Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium is the home

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 either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

for the

Chiawana High School Chiawana High School is a four-year public secondary school in Pasco, Washington, the second traditional high school of Pasco School District #1. Opened in 2009 with 1600 students in grades 9, 10, and 11, CHS graduated its first senior class ...

Riverhawks and Pasco High School Bulldogs of Pasco,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The school's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and

track-and-field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping event ...

teams play their home games at "Edgar Brown", as it is commonly called. As well as being the home of the Pasco High Bulldogs for sports and Chiawana High Riverhawks for football, the stadium is home to the Pasco Invitational, the nation's oldest high school

single-day competition, and the largest single day track-and-field competition of any kind, which is always held on the first weekend of April.

History

The stadium was built inside the bowl of a former gravel pit used in the construction of the Pioneer Memorial Bridge (now referred locally as the Blue Bridge), which links

Kennewick Kennewick () is a city in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the C ...

and Pasco, Washington. As Pasco grew, citizens considered the gravel pit to be an eyesore that did not fit with the expanding city. Eventually, the land's owner Edgar Brown sold the property to the school district for $25,000, and Brown stipulated that the land must be used for a stadium. At the time Pasco High School had been playing their games at the junior high school. On Friday, September 13, 1957, Pasco High School played their first game against Walla Walla High School and won the game 16–14. Up until an hour and a half before the game started, school superintendent Herman Haeger feared the stadium would not be ready as only three of the six towers of lights functioned properly. On April 14, 1962 the first annual 'Pasco Invitational' occurred. The invitational hosted entrants from eight schools in the area, with Eisenhower High School from Yakima winning the team scoring with 55 points, and rounding out the top-three were

Kennewick High School Kennewick High School is a public high school located in eastern Kennewick, Washington. It was founded in 1904 to serve the educational needs of the new city of Kennewick. It is one of only a few schools to have its music department honored with t ...

and Pasco High School with 45 and 42 points respectively. In 2002, a voter-approved bond issue funded a major renovation of the stadium, which included the partial-demolition of the former Emerson Elementary which was transformed into a Boys & Girls Club. Emerson Elementary received a new building north of the stadium. A community-led fund-raising effort later added a FieldTurf playing surface to the stadium, making it the second stadium in the Tri-City area to have an

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

stadium (

Neil F. Lampson Stadium Kennewick High School is a public high school located in eastern Kennewick, Washington. It was founded in 1904 to serve the educational needs of the new city of Kennewick. It is one of only a few schools to have its music department honored with t ...

in nearby Kennewick was the first). With the opening of

in 2009, Chiawana played its first game at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium against

Hanford High School Hanford High School is a public high school located on the northern edge of Richland, Washington. It is part of the Richland School District. The school's mascot is the falcon, and its school colors are purple and gold. The high school, buil ...

on September 11, 2009. Chiawana High School won the game with a score of 21–14 marking their first win at Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium and the first football win for the school.

Name

Edgar Brown Memorial Stadium was named after Edgar Monroe Brown who owned the land where the stadium now resides. Brown sold the property to the school district for $25,000, and for the deal to be finalized Brown stipulated that the land must be used for a stadium. Brown died and was buried during the spring of 1957 before the stadium hosted its first event on September 13 of the same year. Before the opening of the stadium, a decision was made to name the stadium in honor of Mr. Brown and the name has remained ever since.

References

{{Reflist Sports in the Tri-Cities, Washington Sports venues in Washington (state) Pasco, Washington Buildings and structures in Franklin County, Washington