Steele Stadium Centennial

Pete DeKever- reprinted with permission from the Mishawaka Enterprise

Over the past century, the athletic facility at the corner of Linden and Gernhart Avenues

has gone by several different names. Though its surroundings and appearance have changed, the

battleground where generations of athletes have practiced and competed has endured. On

September 18, Mishawaka High’s football field will turn 100 years old, a fitting occasion to

celebrate one of Indiana’s most storied high school sports venues.

Origins

When the Chicago architectural firm of Perkins, Fellows & Hamilton was designing the

new Mishawaka High School on Lincoln Way East, the campus plan included a football field

north of the building on property bounded by Gernhart Avenue, Linden Avenue, and Studebaker

Street. According to the 1946 Miskodeed yearbook, soil was brought in from the Mishawaka

Hills, deposited by glaciers thousands of years earlier, to fill in the land that became the famous

gridiron.

When classes started on September 2, 1924, the school building was far from finished.

Construction workers had scrambled to ensure that classrooms and the industrial arts wing were

ready for student use. The spacious gymnasium would not be available until December, and the

cornerstone-laying ceremony for the magnificent auditorium only occurred on September 11.

That facility would open on May 5, and the adjacent new cafeteria was first used on May 14.

Completing the football field and track was a lesser priority than getting the building

open and finished. School officials knew that the football field would not be available for the

1924 season, but they hoped it could be used the following year.

In the meantime, Mishawaka gridders would play their home games elsewhere. In 1923,

the Maroon and White had used Dodge Field, near the intersection of Laurel and Tenth Streets.

The next year, Mishawaka, under Coach Frank Steele, played three games at the Ball-Band

athletic fields, located on the east side of Cedar Street and south of Jefferson Boulevard. In 1925,

J.W. Fink, who owned the land, again offered his facility for the first two home contests, and

Mishawaka High installed bleachers to seat 1,100 spectators. It was initially hoped that the high

school field would be ready for the season finale against Elkhart, but that did not occur. In the

end, the Maroons played all three home games at Ball-Band Field.

Mishawaka finished the 1925 season with an 8-0 record, outscored its opponents by a

281-29 margin, and claimed the mythical state championship. By any measure, the 1925 team

was the greatest in the long history of Mishawaka High football, yet it never played a single

down on the field that would later witness so much history. With many talented veterans

returning, Coach Steele’s Cavemen hoped to continue their winning ways in 1926, aided by a

true home field advantage for several games.

1926

As late as February 24, there was still uncertainty about whether Mishawaka’s new

football field would be ready for the 1926 season. “It is possible that again this year the sod of

the field north of the school plant will not be heavy enough to withstand the tear of football

cleats,” a South Bend Tribune article reported. “The grass was drilled in by machine, it is said,

and was not sowed. Consequently the grass appears in tufts that will not be able to stand the test

of a game. It is hoped that some action will be taken this spring to insure the readiness of the

field.”

In the following months, this issue was resolved, and Mishawaka was able to play its

season-opener at the new athletic field on Saturday afternoon, September 18 against Lowell. The

pre-game dedication ceremony consisted of the high school band performing “The Star-Spangled

Banner” and a contingent of Boy Scouts raising the American flag. An arrangement of maroon

and white flowers in the shape of a horseshoe was given to team captain Mark Kline by

McGowan Floral Shop.

The Cavemen then proceeded to demolish their visitors from Lake County. Ralph

Kreiter’s two-yard touchdown run put Mishawaka on the board, and Al Eminger’s 50-yard punt

return and Burton Doyle’s extra point made the score 13-0. In the second quarter, Doyle threw a

25-yard strike to Eminger, who crossed the goal line and increased the hosts’ advantage to 19-0.

Doyle then scored on a 50-yard run and made the point after to give the Maroons a 26-0 lead at

halftime.

Mishawaka began using its reserves in the third quarter, but Lowell was unable to keep

the Cavemen out of the end zone. Eminger and Francis Denman each scored on 30-yard runs,

and Mishawaka was on top, 38-0, going into the final period. Doyle made a 30-yard touchdown

run and the extra point, and he then threw a 30-yard pass to Joe Dentino, who scampered 16

yards to the goal line. Doyle added one more rushing touchdown, making the final score

Mishawaka 57, Lowell 0.

Not all of Mishawaka’s performances in 1926 would be so dominant, but the Cavemen

were outstanding and completed another 8-0 season with home wins against Marion and LaPorte

and road victories over Goshen, Elwood, Peru, South Bend (at Cartier Field), and Elkhart.

Mishawaka outscored its opponents 232-39 and staked its claim to a share of a second straight

mythical state championship.

With their first season of football at Mishawaka School Field in the books, the Cavemen

had begun a tradition that would include hundreds of home victories and many memorable

moments in the ensuing decades.

1935 Champs

The 1935 edition of the Maroons, coached by Russell Arndt, won the Eastern Division of

the Northern Indiana High School Conference and earned a spot in the league title game against

Western Division winner Gary Horace Mann. That contest was played at Mishawaka School

Field on Saturday afternoon, November 23.

Starting at 4 a.m., senior fullback Leon DeWitte had worked an eight-hour shift in the hot

kitchen at Fobe’s Bakery and had just 90 minutes to get to Mishawaka High, put on his uniform,

and warm up before kickoff. That afternoon, DeWitte was one of the Maroons’ stars, scoring a

point after, sprinting for a 38-yard gain, and tackling future Heisman Trophy winner Tom

Harmon on the Mishawaka 9 yard line, preventing a score. The Cavemen made touchdowns in

the second and fourth quarters and defeated the Horsemen, 14-0, for the school’s first conference

title and fourth mythical state championship. DeWitte was later chosen Most Valuable Player by

his teammates, which earned him the Gilbert Award trophy.

Lights

During the first 11 seasons of football played at Mishawaka School Field, games had to

be held on Saturday afternoons due to the absence of lights. The first major league baseball night

game was played at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field in May 1935, and other sports venues were soon

planning to play their events under the bright lights.

The era of night football began at Mishawaka High on September 11, 1937. In the weeks

prior, the school had installed a $3,200 lighting system with ten 60’ poles that each held four

1,500-watt lamps. The poles were placed between the track and the football field, and trenches

were dug in which to lay the underground cables connecting the poles. Mishawaka Electric

Department workers wired the lights.

In a game that started at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Coach Arndt’s Cavemen used a different

kind of power to light up St. Hedwige, 52-0, and annex the first win of the season. A crowd of

2,500 watched Mishawaka score seven touchdowns and amass 407 rushing yards against the

hapless Lions.

W.P.A. Bleachers

Adding lights to Mishawaka School Field was only the beginning of efforts to modernize

the facility.

On February 22, 1938, Supt. P.C. Emmons announced a partnership with the Works

Progress Administration, a federal work-relief program, to build bleachers made of reinforced

concrete and brick for Mishawaka High’s football field. Engineer Charles Cole of South Bend

was hired to make the designs, which initially called for construction of stands on the west side

of the field only. By July, President Franklin Roosevelt had approved $58,895 for the Mishawaka

High concrete bleachers, which would be 300’ long and 44’ wide at the base and have a seating

capacity of more than 4,000 persons. The school board would provide $11,410 to help fund the

project.

Because the new stands would not be completed before the 1938 football season began,

the existing wooden bleachers would be moved to the east side of the field for use that fall.

Construction began on August 10 as a dozen W.P.A. workers started digging at the

worksite. Beginning at the north end, forms were set up for the first of six sections before the end

of September, and concrete was poured during the second week of October. Crews were able to

form and pour a section per week, resulting in the bleachers’ rapid progress southward.

On November 18, Mishawaka school officials announced that the W.P.A. would also

build bleachers on the east side of the field for a cost of $70,305. The federal government would

cover most of this expense, and the school system would contribute $11,400.

The east bleachers were 20 yards longer than their western counterpart and had eight

sections but were four rows shorter. Plans called for the east stands to be finished before the first

home game, ensuring that Mishawaka would begin the 1939 campaign in what the Tribune

predicted would be “one of the finest prep football stadiums in the state.” Construction began on

April 26.

When the Mishawaka Lions Club toured the site on May 4, athletic director Frank Steele

proudly explained that the stadium would have a seating capacity of 8,000 and that temporary

bleachers in the end zones could add another 1,500.

For the home opener against Mooseheart (Illinois) Academy on September 8, the

Cavemen were an underdog to the Red Ramblers. Approximately 4,500 fans were present to

witness both teams struggle mightily on offense, and the game ended in an unusual 0-0 tie.

Mishawaka High School Stadium, as it was now called, saw the hosts drop a 6-0 decision

to Gary Tolleston the next week. Home victories did eventually come, though. The Cavemen

defeated Goshen, Elkhart, and Clinton before the season finale against Riley on November 10.

The Riley contest included an impressive pregame dedication of the new stadium. Some

6,500 people watched a fireworks display spell out “Dedicating M.H.S. Stadium” to start the

event. One hundred fifty alumni who were football lettermen paraded into the stadium behind the

marching band, the American flag was raised near the south end zone, and the Mishawaka and

Riley bands together played “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Supt. Emmons; A.P. Crabtree, the state

W.P.A. educational supervisor; and Charles Bingham, school board president, all spoke, and a

letter of greetings from Arthur Trester, commissioner of the Indiana High School Athletic

Association, was read. At halftime, both schools’ bands performed.

There was also a football game. Mishawaka won, 3-0, which the Mishawaka Enterprise

described as “the crowning touch to a successful program.”