In 2002 Upper Hudson Field was expanded to provide a regulation 120-yard outdoor football field for practice, along with an 85-yard field and a smaller drill area. The expansion was made possible by the relocation of the Army Reserve Center, which had occupied the land under a 50-year lease arrangement entered into by Athletics Director Robert R. Neyland in 1952. In November 2002 the three separate outdoor-lighted practice-field complex was renamed Haslam Field, honoring James A. Haslam II, former football player, founder and chairman of Knoxville-based Pilot Oil, and long-term member (27 years) of the board of trustees and Athletics Council. The plaque installed reads: “Named in honor of James A. (Jim) Haslam II, captain of the 1951 University of Tennessee football team, member of the University’s Board of Trustees and state and local civic and business leader. A native of St. Petersburg, Fla., Haslam has been in the forefront of the growth and development of the University as well as the local community. Haslam field stands on the University campus as a testament to his life and personal example of giving back to his University and home community.”
The new fields were the first step in a larger plan to improve athletic facilities in the vicinity. Expansion of the Neyland-Thompson’s indoor practice field was projected to require losing a practice field.