College Venue News: College Football To Return to Yankee Stadium

The game between Notre Dame and Army at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night might be like watching something you would see in Lexington, MA, on Patriots’ Day or at Pennsylvania’s Little Round Top early in July. Re-enactments of great battles are not the real thing. They are meant to commemorate the real thing, to honor it, to bring it to life for a new generation. It is not the same Notre Dame (5-5). It is not the same Army (6-4). It is not even the same Yankee Stadium. Yet the game and the venue connect college football to an era when Notre Dame or Army — and sometimes, deliciously, both Notre Dame and Army — dominated not only college football but all of American sport. From the Roaring ’20s to the postwar boom, the annual Notre Dame-Army game captivated the nation…

…The Wisconsin State Building Commission this week gave final approval to a multilevel hockey and swimming competition and training facility to be constructed adjacent to the Kohl Center on the UW-Madison campus. La Bahn Arena will be named after Charles (UW-Madison ’49) and Mary Ann La Bahn, the lead donors for the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring, with the facility set to open in fall 2012. La Bahn Arena will be a tri-level complex that will include multiple elements…

…AT&T has installed advanced wireless systems at the football stadiums at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. The telecommunications giant announced activation of the new equipment this week. It’s expected to increase the amount of voice and data traffic the network can handle when large numbers of people are using the system. AT&T says it installed a Distributed Antenna System with 150 antennas inside the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman and 92 inside Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater. The company also added 24 antennas inside OSU’s Gallagher-Iba Arena…

…Cornell University wrestling coach Rob Koll calls his on-campus wrestling center “a fraternity house without the vices.” It has a $35,000 sound system that would be the envy of any party scene. There are 40 custom-made maple lockers for the brothers of this frat, in addition to two whirlpools, a study hall, a lounge, a fitness room, and walls lined with the portraits and pictures of the building’s past inhabitants. Oh, yes, and it has 6,300 square feet of mat space for wrestling around with their best buddies. It also has seats for about 1,000 fans, for when Cornell invites athletes from another institution to wrestle. The bleacher-like seats unfold until they are nearly on the mat, creating an intimidating and intense competitive atmosphere.