THE PLAYING FIELDS OF THE TEACHERS COLLEGE
by H. W. (Bill) Hargiss

     ON THIS DAY OF DEDICATION, it may be of interest to review the history of the athletic facilities at K.S.T.C. At the turn of the century the Kansas State Normal was housed in one building. The present sunken garden was its basement. When Isaac Lamb had become the first paid coach in 1897, a brick gymnasium was attached to the rear of the building, on the north. For its day, it was not bad at all. It had a running track, and there were locker rooms, showers, and offices at both ends, one side for men, the other for women. The athletic field was on Twelfth Avenue at the Merchant Street corner, extending to a point between the present library and physical education buildings.
     The land farther north belonged to O. M. Wilhite, a great booster, sportsman, and owner of the old Mitway Hotel. Mr. Wilhite, affectionately called "Mit," built a baseball park here. It had a high board fence around it, a covered grandstand, and foul-line bleachers. Mit was manager and coach of the once famous independent professional baseball team known as the Emporia Maroons, and the field was Mit Wilhite Park. Games with and among professional major league teams were played here.
     Between 1900 and 1905 the playing field on the corner, belonging to the school, became the site of two new buildings. One was Kellogg Library and the other was the "Model School" for children, serving as a laboratory for student teachers. This, too, was not bad for its day, and it put the Kansas State Normal in the front ranks of teacher-training institutions, a position it has continued to hold.
     When the athletic field was thus pre-empted, Mit Wilhite deeded his land and his park, with all of its facilities, to the school. Soon there was a gridiron, a 1/5-mile running track, and wooden bleachers on the east and west sides. This was Mitway Field. The present physical education building was completed in 1909. Mit's old grandstand still stood, on a diagonal, its back almost touching the northwest corner of the building. It was left there for many more years.
     In 1915 a man named Ritchie put eleven acres of his land up for sale. This land was a long way from the campus then, lying to the north and including the ground on which Welch Stadium stands today. Its price was $5000. President Butcher, with his great vision, urged that this land be purchased for the school, but several members of the athletic board were alarmed at the thought of that much money. The time was not yet.  Instead, old Mitway Field was remodeled in 1915. A new 440-yard cinder running track with a 220-yard straightaway was added. A seven-foot concrete wall was built along Merchant Street behind a new permanent steel and concrete stadium.
     It was not until 1935 that, again with the persevering support of President Butcher, that the present splendid athletic plant was completed. The steel stadium at Mitway Field was not destroyed, but moved to the new northern site where it is the east section of the present structure. 
    The big bell in the tower at the southeast corner of the field was in the belfry of the first, and for years the only, building on the campus.  Traditionally, it was rung in celebrations of athletic victories.  Many were the times it tones were heard.