as a Public Works Administration project in 1935. It changed very little between the time it was built and the time we were in college in the 1960s.
In the fall of 1990, Walter and Betty Zable, who graduated from the college in 1937 and 1940 respectively, pledged $10 million to the Campaign for the Fourth Century. (William and Mary celebrated its Tercentenary – 300th anniversary – in 1993). A three-year letter winner for the Tribe's football team (1934-36), Zable also lettered in baseball, basketball, and track, and was an honorable mention football All-American. After graduation, Zable played in the pros for the Richmond Arrows and the New York Giants. In appreciation of this large gift, W&M's Board of Visitors approved the naming of the football stadium at Cary Field the Walter J. Zable Stadium. A formal dedication was held Nov. 3, 1990, prior to the kickoff of that season's 38-28 homecoming victory against Furman.
Zable did not have permanent lighting for evening games until 2005, when gifts of $650,000 allowed the construction of lights over the stadium.
The gifts were spurred by the 2004 NCAA Division I-AA playoff game that William & Mary hosted against James Madison University. The game was nationally televised by ESPN2, and portable lights were brought in on trucks to allow the game to be played in ESPN's evening time slot. The game featured the largest crowd in recent Zable history and created a demand for additional night games. Previously, displeasure from the Williamsburg community over night games had kept the demand for lights to a minimum.
In 2006, Cary Field's natural grass surface was replaced with FieldTurf pro, the same turf used in over 20 NFL football stadiums. The project cost an estimated $840,000.
As an aside: night games are much more pleasant that midday ones in the toasty temperatures that Williamsburg generally experiences in September and even into October.
On August 26, 2014, the college unveiled plans for a $28 million renovation and expansion of the stadium. An initial $10 million gift from Zable’s estate was supplemented by two $6 million gifts from James and Frances McGlothlin and Hunter Smith. The renovation expanded the west side of the stadium, including a suite level, second deck of seating, press box, and upper concourse. The east side of the stadium was also renovated, as well as bathrooms and concession areas. The project began in early 2015 and was completed in time for the start of the 2016 football season.
We went to most of the football games while we were in college. Tim played on the freshman football team for a while, and I was a freshman cheerleader, so these games were part of our regular schedule. In those days, students dressed up for football games – the men in suits and ties and the women in dresses, suits, or heels. Hard to believe, but true.
After we graduated, we came back for Homecoming weekends, mostly, and those weekends always involved a football game. We always saw lots of friends at these games. William and Mary was never exactly a football powerhouse, but the games were often exciting and always fun. Except for the games that were played in the rain. After a while, we stopped going to the rainy day games, although I do remember one game where we wrapped ourselves in heavy green garbage bags and sat through all four quarters.
Since we moved back to Williamsburg in 1998, we have bought season tickets most years. For a long time we sat in the cheap seats – general admission in the end zone. But after they tore down the end zone seats during the most recent renovation, we upgraded to our current seats on the second tier on the expanded west side of the stadium. Tim goes to most of the games; I go to some of them if it’s not too hot, too cold, or too rainy.
The Sadler Center (formerly called the University Center) sits next to the football field, on the site that used to be occupied by the fraternity lodges. It was built in the early 1990s and was renamed the Sadler Center after Sam Sadler, the college as Dean of Students from 1974 to 1979 and Vice President of Student Affairs until his retirement in 2008. At that year’s Commencement exercises the College President Taylor Reveley surprised Sam by announcing that the Board of Visitors had voted to rename the University Center in his honor.
I can call him Sam because he and I sang together in the choir at Williamsburg United Methodist Church. He was a a very good tenor and I was sometimes an alto and sometimes a soprano. His daughter went to Brown (where our son Kevin went). so we had that to talk about. He is one of the nicest people I’ve ever known and is so unassuming that I’m sure he was both honored and a bit embarrassed that this building is named after him.
During the years we have lived in Williamsburg, we have been in and out of the Sadler Center a bunch of times.
One homecoming weekend, we attended a banquet in the main ballroom in this building, and
Alumni registration for homecoming events was in the Sadler Center while the Alumni House was being renovated
I attended an education conference that met here.
I volunteered to help with a high school debate competition, and the Sadler Center was the administrative center for this tournament. My responsibility was to stand outside and point students in the right direction as their buses rolled up in front of the Center.
For 24 years, Williamsburg hosted “First Night” events on New Years’ Eve at various locations in and around the town, and the Sadler Center was one of the venues for this event.
In addition, we both attended Osher classes in this building, and I taught a class in the Commonwealth Auditorium a couple of years ago.
Join me next week for Stop 12, the Alumni House, adjacent to the football stadium.
Football and cow pucks. I don't buy it, either.