Owsley B. Frazier Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium on the campus of Bellarmine University

Bellarmine University

Bellarmine University is an independent, private, Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. The liberal arts institution opened on October 3, 1950, as Bellarmine College, established by Archbishop John A. Floersh of the Archdiocese of Louisville and named after the Cardinal Saint Robert...

 in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

. The facility serves as home to Bellarmine's soccer, field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

, lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

, and track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

teams. The stadium opened on August 24, 2007 in a Bellarmine Knights women's soccer game, and was officially dedicated on August 28, 2007. Construction took approximately 18 months and was completed at an estimated cost of $5.1 million.

Innovative features

Owsley B. Frazier Stadium incorporates several innovative features, including:

• Artificial turf. The artificial turf at the stadium has permanent markings for soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse. A complex drainage system is incorporated into the design to allow for play in all weather conditions. The "24/7" artificial field surface is named Joseph P. and Janet A. Clayton Field.
• Stadium lighting. The lighting system features redirected lighting which bends spill lighting back on to the field, drastically reducing the amount of light which will fall outside the stadium’s perimeter.
• Track surface. The track is an eight-lane, 400-meter track, featuring three long jump pits, two pole vault areas, a high jump pit, and a steeplechase water jump pit. The surface is a dual-durometer, polyurethane poured surface provided by Beynon Sport Surfaces, the same company which has installed tracks at other top college facilities over the past three years including Illinois, Maryland, and Purdue.

Recent developments

On February 20, 2010, the plaza area of the stadium was named after men's lacrosse coach Jack McGetrick. The plaza houses the locker rooms, concessions, and restrooms for the stadium. McGetrick started the lacrosse program at Bellarmine in 2004 and is well known throughout the lacrosse community.