History of a Famous Stadium
1 month 3 weeks ago #477
by wvu4u2
History of a Famous Stadium was created by wvu4u2
EDITOR’S NOTE: This week marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of Old Mountaineer Field down on the Mon and we celebrate it with a look back at its history from the beginnings to the players who played there, those who worked there, the games that were played there. TODAY: Mountaineer Field was born in 1924 out of the seeds of success as a way to step into big time football)
MORGANTOWN — While the official opening date for old Mountaineer Field was September 27, 1924, which will be celebrated as the 100th anniversary of its opening, the roots began growing two years earlier.
And while athletic director Harry Stanfield guided them through the process, it was clearly the success that Clarence “Doc” Spears had as he coached the Mountaineers from 1921 to 1924, winning 30 games, losing 6 with 3 ties that created the push for a new stadium to be built to replace the athletic field.
Indeed, the stadium that was home to WVU from 1924 to 1980 was a direct descendent of Spears’ 1922 team, which is the only true unbeaten team in school history, going 10-0-1 and playing in the Mountaineers’ first bowl game, the East-West Bowl on Christmas day in San Diego.
That team of 19 players rode a train west for four days, leaving just two days to prepare for Gonzaga, whom they defeated, 21-13, before taking a national tour home by train through Los Angeles, San Francisco, going by Pike’s Peak and then through Chicago.
The site was masterfully chosen just below Woodburn Circle along Falling Run, beating out the Mileground.
In 1923 they created a Stadium Corporation to raise the $500,000 to build the stadium — and now you know why they are called “the good old days” — and work got underway without much fanfare.
The work started and the headline in the Hinton Daily News read:
New Stadium
Probably Called
Mountaineer Field
And the story began this way:
MORGANTOWN — No formal festivities or preliminaries marked the start of work on West Virginia’s new football and track stadium. There was no “laying of the cornerstone,” no ceremony over breaking the ground or long speeches.
The foundation merely hired workers and sent them to Falling Run Hollow with orders to prepare the ravine for construction of the concrete stands. Everything has been done in such a rush that no thought was given to formality and thus far there has been no thought given or consideration of a name for the great field which is to house future university athletic events.
Newspapers and individuals have proposed White Stadium after Dr. I.C. White, prominent alumnus and treasurer of the Stadium Corporation, Stansbury Field after H.A. Stansbury, director of athletics who is is devoting all of his time to raising the $500,000 and other such names.
However, none of these suggestions are receiving attention and at the end of the financial campaign years it seems certain that since the structure is being built by thousands of subscriptions it will not be named after one person.
The first thought that comes to a West Virginian in this connection is that it be named Mountaineer Field. As time passes and university teams occupy a more important place in athletics, the word Mountaineer is becoming more distinctive. West Virginia is the Mountain State of the union and in as much as the state university teams are representative of the whole commonwealth it is only natural that its athletics should be Mountaineers their home should be Mountaineer Field.
And so it was that work was conducted and the landmark was built right there near the middle of the city.
Opening day came on Sept. 27, 1924, but as it would be with the new Mountaineer Field in 1980, when the stadium was opened before it was completely done, so it was the work went down to the last minute on old Mountaineer Field.
On September 23, 1924, a week before the opening game, this item appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Yesterday, the last portion of concrete for the completion of that portion of the stadium contracted for last spring was finished and today workmen are stripping forms from the seats. By next Saturday, the day when West Virginia Wesleyan comes in to play the opening game, these seats, located at the extreme west end of the south stands will be available for use if necessary although contractors want all visitors to keep away from the area until it has had ample time to “set.”
In any event, without this final section, there will be about 18,000 seats — or twice as many as were provided at the old Southside Park Field in Fairmont, where the opener was played for the past four years. However, seat boards are being placed on the recently completed stretch and if needed the section will be ready to accommodate 1,000 persons.
Today about 50 workmen are engaged in trimming down the bank and getting ready to pour the 12-foot concourse, which is to run the entire length of the south stands and which will carry spectators to their various sections.
The game, history tells us, went off spectacularly. The Pittsburgh Press of September 28, 1924, carried a full photo layout of the stadium and the victory over West Virginia Wesleyan, while the Post-Gazette’s report ran under this headline:
14,000 see West Virginia beat Wesleyan, 21-6
Mountaineers christen stadium with victory over Buckhannon team; Jewel Murrin and Skeeter Farley are cast in hero roles; three bands lend color to event unsurpassed in the history of Morgantown.
And then this is how Paul G. Sullivan began his story.
MORGANTOWN — It has been a big date for Morgantown and a prodigious one for West Virginia University.
A new stadium, 14,000 howling fans, a perfect September afternoon, two clawing, fighting grid squads and three marching bands combined to lend color and excitement to a picture the likes of which has never before been witnessed in the hills of the New Dominion.
To top it all off Tubby Spears [Note, yes they called him Tubby] new outfit carried on a 21-6 triumph over her ancient foe, the roaring Bobcats of West Virginia Wesleyan.
With such a setting there had to be heroes and Jewel Murrin and Skeeter Farley filled the role for the Old Gold and Blue. Jewel and Skeeter were awarded opportunities to achieve stardom and be it said neither was found wanting in the pinches.
Statistics tell us that Gus Eckberg controlled the game for WVU on the ground with 25 carries for 101 rushing yards while Francis Farley, known as Skeeter, completed 8 of 16 passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns with Julian Murrin on the receiving end of both scores while catching five passes for 72 yards.
We can only imagine the celebration that went on in the midst of the Roaring Twenties in downtown Morgantown on that night.
Follow @bhertzel on X
MORGANTOWN — While the official opening date for old Mountaineer Field was September 27, 1924, which will be celebrated as the 100th anniversary of its opening, the roots began growing two years earlier.
And while athletic director Harry Stanfield guided them through the process, it was clearly the success that Clarence “Doc” Spears had as he coached the Mountaineers from 1921 to 1924, winning 30 games, losing 6 with 3 ties that created the push for a new stadium to be built to replace the athletic field.
Indeed, the stadium that was home to WVU from 1924 to 1980 was a direct descendent of Spears’ 1922 team, which is the only true unbeaten team in school history, going 10-0-1 and playing in the Mountaineers’ first bowl game, the East-West Bowl on Christmas day in San Diego.
That team of 19 players rode a train west for four days, leaving just two days to prepare for Gonzaga, whom they defeated, 21-13, before taking a national tour home by train through Los Angeles, San Francisco, going by Pike’s Peak and then through Chicago.
The site was masterfully chosen just below Woodburn Circle along Falling Run, beating out the Mileground.
In 1923 they created a Stadium Corporation to raise the $500,000 to build the stadium — and now you know why they are called “the good old days” — and work got underway without much fanfare.
The work started and the headline in the Hinton Daily News read:
New Stadium
Probably Called
Mountaineer Field
And the story began this way:
MORGANTOWN — No formal festivities or preliminaries marked the start of work on West Virginia’s new football and track stadium. There was no “laying of the cornerstone,” no ceremony over breaking the ground or long speeches.
The foundation merely hired workers and sent them to Falling Run Hollow with orders to prepare the ravine for construction of the concrete stands. Everything has been done in such a rush that no thought was given to formality and thus far there has been no thought given or consideration of a name for the great field which is to house future university athletic events.
Newspapers and individuals have proposed White Stadium after Dr. I.C. White, prominent alumnus and treasurer of the Stadium Corporation, Stansbury Field after H.A. Stansbury, director of athletics who is is devoting all of his time to raising the $500,000 and other such names.
However, none of these suggestions are receiving attention and at the end of the financial campaign years it seems certain that since the structure is being built by thousands of subscriptions it will not be named after one person.
The first thought that comes to a West Virginian in this connection is that it be named Mountaineer Field. As time passes and university teams occupy a more important place in athletics, the word Mountaineer is becoming more distinctive. West Virginia is the Mountain State of the union and in as much as the state university teams are representative of the whole commonwealth it is only natural that its athletics should be Mountaineers their home should be Mountaineer Field.
And so it was that work was conducted and the landmark was built right there near the middle of the city.
Opening day came on Sept. 27, 1924, but as it would be with the new Mountaineer Field in 1980, when the stadium was opened before it was completely done, so it was the work went down to the last minute on old Mountaineer Field.
On September 23, 1924, a week before the opening game, this item appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Yesterday, the last portion of concrete for the completion of that portion of the stadium contracted for last spring was finished and today workmen are stripping forms from the seats. By next Saturday, the day when West Virginia Wesleyan comes in to play the opening game, these seats, located at the extreme west end of the south stands will be available for use if necessary although contractors want all visitors to keep away from the area until it has had ample time to “set.”
In any event, without this final section, there will be about 18,000 seats — or twice as many as were provided at the old Southside Park Field in Fairmont, where the opener was played for the past four years. However, seat boards are being placed on the recently completed stretch and if needed the section will be ready to accommodate 1,000 persons.
Today about 50 workmen are engaged in trimming down the bank and getting ready to pour the 12-foot concourse, which is to run the entire length of the south stands and which will carry spectators to their various sections.
The game, history tells us, went off spectacularly. The Pittsburgh Press of September 28, 1924, carried a full photo layout of the stadium and the victory over West Virginia Wesleyan, while the Post-Gazette’s report ran under this headline:
14,000 see West Virginia beat Wesleyan, 21-6
Mountaineers christen stadium with victory over Buckhannon team; Jewel Murrin and Skeeter Farley are cast in hero roles; three bands lend color to event unsurpassed in the history of Morgantown.
And then this is how Paul G. Sullivan began his story.
MORGANTOWN — It has been a big date for Morgantown and a prodigious one for West Virginia University.
A new stadium, 14,000 howling fans, a perfect September afternoon, two clawing, fighting grid squads and three marching bands combined to lend color and excitement to a picture the likes of which has never before been witnessed in the hills of the New Dominion.
To top it all off Tubby Spears [Note, yes they called him Tubby] new outfit carried on a 21-6 triumph over her ancient foe, the roaring Bobcats of West Virginia Wesleyan.
With such a setting there had to be heroes and Jewel Murrin and Skeeter Farley filled the role for the Old Gold and Blue. Jewel and Skeeter were awarded opportunities to achieve stardom and be it said neither was found wanting in the pinches.
Statistics tell us that Gus Eckberg controlled the game for WVU on the ground with 25 carries for 101 rushing yards while Francis Farley, known as Skeeter, completed 8 of 16 passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns with Julian Murrin on the receiving end of both scores while catching five passes for 72 yards.
We can only imagine the celebration that went on in the midst of the Roaring Twenties in downtown Morgantown on that night.
Follow @bhertzel on X
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