Skip to Main Content
No alt text provided.

Williams Stadium

Williams Stadium and Townsend Field

The resurgence of athletics following World War II necessitated enhanced facilities at the College. Townsend Field led the way in 1953 when the College built a new outdoor complex dedicated to the memory of Horace R. Townsend, a member of the Class of 1909, the former Ohio commissioner of high school athletics and, at the time of his unexpected death in 1944, chair of the College's Board of Trustees. The lighted field originally featured a graded grass gridiron, 440-yard cinder track and grandstand seating 1,100 spectators. In 1983, the entire complex was upgraded and became known as Williams Stadium in memory of David R. Williams, Class of 1950, and his wife, Elizabeth. Artificial field turf was installed in 2008 and again in 2020 and new lights went up in 2008, which accommodated night games and other evening activities that were unable to be staged since the original lights had been removed in the 1970s. In 2020, the College's greater outdoor athletics complex includes the Delaney-Tewksbury Baseball Diamond (1981), Beckett Track (1994), a softball field, cross country trails through Hazard Arboretum, and the former Charlie Gilhart Soccer Field (1989-2013), which is now a smaller training facility equipped with field turf. The Center for Sport Sciences was built over the eastern part of the original Gilhart Field.