Glass Bowl

The Glass Bowl, today one of the premier college football facilities in the country, had a humble beginning. Built by the Works Progress Administration in 1936, it was one of 65 projects undertaken by the WPA in Ohio that year. Workers used picks, shovels and wheelbarrows to carve out a site for the structure south of campus, removing more than 13,000 square yards of earth from a natural ravine. The work was done entirely by manual labor, as bulldozers and other machinery were not available. The project was paid for with $272,000 from the federal government and $41,558 from the city of Toledo and the university. The 300-man crew needed over one year to complete the work. The new stadium had many modern features, including a press box, a one-story wooden structure with five windows located on the east side. Two stone towers, which still are in use today, were built on the north side and were used as locker rooms and at one point served as living accomodations for 12 players.