The Wolfpacker

March 2013 - Signing Day Edition

The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports

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��� pack past Riddick Field House Was Last Structure ��� From Earlier Era Of Pack Sports The first game, with spectators ringed World War II and used as dormitories, as By Tim Peeler around the sidelines, was played in 1906, a classrooms and as office space for the unihe final remaining vestige of NC State���s 0���0 tie against Richmond. It was renamed versity architect. first on-campus athletics facility, Riddick the New Athletic Field in 1907, when The field house was repurposed as the Stadium, was slated to be demolished over wooden bleachers and grandstands were home of the NC State Public Safety departthe school���s spring break in early March. built so the school could host football and ment and other office space. The Depression-era Riddick Field House, baseball games and track meets. It was reSaying goodbye to the final tie to the first built in 1936 by the Works Progress Adminnamed Riddick Field, in honor of popular athletic facility drew some attention, with istration, stood between the field and the chemistry and engineering professor and stories in the student newspaper Technician eastern-most of three tunnels that connect the school���s first football coach Wallace Carl and The News and Observer. There was State���s historically academic main campus Riddick, in 1912. even an attempt on Facebook to stop the to its residential and recreational central deconstruction. campus. But few people who played The two-story white masonry and worked at Riddick were building was in disrepair and unparticularly sentimental about a used in recent years, since the 20,000-seat stadium that hosted completion of the school���s Yarno more than four home games borough Energy Plant and SAS for years and had light poles Hall, the new math and statislocated inconveniently on the tics building. The outdated field sidelines. Longtime head coach house was located at the end of Earle Edwards devoted much of a small parking lot between the his free time working to get a two new buildings. replacement for the on-campus It had primarily been used as venue, which ultimately resulted a storage facility for construcin the construction of Carter Station contractors during those construction projects. Riddick Field House, which was built in 1936, was slated to be demolished dium near the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. According to Kevin Mac- over NC��State���s spring break in early March. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS ���I don���t want to be overly critNaughton, the university���s asThe first concrete grandstands were built ical,��� said Bill Hensley, NC State���s former sociate vice chancellor for facilities, the area on the east side of the field in 1916, the year sports information director prior to 1960. will be turned into a green space for at least Riddick became the school���s fourth presi���But [Riddick] was a very poor facility. I the next five years, but could be turned into dent. For the next six years, each graduating would bet that Broughton High School had a parking deck as part of future campus class gave a section of concrete bleachers as a better football stadium than NC State had construction projects. its parting gift. Lights were added in 1930 back then. It just wasn���t something befitting MacNaughton characterized the building for a night game against High Point. The a Division I football program.��� as ���an attractive nuisance,��� located both in west grandstands were built in 1935 with The field house didn���t even house Wolfthe railroad right of way and a proposed new loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corpack football during home games. From road between Pullen Road and Dan Allen poration and a small grant from the WPA, 1925���49, the football team dressed in its Drive that will be used to alleviate traffic and the field house and open-air press box locker rooms in the basement of Thompon campus. Usable parts of the building were added in 1936, with construction proson Gym and walked through the tunnel to were scheduled be reclaimed and donated vided by the WPA. the field. From 1950-66, the players made to the Habitat for Humanity Restore shop, In terms of longevity, the Riddick strucan even longer walk from the basement of MacNaughton said. ture long outlasted its counterpart at Carter Reynolds Coliseum. Representatives from the athletics deStadium, which opened in 1966. The A.E. Opponents did dress in first-floor locker partment scoured the building for notable Finley Fieldhouse was demolished following rooms. The second floor was used for memorabilia, claiming a masonry Block the 2005 football season to make way for the classrooms. S logo that was located on the outer front North End Zone project, which connected The school has erected a bronze plaque fa��ade of the building. But little athletics the east and west grandstands and added near Stinson Drive that commemorates the history remained from a building that hadn���t nearly 6,000 seats to the stadium���s capacity. stadium where All-Americans Jack Mcbeen used for that purpose since the final In the 47 years since the last game was Dowall, Dick Christy, Roman Gabriel and football game was played there nearly half played at Riddick ��� a 3-0 victory over Dennis Byrd played their home football a century ago. Florida State on Nov. 13, 1965 ��� the area games. The Riddick site does have a long and noaround the original athletic field had mulBut all the original structures from the site table history, dating back to 1905, when the tiple uses. The playing surface was paved once dubbed the New Athletics Field now North Carolina School for Agriculture and over in 1968 and used as a parking lot unhave passed into the university���s memory. ��� Mechanic Arts board of trustees approved til 2009. The west grandstand was closed a site for an athletics field on a part of the You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu. in during the enrollment boom following original campus called ���Crawford���s Farm.��� T 90��� ������ the wolfpacker 90.Pack Past.indd 90 2/26/13 1:03 PM

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