Tramel: University of Cincinnati & Nippert Stadium bring unique urban feel to Big 12
CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium is a gateless coliseum. Literally, no gates.
Just stroll in off the walkways and cut through to class, or take a seat in the stands to relax on a nice day.
Nippert’s gateless design is for pragmatic reasons. There is no place to put gates. UC erects temporary barriers on game days as a stadium perimeter.
Nippert Stadium sits maybe 50 feet west of the UC student union. About that distance north of the stadium is the Steger Student Life Center, with the pedestrian walkway between the two structures forming UC’s Main Street.
To Nippert Stadium’s east, less than 50 feet away, is the eight-story Lindner Center, which houses the athletic offices and which sits about the same distance on the other side from Fifth Third Arena, UC’s rowdy basketball home.
And on the south side of Nippert, beginning the steep ascent to Clifton Heights commerce, sits the glorious Dieterle Vocal Arts Center, which originally opened in 1910 as Schmidlapp Gymnasium, UC’s first basketball home. The Dieterle is a historic landmark, otherwise it might be prime real estate for Nippert expansion.
The campus is tucked amid vibrant neighborhoods, void of many of the idyllic lawns and gardens we expect from Big 12 schools.
Sounds jarring to Southwest and Middle America standards, but be assured, UC is completely charming, whether it’s from the hilltop view on Calhoun Street or in the caldron below.
Locals jokingly say UC stands for Under Construction. If there’s a place to squeeze in a structure, UC squeezes it in.
This place is urban. Not urban in the way the University of Texas is an oasis of sorts in the middle of Greater Austin’s 2.4 million population. Not urban in the way the University of Houston is a modern, massive campus in the middle of Greater Houston’s 7.3 million population.
Urban in the way that neighborhoods and universities and even athletic facilities are fitted wherever they can go.
Get ready, Big 12. You’re about to welcome a campus and a football experience unlike anything to which you’ve been accustomed.
On July 1, the Bearcats join the Big 12, along with Central Florida, Brigham Young and Houston. Today, The Oklahoman launches a three-part series on UC, with Houston next week and UCF the week after that, bookended by a couple of BYU columns.
The goal? Introduce Oklahomans to these new neighbors, who have some similar traits to the legacy Big 12 members, but who in some ways are vastly different. And Cincinnati’s uniqueness in the conference will be quickly apparent.
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UC a Big 12 novelty
There is nothing like UC in the Big 12. A huge university crammed into a small space in a big, bustling, old-Midwest city that is not decaying. Seven Fortune 500 companies call Cincinnati home.
“We’re not just a university in Cincinnati,” said Ryan Hays, UC’s executive vice president and chief innovation and strategy officer and its former interim athletic director. “We’re the university of Cincinnati.”
UC certainly mirrors its city. Cincinnati is built on and around seven hills (or 10, some disagreement exists) and just north of the mighty Ohio River, which serves as the Ohio-Kentucky state line. Cincinnati’s metro population is 2.2 million. The university sits about three miles north of downtown, separated by hardscrabble but vintage neighborhoods and business districts.
A quintessential Midwest river town, like Pittsburgh and St. Louis, with more history than Oklahomans would know what to do with.
The University of Cincinnati was founded in 1819, the same year as the city. That’s 70 years before the Oklahoma Land Run. More than 100 years before the University of Houston. Literally 150 years before the University of Central Florida.
Give former Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby credit. He rustled up a bunch of new members that mirror every other school.
UC’s main campus sits on 137 acres; the university has 48,000 students, a 50 percent increase in less than 20 years, and a total that would rank UC third in the Big 12, behind only Central Florida and Texas. By comparison, OU’s main campus sits on about 1,800 acres.
Cincinnati is a prestigious academic institution. UC appears on track for eventual admission to the coveted American Association of Universities.
UC president Neville Pinto has the stated vision of 60,000 students. Who knows where the school would put 60,000 students, but then again, who knows where it’s putting 48,000 now?
UC has 7,400 beds on campus for students. Another 30,000 are available in the surrounding neighborhoods, which means almost 40,000 students can walk to class, which is advisable, since parking lots are a fairy tale and parking garages are scarce.
But all those students walking around campus create an energized environment.
It’s urban, admits UC athletic director John Cunningham, and “we do have a tendency to build up (not out), having to go vertical. But it's also enclosed … they’ve done a really remarkable job over the last 20 years, making it a true campus experience. This isn't a commuter campus, it has that collegiate feel.”
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Cincinnati: A blue-collar city
Kerry Coombs has been around. A Cincinnati football icon as a high school coach, Coombs is in his second stint as a UC assistant coach. Scott Satterfield, hired in December, is the fourth Bearcat head coach to employ Coombs.
And Coombs describes his city in the same way that people from the land-grant schools of OSU, Kansas State and Iowa State would be proud to claim.
“I was born and raised here,” Coombs said. “This is a city of German blue-collar, heavy work-ethic people that pride themselves on a good's day work for a good day's pay. Never has been about bells and whistles. Pete Rose is the perfect example of a Cincinnati kid. That's who our city is.
“The university and the football program truly over the last 20 years, 15 years, have embraced that mentality.”
And now the Bearcats have the Big 12 to help them tell their story.
“When people think of Cincinnati, they wrongly think of us as a commuter school,” said Hays, the executive vice president. “This is a chance to see us for who we are. Not who we were.
“We’re scrappy. If there’s a message to take away, we’re excited to be a part of something that’s a new day. The city deserves for us to be in that league.”
John Daniel, chief financial officer for UC athletics, was hired away from Louisiana State a year ago. Before that, he worked at Texas A&M and Texas Christian.
When checking out the job, Daniel figured Cincinnati as a smaller school and basketball hotbed in an old-Midwest town. But the Big 12 membership intrigued him, and he encountered a university significantly larger in enrollment than LSU.
“The setting — it is landlocked — presents challenges operationally,” Daniel said. “But it makes it a unique place. Really nice surprise to see how unique and nice it is.”
Unique is right. There’s nothing like it in the Big 12.
Big and urban, with a football stadium dripping with charm and tradition, and a fan base energized by football success, including a 2021 College Football Playoff berth.
Over the years, UC has periodically renovated Nippert Stadium and seems fine with sporting the Big 12’s smallest football capacity.
Some call Nippert college football’s Wrigley Field.
Makes some sense. Wrigley opened in 1914. Nippert Stadium opened in 1915, on the field where the Bearcats have been playing football since 1901.
Both Nippert and Wrigley have the old-world charms that go with venerable venues, from Wrigley’s ivy to Nippert’s vintage architecture.
But there’s one big difference. Wrigley Field is bordered by streets — you know well the street names of Clark, Addison, Waveland and Sheffield — and only thinks it’s citified. Compared to Nippert Stadium, Wrigley is in a cornfield.
UC has a waiting list for season tickets. Its student seating is tight. Cunningham says UC needs more premium seating, which is a refrain heard throughout college football.
Sounds like Big 12 visitors will find quite the experience when their squads play at Nippert. Packed crowds in an urban setting, with a stadium that has no gates but has history and excitement to galore.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
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Big 12 newcomers
On July 1, Cincinnati, Brigham Young, Central Florida and Houston join the Big 12 Conference. The Oklahoman’s Berry Tramel has ventured to all four campuses for a series of columns on the Big 12 newcomers. His BYU series ran last summer, but we count down towards July 1 with three-part series on each of the other three, bookended by BYU columns. The schedule:
Monday: BYU president Shane Reese
Tuesday-Thursday: Cincinnati
June 20-22: Houston
June 27-29: Central Florida
July 2: BYU’s celebration
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Big 12 football: Cincinnati & Nippert Stadium bring unique urban feel
