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When Len Froyen first came to Iowa State Teachers College and saw his dorm room, his mother said, “Oh, Leonard, you’re not going to live here.”

But for the young freshman from Clarion, Iowa, living in Stadium Hall was an adventure.

“I had no qualms about living there. It was kind of exciting,” said Froyen, a 1957 graduate and professor emeritus of education/educational psychology and foundations. “This was the ’50s. We didn’t question much. I had no misgivings about it.”

Froyen belongs to a special group of men who called Stadium Hall their home away from home.

Between 1947 and 1961, more than 1,600 ISTC freshmen lived in Stadium Hall. Although similar to other dorms on campus—crowded, noisy, with small living quarters and little privacy—it was not your typical dorm.

“It was stark; it looked very much like a prison. The entrance was a garage door,” said Froyen, who also served as a head resident. “We were kind of like the guys who lived on the other side of the tracks. There was a camaraderie among us that was hard to explain. It was like an extended family.”

Now that extended family can get reacquainted. The UNI Alumni Association will host a reunion for Stadium Hall residents during this year’s Homecoming celebration, October 14 and 15. Froyen and Don Adams, (BA ’57), are co-chairing the reunion committee.

“I chaired my 40th class reunion and thought a reunion of Stadium Hall residents would be fun,” Froyen said.

Of those 1,600, nearly 850 graduated from ISTC and 715 are still living. The reunion will include traditional Homecoming events, such as the Homecoming parade, as well as special reunion events, including a dinner October 14 in the Commons.

“There won’t be any special speakers. It will be the stories—a time of recollections and storytelling,” Froyen said.

Stadium Hall Background

Thanks to the GI Bill, signed in 1944 by President Roosevelt to provide veterans with education and training, veterans accounted for 49 percent of college enrollment throughout the country. Iowa State Teachers College was no exception, as enrollment surged.

In 1945, the Board of Regents approved an addition to Seerley Hall that would have accommodated nearly 200 men. But the post-war economy created shortages in steel and other supplies, so construction had to be delayed. During the war, the mezzanine level of the O.R. Latham football stadium had been used to house military personnel, so President Malcolm Price announced the mezzanine would be converted into dormitory space equivalent to 20 rooms. The space, for incoming freshmen and transfer students, was known as Stadium Hall and was to be used for 10 years until a new men’s dormitory could be built.

Moving In

The fi rst residents moved in during the fall of 1947 and approximately 150 men lived in Stadium Hall that fi rst year. Dennis Hendrickson (BA ’63, MA ’68) recalls arriving at Stadium Hall.

“My parents dropped me off and then left. I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, what is this? What have I gotten myself into?’ I was the fi rst one in the room so I picked the single bed. My other roommates hadn’t arrived yet. I didn’t know anybody. I felt very alone,” said Hendrickson, who is now the associate director of Admissions at UNI. “Livingthere probably brought the guys together more. Every other guy was going through the same experience. That made it much more tolerable.”

Each room contained two bunk beds, a single bed and a clothes rack, a window that opened at the bottom with a view of the ground. Four rooms served as study areas. There was no food service. Residents had to trek across campus to the Commons for all their meals.“That walk was so cold in the winter. At that time, there was nothing between Latham and the Commons,” Froyen said.

Living Conditions

The length of stay varied from student to student, but Don Adams has the distinction of living in Stadium Hall the longest.
“I lived in Stadium Hall during my first year, the fall of 1953. I was an RA for the fall of 1954 and ’55, and then director of Stadium Hall for the 1957-58 year. I don’t think anyone else has such a record,” said Adams, who is now executive assistant to the president of Drake University and Board of Trustees secretary.

“I loved Stadium Hall. Having all freshman men together helped make the transition to college much easier and helped us be successful,” Adams said.

With its cramped quarters, water leaks and cold and drafty rooms, outsiders found the living conditions deplorable. But Stadium Hall residents took it in stride.

“It was so cold that a friend had a bowl of goldfish on the window sill and they froze up solid during the night,” said Graetz, who now lives in Burnsville, Minn. 

To get to the bathrooms, residents had to walk across the indoor dirt track. “Kids nowadays wouldn’t put up with it. But that was just the way it was,” Hendrickson said. “And I don’t remember the temperature ever being comfortable. You were either roasting or freezing.”

Jere Graetz, (BA ’56) lived in Stadium Hall for less than a week.

“While registering I heard my name called and was given the chance to move into Seerley Hall, and I did,” Graetz said. “There is one thing I remember, though. During the week the guys used both the men’s and women’s restrooms on a regular basis. One football Saturday morning a friend of mine went into the women’s bathroom and was sitting there when suddenly he noticed women’s shoes on both sides of him. We asked him what he did then and he said he pulled up his feet and waited until they left.” 

Many thought the uniqueness of living there outweighed the small annoyances.

“The indoor track was downstairs and caused dirt at times. When the shot put hit the steel beam, it vibrated throughout the building and when it rained the water came down the steps where people went into the stadium, but these were all minor inconveniences,” Adams said.

There were even some perks to living there. Froyen said everyone sent their laundry home and they would return with home-baked cookies or candy. And on Friday nights, residents had the best seats in the house—from the building’s roof—to watch the lab school play football.

The End of Stadium Hall

With plans announced in 1959 to build a new men’s dorm, Rider Hall, the last of Stadium Hall residents left in November 1961.

The last football game was played at Latham Stadium in 1975. West Stadium was demolished in 1976 and East Stadium demolished in 1987. The space was then converted into a parking lot.

Even though Stadium Hall no longer exists, the memories remain intact.

Adams said, “My four years in Stadium changed my life in so many ways. Most of what I have done since was greatly shaped by my years in Stadium.”

Although it presented challenges at the time, Hendrickson now appreciates his days in Stadium Hall.

“It was like boot camp; it’s an experience you’re glad you had but never want to go through again,” he said. “College was hard for me. That first semester I thought of leaving. I was terribly homesick. After that semester I decided it was a matter of attitude, so I got involved in things and I turned a big corner. Maybe Stadium Hall had an impact on that. It helped turn me around.”
  

Stadium Hall: Rod Library Special Collections Article