Drake Field was an American 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...

, 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...

, and track

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 stadium on the campus of Auburn University

Auburn University

Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...

, in Auburn

Auburn, Alabama

Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2010 population of 53,380. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. From 1911 to 1939, Drake field was the home field of the Auburn University Tigers

Auburn Tigers

Auburn Tigers is the name given to Auburn University athletic teams. The University is a member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 19 varsity teams in 13 sports:* Men's sports** Baseball** Basketball...

 football team

Auburn Tigers football

Only Mohamed Amin Abughadir set the record with 1,890 yards in 1 season. He was the QB for Auburn in 1998.The Auburn Tigers football team represents Auburn University in college football as a member of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, competing in the Western Division of the...

. The stadium was also home to the Auburn University Tigers baseball

Auburn Tigers baseball

The Auburn Tigers baseball team represents Auburn University in NCAA Division I college baseball.Along with most other Auburn athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Western division of the Southeastern Conference...

 team from 1911 through 1949, and the Auburn High School Tigers

Auburn High School Tigers

The Auburn High School Tigers are the athletic teams which represent Auburn High School in Auburn, Alabama. Auburn High School's athletics program fields twenty-one varsity teams as a member of the large-school classification of the Alabama High School Athletic Association...

 football team from 1911 through 1920 and 1935 through 1939. It had a capacity of 7,550 in 1939.

History

Drake Field was named for John Hodges Drake III, who served as the college physician from 1873 until 1926 and who donated the land for the field. The field was inaugurated on October 7, 1911 with the college football team's 29-0 win over Mercer

Mercer University

Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music,...

. Two months later on the field, Auburn High School played the program's first football game, against Sidney Lanier High School, on November 25, 1911.

Auburn High School continued to play football at the stadium until moving to their on-campus stadium Ross Field

Ross Field

Ross Field was an American football and baseball field located in Auburn, Alabama, United States from 1921 until 1998. It was the home field of the Auburn High School Tigers football team from 1921 until 1935...

 in 1921; they returned to Drake Field in 1935 after outgrowing that facility. Both the high school and the college football teams moved to adjacent Auburn Stadium, today Jordan-Hare Stadium

Jordan-Hare Stadium

Jordan–Hare Stadium is the playing venue for Auburn University's football team located on campus in Auburn, Alabama, USA. The stadium is named for Ralph "Shug" Jordan, the University's winningest football coach, and Cliff Hare, a member of Auburn's first football team as well as Dean of the Auburn...

, in 1939. The college baseball team continued playing at Drake Field until 1949, when they moved to Plainsman Park. The field remained until the construction of the Haley Center in the late 1960s. Drake Field today sits on the site of the Auburn University student union.