Ahearn Field was the first on-campus athletic field for

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 cen ...

. It was used from 1911 to 1922 by the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

baseball team Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding te ...

, and track team. It was named in honor of former coach

Mike Ahearn Michael Francis Ahearn (November 28, 1878 – February 5, 1948) was a British-American athlete and college athletics administrator. Ahearn played and coached American football, basketball, and baseball, and was a college professor and athletics ad ...

. The field opened with a high school track competition held on April 15, 1911. Before Ahearn Field, Kansas State's athletic teams used an open public square in Manhattan located at Bluemont Avenue and 8th Street, known informally as Athletic Park. A covered wooden grandstand was built at the Athletic Park in 1906, along with a small locker room. These structures were both transported to Ahearn Field in 1911 and used at the new site. The grandstand was located at the south end of the field, facing north (approximately the current location of the K-State Alumni Center). Memorial Stadium was opened at the same site in 1922, at which time the alignment of the football field was shifted from east–west to north–south, and the old grandstand was removed. As late as 1938 the new field was still referred to as Ahearn Field at Memorial Stadium.

References

Defunct college football venues American football venues in Kansas Kansas State Wildcats football venues Kansas State University buildings 1911 establishments in Kansas 1921 disestablishments in Kansas Sports venues completed in 1911 University and college buildings completed in 1911 {{Kansas-stadium-stub