KU officials discussing track removal at Memorial Stadium

By Matt Tait     Jun 17, 2014

Nick Krug
Now that Kansas University's track and field teams have a new home at Rock Chalk Park, KU officials are looking into the possibility of removing the track from Memorial Stadium, seen here on Wednesday, July 12, 2012.

Kansas University football fans have long clamored for the removal of the track surrounding the field at Memorial Stadium. Now that the new track-and-field facility at Rock Chalk Park has become a reality, KU officials may be close to making a move.

KU athletic director Sheahon Zenger, on hand to discuss the basketball team’s selection for the 2015 World University Games, confirmed on Tuesday that he and his staff were in the process of looking into taking out the track.

“Right now, we’re gathering information,” Zenger told the Journal-World. “The staff has done a great job of researching what we could do affordably and within reason as an intermediary step to our greater renovation project, and I want to make sure that Coach (Charlie) Weis thinks whatever we do is advantageous to the program.”

Although nothing is official yet, if Zenger and company were to decide to move forward with removing the track, doing so quickly could lead to getting it out of there in time for the beginning of the upcoming season. The specifics of what KU would do aesthetically after removing the track, should it happen, remain unknown and are very much a part of the information gathering process Zenger referred to.

Such a move would not be tied directly to the much anticipated full-scale renovation project at Memorial Stadium that, at least for now, remains a ways off.

In April, Zenger talked to the Journal-World about “clearing the deck” of all other projects so that all attention could be put toward the stadium. Zenger also mentioned his hope that some momentum from the football program could help spark the fund-raising process for the bigger project.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.