View of Cox Stadium, showing the running track, football field, and hillside seating, with Thornton Hall rising above the trees in the background. The multi-story academic building overlooks the stadium from the ridge, illustrating the layered topography of the San Francisco State campus. Thornton Hall was formerly known as the Physical Science Building before being renamed in honor of physicist and educator Dr. Robert A. Thornton.
Context:
<p><span data-olk-copy-source="MessageBody">Coach Dave Cox is hired in 1930 as Athletic Director and Dean of Men. He established a rigorous program that brought prestige to San Francisco State and attracted top male athletes from Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco, and St. Mary’s College to attend San Francisco State’s highly regarded summer sessions to earn teaching credentials for high school coaching positions. While teaching a Physical Education Administration course in 1935, Cox assigned students to draw to scale designs for ideal Physical Education facility including gym, equipment room, locker room, swimming pool, track, etc. He took the best drawings and met with the State Architect, and they were used to design the Physical Education facilities for the new Lake Merced Campus. Coach Dave Cox was extremely generous in spending $7,500 of his own money to fund good lighting and to expand the facilities so the stadium was dedicated to him in 1948.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Credits:</strong> Some descriptions were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI language model by OpenAI.</p>
