Ohio Field
Officially christened in 1908 during the height of the temperance movement: Wielding a flask of spring water, Mrs. Estelle Clark Thompson, wife of University President William Oxley Thompson, formally dedicated Ohio Field to “clean athletics.”
Originally built with a capacity of 500, Ohio Field’s open-air bleachers underwent several expansions during the football team’s climb to prominence in the Ohio Conference, eventually holding 14,000 seats. Even these additions could not accommodate the ever-increasing demand. When Ohio State and Illinois met for the Western Conference championship in 1919, 20,000 people watched the game in the bleachers or along Ohio Field’s perimeter; an estimated 40,000 people stood farther out from the field. Spectators broke down the field’s fence and sat on the turf; nearby homeowners put up bleachers on their roofs and charged admission. Within two decades of that first game, OSU football had outgrown Ohio Field, and the drive to build Ohio Stadium had begun.
more information:
John H. Herrick Archives: Ohio Field
