Fairfield Stadium

Postcard showing the stadium

Fairfield Stadium was a stadium in Huntington, West Virginia. It was primarily used for football, and was the home field of the Marshall University football team between 1927 and 1990, prior to the opening of Joan C. Edwards Stadium.

History

The original stadium was a red brick structure that featured a grass field circled by a cinder track and was owned by the city and mostly maintained by community volunteers.

In 1970, a major renovation project was completed that expanded the seating capacity by 5,000 seats.^[1] An artificial grass playing surface was installed, and the playing surface was lowered. Along with that, a new press box and locker room for the home team was constructed. The 1970 season ended with the crash of Southern Airways Flight 932 on November 14, which killed all 75 people aboard, including 37 players and six coaches.

The stadium fell into disrepair in the 1970s and 80s. In 1984 the original 1927 east side was torn down, after being found unsafe, and was replaced by temporary aluminum bleachers.

For the 1991 season, visiting teams were forced to dress at Fairfield and then ride the team bus more than a mile to and from the new stadium for the game. This is because the Shewey Athletic Center, which houses Joan C. Edwards Stadium's locker rooms, were not completed. (Marshall used facilities in the Cam Henderson Center near the new stadium). MU soccer, which had played there from the program's founding continued to use the field until 1993 when it too moved to Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Today that program has its own soccer specific stadium, the Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex, on the site of the former Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse.

The stadium was also used by the former Huntington High School and Huntington East High School (the merger of those schools, which is the current Huntington High, has its own on-campus stadium).

In addition to high school football, Fairfield was also a regular host for Huntington St. Joseph Central Catholic High School soccer matches and sectional and regional soccer matches. In 1988 Fairfield Stadium served as the host for the inaugural WVSSAC Boys State Soccer Tournament which was won by Huntington St. Joe. It continued as host in 1989 until the tournament was moved to Laidley Field in Charleston.

The stadium, which held 18,000, was built in 1927, and demolished in early 2004. For the movie We Are Marshall, Herndon Stadium in Atlanta was used as the stand-in for Fairfield Stadium.

The last scoreboard from Fairfield Stadium was salvaged and put in the parking lot of Gino's Pub and Pizzeria on Fifth Avenue across the street from the Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex and a few blocks east of Joan C. Edwards Stadium. The scoreboard is lit up at night and shows the score of the Marshall-Xavier game in 1971, which was Marshall's first win after the plane crash.

The Marshall University Forensic Science Center complex completed in 1997 is the renovated former football locker room of Fairfield that was used until the completion of Joan C. Edwards Stadium in 1991. A lone locker with a football jersey, football helmet, and a plaque commemorating the 1970 football team can be found on display in the lobby of the DNA Forensic laboratory. The remainder of the property is now used by the Erma Byrd Clinic, the primary classroom structure for second year students at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

References

↑ "A University at Last." Marshall University. 1997. 20 Dec. 2006 .

Marshall Thundering Herd football
Venues	Central Field (1895–1926) Fairfield Stadium (1927–1990) Joan C. Edwards Stadium (1991–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games East Carolina Ohio: Battle for the Bell West Virginia: Friends of Coal Bowl Western Kentucky
Culture & lore	Marco the Bison "Sons of Marshall" Marching Thunder Southern Airways Flight 932 Marshall University: Ashes to Glory We Are Marshall
People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
National championship seasons in bold

Coordinates: 38°24′36″N 82°25′54″W / 38.410113°N 82.431761°W / 38.410113; -82.431761

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