Today's Tidbit... America's Oldest Football Field

I wrote about Wesleyan University's football team almost a year ago in the context of future President Woodrow Wilson being the team's faculty advisor and coach in 1888 and 1889. Then, while researching the ocean rowing training methods of coach Howard Reiter the other day, I came across another piece of information about Wesleyan football for the first time.

Wesleyan claims, and I have no reason to dispute it, that Andrus Field, the site of their football field and stadium, is the oldest existing football field in continuous use. Like many early athletic fields, what is now Andrus Field saw use for informal and team athletic activities for years before it saw substantial improvements. The image below shows the empty field adjoining the campus hosting an 1874 baseball game.

Andrus Field 1831–1911: Athletics and the Environment (connecticuthistory.org)

Another image shows the field in the 1880s when people set up tennis nets like we might set up volleyball nets at the local park.

(Wesleyan University Digital Collections)