TULSA, Okla. — The lights are on at Will Rogers High School's football stadium. For the first time in 81 years, the Ropers get to play a home football game at home.
“If you could tell me that 55 years ago, that we’d be building a stadium here, I would not have believed it," said Gill Cloud, executive director of athletics for Tulsa Public Schools.
READ MORE: Community to celebrate dedication of new Will Rogers stadium
It's a site to see for Brenda Boyd and her daughter Brenda James. Their family has three generations of Will Rogers students, now including James’ son who is on the football team and finally has a home field.
“They would always have to go play on somebody else’s," Boyd said. "He came home and he was just so, so excited. Because he can say, 'Hey, we got a field of our own,' you know?”
The high school opened in 1939 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The stadium is part of a $415 million bond passed by Tulsa voters in 2015. The project didn’t come without some unforeseen problems.
“When they put the 25 percent tariff on iron, it cost us a million dollars more," Cloud said. "So, we had to cut things that we didn’t want to like the seating on the other side.”
Along with the field, the stadium houses a new track, locker room and weight room. It can also be used for soccer games.
It's providing some much-needed normalcy to the players amid the pandemic.
"To get back to a normal process where they come to practice, they come to games, they see fans in the stands, those are really important things for young people," Cloud said.
There was a limited number of fans at the game. They were asked to social distance and wear masks.
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