Kenan Memorial Stadium

Kenan Memorial Stadium, home of the UNC Tar Heels football team, opened in August 1927 with a capacity of up to 24,000 people seated on bleachers. The size of the stadium reflected the popularity of college football in the 1920s, as does expansion projects in 1963, 1979, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2009, and 2011. Today, the stadium capacity is 63,000 and the field is fully enclosed and offers a variety of luxury suites and other amenities including AstroTurf, the Rams Club, the Carolina Student-Athlete Center for Excellence, and HD video boards. In 2018, UNC decided to remove the plaque honoring William R. Kenan Sr. due to his involvement in a white supremacist militant force and role in the Wilmington Massacre of 1898. The university retained the name Kenan Memorial Stadium, however, the administration states that the name now honors William R. Kenan Jr., the son of Williams R. Kenan Sr. who donated funds to build the original stadium and name it in honor of his parents.

Prior to this stadium's construction, UNC's football and baseball teams shared Emerson field. As the popularity of college sports grew, so did support for providing an alternative to Emerson field which was limited to 2400 seats. With the financial support of alumni, the initial planning of the stadium began. William R. Kenan Jr. donated a large sum of money to fund the construction of the new stadium. Kenan persuaded UNC administrators to name the stadium in honor of his parents, and NC's new facility opened as Kenan Memorial Stadium. The stadium was built by architect TC Atwood. After Atwood’s work on Kenan Memorial Stadium, he went on to construct Georgia University’s Sanford Stadium in a similar fashion to Kenan.

 "Kenan Memorial Stadium - The Daily Tar Heel". 2019-10-13. Archived from the original on 2019-10-13. Retrieved 2021-05-13.

Accessed May 13th 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Memorial_Stadium.

Accessed May 13th 2021. http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2018/10/kenan-stadium-name-change-breaking-folt-rename-unc-football-chapel-hill-wilmington-massacre.