Drake Field was named for John Hodges Drake III, who served as the college physician from 1873 until 1926 and who donated the land for the field.[2] The field was inaugurated on October 7, 1911, with the college football team's 29–0 win over Mercer. Two months later on the field, Auburn High School played the program's first football game, against Sidney Lanier High School, on November 25, 1911.[3]
Auburn High School continued to play football at the stadium until moving to their on-campus stadium Ross Field in 1921; they returned to Drake Field in 1935 after outgrowing that facility.[4] Both the high school and the college football teams moved to adjacent Auburn Stadium, today Jordan–Hare Stadium, in 1939. The college baseball team continued playing at Drake Field until 1949, when they moved to Plainsman Park. The field remained until the construction of the Haley Center in the late 1960s. Drake Field today sits on the site of the Auburn University student union.
References
^Fred Turbyville, The Blue Book of College Athletics (Baltimore: F. Turbyville, 1939), 39.
^"Auburn Men Glory in Athletic Field", Montgomery Advertiser, October 13, 1911; Mickey Logue and Jack Simms, Auburn: A Pictorial History of the Loveliest Village(Auburn: s.n., 1996), 64.
^"Auburn Men Glory in Athletic Field", Montgomery Advertiser, October 13, 1911; AHSFHS.org, "Auburn - 1911", retrieved August 16, 2008.
^Opelika Daily News, September 21, 1921Opelika Daily News, November 2, 1935.