Rogers Field (Washington State)

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Rogers Field was a football and track stadium in Pullman, Washington, the on-campus home field of the Washington State Cougars until April 1970.

Originally built in 1892 for track and field and named "Soldier Field," it hosted its first football game in 1895, when WSU defeated its Palouse neighbor Idaho 10-4. In 1902, the stadium was renamed for Governor John R. Rogers, who died in office the previous December. The final structure was completely rebuilt in 1936.[1]

The 23,500-seat wooden stadium had a horseshoe-shaped grandstand, open on the west end, with a 440 yard running track. The press box sat at the top of the south grandstand, and the playing field was natural grass, at an elevation of 2530 feet (771 m). The field was unlit, but there were plans to install both lights and astroturf for the 1970 season.

During what came to be its final WSU season in 1969, Rogers Field was also the home for the neighboring Idaho Vandals. Idaho's Neale Stadium, also wooden, had been condemned during the summer of 1969 and was to be rebuilt with concrete grandstands, ready in 1971. Idaho played its limited Palouse home schedule in 1969 (2 games) at Rogers Field, and due to delays in their project had planned on playing there again in 1970 (4 games). During the ten game schedule era of the late 1960s, the WSU football team split its usual allotment of four home games equally between Spokane and Pullman (2 games each).[2]

A suspicious fire significantly damaged the south grandstand and press box of Rogers Field late on Saturday, April 4, 1970, the first day of spring break. A definitive cause of the blaze was not determined, but was widely believed to have been arson. A track & field meet with Oregon State had been held at the stadium earlier in the day.[3] Idaho's idle (and condemned) Neale Stadium had burned less than five months earlier in November 1969, also a suspected arson.

Because of the reduced capacity of Rogers Field, the WSU Cougars played all of their home football games at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane in 1970, which had been recently outfitted with astroturf. The Idaho Vandals opted to stay put and play their home games at the partially destroyed stadium in Pullman in 1970.

The game between the teams, the so-called "Displaced Bowl," easily won by WSU on September 19th in Spokane, ended a ten game losing streak for Jim Sweeney's Cougars, dating back to the 1969 season opener. [4] The victory over the Vandals was the only one for WSU in 1970, who would remain winless until the third game of the 1971 season.[5]

The Idaho Vandals returned to their campus in Moscow on October 9, 1971, to play in their "New Idaho Stadium" (to be enclosed four years later and renamed the Kibbie Dome), but the Cougars again used Joe Albi as their home field for the 1971 football season.

Martin Stadium, the new concrete football stadium in Pullman, was originally built to a modest capacity of 22,600, with a running track and an astroturf playing field. It was ready on September 30, 1972, and the Cougars responded with a disappointing loss to Utah. Following the 1978 season, the running track was removed, the field level lowered (by 16 feet), and the seating capacity was expanded. The revamped Martin debuted in mid-October 1979 with an inspired Cougar win over UCLA. The last Apple Cup in Spokane was played in 1980, but the Cougars continued to play several home games in Spokane through the 1983 season.

The name "Rogers Field" continues on campus. It has been transferred to an area used for soccer practices and intramurals, adjacent to the west end of Martin Stadium. [6]

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