Brooks Field (Colorado) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Brooks Field is one of the oldest football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

stadiums in existence, tracing its origins back to 1892 as the playing field of the Colorado School of Mines

Colorado School of Mines

The Colorado School of Mines is a small public teaching and research university devoted to engineering and applied science, with special expertise in the development and stewardship of the Earth's natural resources. Located in Golden, Colorado, CSM was ranked 29th, in America among national...

. Originally it was a dirt surface athletic field in exactly its current configuration, built within a clay pit, a fitting mined-out home for the Orediggers. Its earliest known athletic contest is possibly a 50-0 victory by Mines over Jarvis Hall, CSM's onetime sister school, in 1892. It has been home to the football Orediggers through all but the first four years of their existence (their previous home were the now-destroyed grounds at the southeast corner of 19th and Illinois streets in Golden), and has been renovated several times throughout its existence. The field was originally called Athletic Park, and was re-christened Brooks Field in 1922. It is named after Ralph D. Brooks, onetime Trustee of the Colorado School of Mines.

Renovations

Historic photographs show Brooks Field as a dirt surface, without grandstands and surrounded by a board fence. Despite such conditions it is known to have hosted crowds of spectators, who could have used nearby slopes to view games from. Later early wooden grandstands were added to the park. In 1922 and 1924 the current grandstands were built by noted local builder William "Cement Bill" Williams. This featured wooden bench seats upon a steel superstructure, with home and visiting locker rooms, public restrooms and refreshment stand beneath. In 1922 the dirt surface was converted to natural grass, which it has remained ever since. Originally home also to the CSM baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

team, it became a primarily football facility in 1937 after baseball was moved to Darden Field

Darden Field

Darden Field is a historic baseball stadium that has been home to the Colorado School of Mines baseball teams since it was constructed in 1937. Featuring fieldstone stands with flagstone benches built into the hillside, the park was originally a Depression-era project of the Public Works...

just to the west. During the 1930s a Federal Emergency Relief Administration

Federal Emergency Relief Administration

Federal Emergency Relief Administration was the new name given by the Roosevelt Administration to the Emergency Relief Administration which President Herbert Hoover had created in 1932...

project scooped out the slopes at the west side of Brooks Field to make room to construct a track around the surface, and it has hosted track and field events since. Around the 1980s the grandstands were renovated to cover most wooden benches with metal surfaces and create a central concourse, along with steps down to the field level.

Notable events

Brooks Field has hosted many notable athletes and teams over its many years of play. Although missing out on the legendary 103-0 victory of the Orediggers over the University of Colorado

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

in 1890 as well as their first Colorado Football Association championship in 1891, it has hosted 14 championship football teams since then as well as homegrown Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

players Albert E. Jones and Roy Hartzell. Hartzell's brother Lester was the first quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

to play at this stadium.

Championship Football Teams

The Orediggers have fielded 17 football champion teams within over a century of play:

1891 - Colorado Football Association Champions^

1892 - Colorado Football Association Champions^

1893 - Colorado Football Association Champions

1897 - State Inter-Collegiate League Champions

1898 - Colorado Football Association Champions

1904 - Colorado Football Association Champions

1906 - Colorado Football Association Champions

1907 - Colorado Football Association Champions

1912 - Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference