Chamberlain Field was used by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from 1908 to mid-October 1997; it replaced the usage of Olympic Park Field as their primary home venue, and was replaced by Finley Stadium.

Overall, NC State had a record of 1-0 at this field, playing its lone game as a true road non-conference game.

  * Non-conference games

Prospects for an on-campus stadium at University of Chattanooga emerged as a possibility in the fall of 1907, when the lease on a former horse pasture next to the school went up for sale [1]. The following March, plans for the field began materializing more solidly. University officials envisioned a multi-sport complex capable of hosting football, baseball, tennis, and track and field sports. Almost immediately, it was widely agreed to name the field for Hiram S. Chamberlain, a prominent figure in the southern iron industry and long-time president and cabinet member at the university [2]. Work on the complex began in early March, with initial plans calling for seating capable of holding 2,000 spectators. The grounds were built in stages, with officials hoping to have the baseball diamond ready by April 15th, and the football field and cinder track by May 1st [3].

After numerous delays, the field opened on June 3rd for a game of baseball between the Chattanooga Cubs, of the local "City League," and the University's baseball squad; the Cubs won 4-2. The new field's facilities faced some construction difficulties, and ultimately opened with granstand seating for 500-600 and a total capacity of about 1,000-1,200, with the expectation to build more seating "when the patronage increases." The grandstands and bleachers were placed on the southeast corner of the field [4].

The grandstands were replaced prior to the 1920 season; the 12-year-old stands had become an "ocean [of] wavy ups and downs," and portions of it had collapsed and been repaired numerous times over the years [5]. The work was probably largely restorative in nature, as an article later that season stated a crowd of just 2,000 taxed the venue so heavily people were forced to crowd onto the field. The crowding was caused largely by persons entering the "practically open park" through numerous holes in the fences, especially those on the west and north sides of the park.

To help put an end to this, the school planned to build bleachers along the north sideline prior to the 1922 season; this had the added benefit of creating more seats with good a good view of the game, but also forced the school to remove the space's baseball functionality [6]. New "box seats" were also added to the front of the bleachers [7]. The plans were not fully executed: prior to the big 1922 Sewanee-Tennessee game, it was noted that the north side of the field would be used for automobile reservations. The box seats, on the other hand, were installed. [8] [9]. Whatever the case, the stadium's seating capacity remained below 4,000, probably by a considerable margin [10]. An article from October 1923 reported that the field could hold 2,500 "by using a row of [temporary] circus seats on the north side of the field," however it is unclear if this figure reflects the venue's capacity in 1922 or early in the 1923 football season, while construction was still underway [16].

Between December 1922 and September 1923, "new bleachers, containing box seats and modern equipment" were built, and the stadium was generally expanded; additionally, to make room for a new 1/5th-mile cinder track (and 220-yard straightaway), the field was shifted northwards "a little toward Vine street" [11] [12] [13]. Work on extending the original southern bleachers westerward was nearly complete by August, as was the construction of wooden bleachers on the north side of the field for student and band use [14] [15]. Though the construction of the north side bleachers lagged behind schedule, the field eventually opened with a capacity for more than 5,000 persons, with grandstand capacity in particular more than doubled [17] [18].

In October 1926, plans began emerging to replace the "unseemly wooden bleachers" constituting the south grandstands with a concrete bleacher; this was expected to expand the venue's capacity to 8,000 (the concrete bleachers making up 6,500 of the total), and hopefully draw larger games back to the stadium [19] [20]. Work on the stands, which became known as South Stadium Dormitory, was completed prior to the 1927 football season. The project, made in conjunction with the local Kiwanis Club, cost over $65,000 (over a million dollars in 2023) [31]. The stadium was designed by architect James G. Gauntt, who is more remembered now for his work on nearby Engel Stadium, long-time home of the Chattanooga Lookouts minor league baseball team.

When it opened anew in 1927, some briefly called the stadium "New Chamberlain Field." To that point, some football researchers claim the erection of the concrete stands yielded a new venue, splitting the field's lifecycle into Chamberlain Field (I) and Chamberlain Field (II). One could get very philisophical about the whole thing (à la Ship of Theseus), but to keep things brief, I do not consider this to constitute a new venue.

The next major addition to the stadium was the construction of lights in 1935; work was completed prior to the start of the season. To celebrate the new lights, the Moccasins played three Friday night games that season [21]. A few years later, the post-war explosion in college attendance generated by the GI Bill meant the university desperately needed more dormatories for student housing; to remedy this, the university made a second combination dormitory-bleacher on the north sideline. Work took place from 1946-1949 on the near-replica structure, though ultimately the northern bleachers only ever stretched from one endzone to the other 20, rather than the entire length of the field.

The work eventually added about 8,600 seats, bringing the venue's total capacity to 15,000, as well as 106 rooms for incoming students; the stadium was also shifted west slightly [22] [23]. About a third of the new bleachers were ready by the time the 1947 football season started, allowing the club to host about 11,000 spectators, though the stands lacked wooden benches for the opening game [24] [25]. The work was "approximately 75 per cent completed" by the following season (bringing the capacity to roughly 13,000) and finally formally completed in late October 1949 [26] [27]. The dormitories were called North Stadium.

Those numbers appear to be either greatly overestimated or include overflow capacities; though I've found no evidence of further renovations, the stadium's reported capacity dwindled with each passing year, going from 12,000 in the 1950s and '60s to just 10,500 in the 1970s; it remained at that number for the remainder of its life, though supplemental bleachers could be constructed when needed to raise the capacity by about 2,000 persons [28] [29] [30]. As the years passed, half of the dormitories below the north stands were converted to an ROTC space, while the south stands had seen use as a band and orchestra building for decades [32].

By the nineties, the space's time was coming to an end. Though among the oldest college football venues in the NCAA, several prominent boosters and football administrators had long been voicing an interest in leaving the aging venue. One columnist noted that "Bricks are missing from the facade" of the "crumbling" field's exterior, while other fans noted the stadium's propensity for flooding, sloped end zones (one side was nicknamed "the bullpen" for its steep incline), and classrooms located close enough to the field that errant kicks often resulted in broken windows [33] [34].

Then, there were the safety concerns: "It's literally dangerous on the sidelines because the stands are too close [to the field]," noted then-coach Buddy Nix. "We've had people catch passes and run out the gate. Plus, there's a road not a foot from the end zone. Some of our receivers have fallen on it trying to making diving catches. It's dangerous," he reiterated [35].

The Moccasins moved into Finley Stadium part-way through the 1997 season, opening the season with three home wins at Chamberlain Field before inaugurating their new field located just over a mile away. The north stands fell first, with demolition starting in March 2005 [36]. South Dormitory succumbed in July 2011, with all of the area now turned into an open green space; it still bears the name "Chamberlain Field." South Stadium's entrance, which bore the name of the field, still remains as a decorative archway [34].

Pictures of Chamberlain Field