|
Rockwell Field was a multi-purpose athletic field on the campus of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, United States. It was the first home venue for the Kent State Golden Flashes football and the first permanent home for the KSU baseball program. The field, sometimes referred to as "Normal Field", also hosted football games for the Kent State University School. Rockwell Field served as the home field for Kent State football from the team's inception in 1920 through the 1940 season, the baseball team from circa 1920 through the 1941 season, and the men's track team from their foundation in 1922 through the 1940 season. It was replaced by a new athletic complex that included a field for football with a track and an adjacent baseball field. The new football field and track, later to become Memorial Stadium by 1950, were ready for the 1941 football and 1942 track seasons, while the baseball field opened in 1942. After the removal of intercollegiate athletics, Rockwell Field continued to be used for intramural sports and general recreation, becoming known as the Rockwell Commons and eventually as simply "the Commons". Growth and developments at Kent State during the 1940s led to additional changes to the site, such as adjacent buildings, roads, and sidewalks, as the campus expanded, making the field centrally located after originally having been on the edge of campus. In 1970, the Commons became associated with the Kent State shootings as the site of several student protests in the late 1960s and on the day of the shooting. It was included in the historic district added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. Although no physical reminders of the field's usage for intercollegiate athletics remain, it continues to be used as a gathering place and for general recreation. ==History== A dedicated athletic field was not part of the original plans for the Kent State Normal School, established in 1910. The first classes were held at the Kent campus in 1913 and intramural and informal athletic teams were formed that year and in early 1914. The school's first president, John McGilvrey, believed in the importance of physical education, but in the form of intramural athletics as opposed to intercollegiate athletics. As a result, athletic facilities were not included in the original plans for the school and attempts to acquire funds from the state to construct them were initially unsuccessful. The men's basketball team was established in 1913 and played their first collegiate game in January 1915. The baseball team was founded in 1914 and played a limited schedule, with a summer team forming during the summer terms. Baseball games were held on an informal field in the area of campus now largely occupied by Rockwell Hall. Early yearbooks expressed hope for better facilities and the reality that the lack of them hampered the development of intercollegiate athletics. Rockwell Field was the first permanent athletic facility at Kent State, followed by Wills Gymnasium in 1925. It was named for David Ladd Rockwell, a member of the Board of Trustees at the time and one of the key members of the delegation that secured the school for Kent in 1910. Rockwell had also served as mayor of the city of Kent from 1900–08. Rockwell Hall, opened in 1929 as the school's first library building, is also named after him. The area where Rockwell Field was built had previously been a hilly and wooded area on the southern edge of the campus. It was located behind Merrill and Lowry Halls and adjacent to the school's heating plant, which opened in 1916. In the 1938, a new women's dormitory, Engleman Hall, was built just north of the field. The first football team to play at Kent State was that of the university's high school program, which began play in 1917. Early games were held across town at DePeyster Field, the new home of crosstown rival Kent High School. The university, then still a normal school, first attempted to establish a football team in 1914, but only two practice games were held before the athletic board and faculty voted to discontinue the season. The first collegiate football game at Rockwell Field was held November 6th, 1920, a 7–0 loss to Bowling Green. The final intercollegiate football game at Rockwell Field was played October 12, 1940, a 26–0 homecoming win over Mount Union, attended by a reported crowd of approximately 5,000. Both the baseball and track and field teams remained at Rockwell Field for their respective 1941 seasons, beginning play at their new facilities in 1942. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rockwell Field (Kent State)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|