Rogers Field was an outdoor athletic

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

in the

northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, on the campus of

Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...

Pullman, Washington Pullman is the most populous city in Whitman County, located in southeastern Washington within the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. The population was 32,901 at the 2020 census, and estimated to be 32,508 in 2022. Originally founded as ...

. It was the home venue of the WSU Cougars

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and track teams until severely damaged by a fire in April 1970. Partially demolished in early 1971, Rogers Field was replaced by the concrete Martin Stadium, which was built on the same site and opened in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

History

Originally opened in 1892 for

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

and named "Soldier Field", it hosted its first football game in 1895, when WSU defeated its

Palouse The Palouse ( ) is a geographic region of the northwestern United States, encompassing parts of North Central Idaho, north central Idaho, southeastern Washington (part of eastern Washington), and by some definitions, parts of northeast Oregon. ...

neighbor

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

10–4. In 1902, the stadium was renamed for Governor John Rogers, who died in office the previous December. In its early years, it also hosted Cougar baseball, with home plate in the southeast corner. The final structure was completely rebuilt in

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

. The 23,500-seat wooden stadium had a horseshoe-shaped three-section grandstand, open on the west end, with a quarter-mile (402 m) running track. The press box sat at the top of the south sideline's grandstand, and the playing field was natural grass, at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The field was unlit, but plans were in place to install

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...

for the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

season. The running track was

cinder Cinder or Cinders may refer to: In general * Ember, also called cinder * Ash, also called cinder * Scoria, or cinder, a type of volcanic rock In computing * Cinder (programming library), a C++ programming library for visualization *Cinder, Ope ...

until replaced by an all-weather rubberized surface in early 1968. During what came to be its final WSU season in

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

, Rogers Field was also the home for the neighboring

Idaho Vandals The Idaho Vandals are the intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of Idaho, located in Moscow, Idaho. The Vandals compete at the NCAA Division I level as a member of the Big Sky Conference. The Idaho Vandals football, footbal ...

. Their

Neale Stadium Neale Stadium was an outdoor athletic stadium located on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Opened in 1937 for college football, it was used for over three decades, through the 1968 football season; the track team moved to ...

, also wooden, had been condemned during the summer of 1969 due to soil erosion and was to be rebuilt with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

grandstands, ready in 1970 (or 1971). Idaho played its limited

home schedule in 1969 (3 games) at Rogers Field, and due to delays in their project had planned on playing there again in

(4 games). During the ten-game schedules of the late 1960s, the WSU football team split its usual allotment of four home games equally between

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

and Pullman (two games each).

Fire

A suspicious fire in 1970 significantly damaged the south grandstand and press box of Rogers Field late on Saturday, April 4, the first day of

spring break Spring break is a vacation period at universities and schools that includes the Easter holiday, and takes place in early Northern Hemisphere spring. Introduced in the U.S. during the 1930s, spring break has been observed in Europe since t ...

. A definitive cause of the blaze was not determined, but was widely believed to have been

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

. A track & field meet with Oregon State had been held at the stadium earlier in the day. Idaho's idle (and condemned)

had burned less than five months earlier in November 1969, also a suspected arson which burned its south grandstand and press box. The two-year-old

all-weather track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...

at Rogers was saved by students, mostly track athletes, who jumped the fence prior to the arrival of the fire department. The track sections nearest to the fire were watered down to keep them cool, and the highly-flammable foam landing pits (pole vault and high jump) were quickly moved to the grass infield. Prior to the fire, the WSU Cougars had planned to play three home games, all in the Pac-8, at

Joe Albi Stadium Joe Albi Stadium was an outdoor multi-purpose stadium in Spokane, Washington, United States. It was located in the northwest part of the city, just east of the Spokane River. The stadium was primarily used for high school football, as a secondary ...

, which was installing

that summer. The two scheduled for Pullman were

in mid-September and Oregon State in mid-November. Various sites were considered, including

Husky Stadium Husky Stadium (officially Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is an outdoor American football, football stadium in the Northwestern United States, located on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Wa ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and Civic Stadium in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

, but WSU played all five games in Spokane. Despite another one-win season and low turnout for the USC and Oregon State games in November, WSU set a home attendance record in 1970. Requiring less seating capacity, Idaho opted to stay put on the Palouse in 1970 and played its four home games at the partially destroyed stadium in Pullman. The game between the teams, the so-called "Displaced Bowl", was easily won by WSU on September 19 in Spokane. It ended a ten-game losing streak for Jim Sweeney's Cougars, dating back to the 1969 season opener. As WSU's home opener, the game drew 27,200 spectators, at the time the largest for football in Spokane outside the Apple Cup. The victory over Idaho was the only one for WSU in 1970, as their next win came in the third game of the

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

season. With the new stadium in Pullman under construction in 1971, the Cougars again played their full home schedule in Spokane, four games, but waited until the last one on October 30 to post a home victory. WSU defeated

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, led by quarterback Dan Fouts and running back Bobby Moore (later

Ahmad Rashad Ahmad Rashad ( ; born Robert Earl Moore; November 19, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former professional football wide receiver. He was the fourth overall selection of the 1972 NFL draft, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was known ...

). The 31–21 win evened WSU's record to 4–4 and 2–2 in the Pac-8, with visions of a possible league title and Rose Bowl appearance. It followed a Cougar upset of defending Rose Bowl champion

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

by a point on the road; that was Stanford's only conference blemish in

, and they repeated as Rose Bowl champions. November was not as fortunate for WSU, which went winless on the road against

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

, Oregon State, and

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

to finish at 4–7. Poor weather in the spring of

caused delays in the construction of Idaho's new stadium, and the Vandals played "home" games at Bronco Stadium in

Boise Boise ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and nor ...

and at Joe Albi in Spokane in September. After a three-year absence, the UI Vandals returned to campus in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

on October 9 at their new "Idaho Stadium", originally an outdoor venue with natural grass. The debut game was a Vandal victory over Idaho State, and Idaho won eight straight games and finished at 8–3, their best football record to date. Artificial turf was installed the next year, and the stadium was enclosed three years later in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, renamed the

Kibbie Dome The P1FCU Kibbie Dome, known simply as the Kibbie Dome and formerly named the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center, is a multi-purpose indoor athletic stadium on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. It is the home of the Idaho Van ...

Martin Stadium

The new concrete football stadium opened on the site of Rogers Field in

. It had a modest seating capacity of 22,600, a running track, lights, and an

playing field. The first game in Martin Stadium was on September 30, a disappointing 19-point loss to the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans in the Unite ...

of the WAC, with 20,600 in attendance. Initially, only the south grandstand and press box were new in 1972; the old north grandstand was demolished after the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

season, and the east end zone seats from Rogers were finally replaced in 1999. Following the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

season, the running track was removed and the field level was lowered , allowing a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

expansion with thirteen new rows of seats. The revamped Martin Stadium debuted in mid-October

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, with an inspired victory over the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...

. The last Apple Cup in Spokane was played in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, but the Cougars continued to play several home games there through the

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

season. The WSU academic calendar was changed from a delayed semester to the traditional semester schedule in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. With classes starting four weeks earlier in late August, WSU students were now on campus for the entire football season, and the Spokane games were eliminated. (Home games in

at CenturyLink Field were played from

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

.) The name "Rogers Field" continues on campus, transferred to an area used for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

practices and intramurals, adjacent to the west end of Martin Stadium.

History

Fire

Martin Stadium

References

External links