Clark Field (1928)

Clark Field, with the famous goat path and hill visible in the outfield. LBJ Library can be seen in the background, to the east/southeast. Memorial Stadium is just out of frame, located behind the right field wall.

Clark Field was a baseball park in Austin, Texas, used primarily by the University of Texas Longhorns. The field was used from 1928 until 1974. It is considered one of the most novel ballparks ever conceived thanks to its location. There was a limestone cliff in the outfield that created havoc for outfielders and made baseball games exciting.^[1] It was replaced by UFCU Disch-Falk Field in 1975.

Cliff

Clark Field was unusual because there was a 12- to 30-foot (9.1 m) limestone cliff that ran from left-center to center field that made playing the outfield adventurous. The cliff could only be accessed via a goat path in the left-center field. Center field was nicknamed "Billy Goat Hill."^[2] There was a scoreboard on top of the hill in the field in front of the fence that could cause even more weird bounces for outfielders. Clearly, this gave the Longhorns a home field advantage over visiting teams. For example, the Longhorns could easily get an inside-the-park home run when a ball was hit in the direction of the cliff because the opposing outfielders were perplexed by its caroms and how to make plays by using the cliff. Longhorn outfielders could typically hold batters to a double or triple because of their familiarity with the cliff. Half of the team's outfielders purportedly chose to play on top while the other half chose to play in front of the cliff.^[3]

Atmosphere

While the ballpark had an irregular outfield, the stadium only sat 2,000. The stadium had an intimate yet palatial feeling that mirrored other jewel box ballparks such as Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Tiger Stadium.^[4]^[5] Once when the Texas A&M Aggies visited Clark Field, the crowd overflowed into right field and rowdiness ensued, which happened regularly when other visiting teams played there as well. In the late 1960s, the Sam Houston State Bearkats regularly opened with weekend doubleheaders in Austin.

Miscellaneous

According to legend, Lou Gehrig hit a towering 550-foot (170 m) home run over "Billy Goat Hill" and the 40-foot (12 m) high fence in center field during a 1930 exhibition game.^[6] The dimensions of Clark Field were 350 feet (110 m) to the left field wall, 401 feet (122 m) to deepest center, and 300 feet (91 m) to right field.^[7]^[8] Six no-hitters were thrown at Clark Field all by the Longhorns during its tenure.^[9] The Longhorns won an astonishing 37 Southwest Conference baseball championships as well as two College World Series championships (1949-1950), being runner-up in 1953 and College World Series appearances in 1952, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, and 1974 while calling Clark Field home.

Clark Fields

There have been three athletic facilities on the campus named for the university's influential early leader James Benjamin Clark.

The first Clark Field, at the southeast corner of 24th Street and Speedway, operated from 1887 through 1927, then was closed for the construction of the Mechanical Engineering Building a.k.a. Taylor Hall. The field was located a couple of blocks northwest of Memoral Stadium.

For 1928 the second and best-known Clark Field was inaugurated, north of Memorial Stadium, on the northwest corner of 23rd Street and Red River Street. That corner was the location of center field, as the diamond was in the northwest corner of the lot. Red River was later renamed Campus Drive, and the current thoroughfare designated as Red River Street is a block farther east, on the other side of the LBJ Library. That building is visible in the background of some of the later photos of Clark Field.

That same year, 1928, a recreation area called Freshman Field was opened, just southwest of Memorial Stadium, at a location given by the UT writeup as "east of Waller Creek between 19th and 21st Streets", although it appears that it was actually west of Waller Creek.

For 1975 the baseball team moved to their new ballpark, and Clark Field was closed to allow construction of the College of Fine Arts and the Performing Arts Center. Freshman Field was soon renamed as the third Clark Field. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Clark Field property underwent significant redevelopment, but a portion of the field was retained as Clark Field, a roughly oval-shaped field surrounded by a track. The current field is bounded by the creek and San Jacinto Boulevard to the northeast, east and southeast; and touched by Jester Circle to the west. The rest of the field is bounded by campus buildings.

Sources

"Green Cathedrals," Philip J. Lowry, c.2006

References

Texas Longhorns baseball

Venues	Clark Field I (1894–1927) Clark Field II (1928–1974) UFCU Disch-Falk Field (1975–present)

People	Award winners Notable players

Seasons	1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

National Championships in bold; College World Series appearances in italics

Coordinates: 30°17′09″N 97°43′52″W / 30.28583°N 97.73111°W / 30.28583; -97.73111

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