Duke's Jack Katz Stadium began life as Duke's multi-use football and baseball field, and served their football team from 1920 (when the program was revived) until 1928; it replaced Trinity Park (aka Hanes Field I) and was replaced by Wallace Wade Stadium.

Overall, NC State had a record of 2-0 at this field, playing and defeating Duke both times as true road non-conference games.

  * Non-conference games

Trinity College moved to Durham in 1892, and for the first decade of their scholastic life, Trinity Park (renamed Hanes Field I in 1900) served as their athletic park. Starting as early as 1906, though, dissatisfaction grew regarding the location of the park, both because it was somewhat difficult to access and because it disrupted "the beauty of the campus." After several years of inaction, in 1910-11, plans to improve a plot of land just west of campus were combined with a plan to harmonize the layout of the buildings to create a more balanced visual of the campus.

Despite the reported completion of the new athletic zone in 1911, few athletic action took place there; as best as I can tell, the extent of athletic use in the first half decade was for some Fall baseball practice in 1913, supposedly arranged to help determine the best layout for the multi-use field. Otherwise, the field appears to have gone disused as construction difficulties plagued the venue, ranging from drainage issues to difficulties enclosing the grounds. One of the problems was that two consecutive brick firms awarded the contract for the fence went under before they could follow through. Once the bricks finally came, they were delivered right to the center of the field -- where they sat throughout the 1914 baseball season, prohibiting play. Though reports indicated the intention of shifting Hanes Field I's grandstand to the new field, it does not appear as if such a change ever fomented; in , The final linchpin was the construction of a grandstand. Mocking old promises of a seating section of concrete construction, one Trinity Chronicle writer quipped in early February 1915 that "there is nothing concrete about this grandstand," elaborating that "it exists in theory alone" [1] [2].

Perhaps this barb provided the necessary spark to move the college to action: later that month, it was reported that the baseball diamond and cinder track had already been completed and that a wooden grandstand and two bleachers (holding between 1,000 and 1,400 persons) were being erected, though the more befitting concrete stands would come. The Trinity Chronicle had sardonically reported the previous September that announcements of "New Athletic field to be in use soon" had become "time-worn," warning that "Haste is needed, or the trump of Gabriel will put an end to operations." Perhaps the jabs proved to be the motivation staff needed to bring the hill over the hump: New Hanes Athletic Field (also known as Hanes Field II) opened on March 20th, 1915 with a game against Trinity Park School and was dedicated four days later, with Trinity playing host to the University of Vermont's baseball team [2] [3].

Over the course of the next couple decades, the stadium was improved a handful of times. The first major change was the addition of new bleachers for the resuscitated football program, which came in 1920; in addition to the new stands (seating roughly 4,000 persons), new dressing rooms were also added. In 1922, the capacity was doubled by the addition of "knock down" bleachers on the north side of the field, to about 7,500. Another couple years later, the field was further enlarged, going over all the old seats and enlarging the southern bleachers; the addition of 2,500 seats put the capacity at 10,000 persons, the venue's final reported capacity. In the latter work, an up-to-date scoreboard was also added, allowing viewers to find the quarter, score, down, score by quarter, and yards to gain [4].

Hanes Field II ultimately proved to be a fairly short-lived home for Duke's baseball and football teams for a couple reasons. First and foremost, it was considered too small for much of its life, especially after the Blue Devil's nascent football program found early success. Secondly, Duke elected to transfer all male students to their new West Campus in 1930, replacing the venue with Duke Stadium (now Wallace Wade Stadium) and Duke Park (now Jack Coombs Field) for football and baseball, respectively. After the 1930 baseball season, Hanes Field, eschewed by the men, became the domain of Duke's female contingent. Through the early 1930s and 1940s, this was primarily in the form of field hockey, horseback riding, and campus festivities, ranging from May Day celebrations to fraternity rushes to a freshman initiation ritual called Dink-Bow Day, where women had to wear their clothes backwards and men donned freshman caps. Perhaps the most major athletic event for the next few decades was in 1936, when Duke's women hosted the US National Field Hockey team [5] [6].

Women's field hockey has remained the most persistent user of the field for much of its life, despite a brief lull in activities in the 1960s, besides usage by the rugby scrummers from the late 1960s to 1970s. Since field hockey was reestablished in 1971, the program has only left the venue from 1990-1995, when the team played at West Campus Turf Field (no longer extant; demolished 2018-19 for Chilled Water Plant No. 3, at the intersection of Anderson St and Bynum Street). They returned in 1996 after the grounds were upfitted free of charge with an Astroturf surface after the university elected to move all freshman athletics to that area, believing the increased usage would trample the natural grass. The grounds were upfit with permanent seats about 1999, when it was renamed Williams Field; following the 2006 field hockey season, the turf was replaced and 1,500 bleacher seats were added. In 2008, Jack Katz Stadium was added to the name [7].

Pictures of Jack Katz Stadium