Maher Field I opened in 1906 as Roanoke's second Fair Grounds, replacing Roanoke's Athletic Park. It was replaced by Victory Stadium for football. A baseball diamond bearing the same name remains on the western portion of the original lot; see the Victory Stadium page for more details.
Overall, NC State had a record of 1-1 in two games, both of which were conference affairs.
Date
Opponent
Time
Ranking
Result
Attendance
Length
Comments
11/14/1914
vs Virginia Tech
2 PM
-
L, 0 - 3
400
60 min.
11/1/1919
vs Virginia Military Institute
3 PM
-
W, 21 - 0
2,500
60 min.
* Non-conference games
In late 1905, the Tidewater Railway purchased the grounds of Roanoke's agricultural fair. Taking the change in stride, the fair association purchased the lands immediately to their south and opened Fair Grounds II, bringing the old grandstand, which sat about 2,500 persons, with them. A second grandstand, seating about 4,000 persons, was also built. These, as well as 1,500 bleacher seats (creating a total seated capacity of 8,000 persons), were all placed on the south side of the field, abutting the river, so they could be used for both baseball and horse racing action. Additional bleachers were added along the first base line in 1909 and 1910, while the box seats were replaced in 1912 and temporary stands were placed inside the race track for the 1914 football season [1].
Early in the morning of October 1st, 1919, right at the start of football season, disaster struck when both grandstands burnt to the ground. Unbelievably, the major college football games (of which NC State's contest against the Virginia Military Institute was the first) were not relocated to a new venue; instead, ownership went through the herculean effort of rebuilding the stands in the interim. About 3,000 seats were ready in time for the first fray, while about 4,500 seats were ready for the Thanksgiving game later that month. Another 3,000 bleacher seats were added during the 1920 football season. In 1922, 1,200 bleachers were added to the north side of the field and 500 to the east side of the field, providing accommodations for 10,300 persons [2].
The Fair Grounds were sold in 1922 to David W. Flickwir, a chairperson for the Norfolk & Western Railroad, who flipped the property a year later to the rail company. N&W President Nicholas D. Maher announced that the grounds had nominally been acquired with rail expansion in mind, but fairs and athletic events hosted at the site would continue without interruption. Actual intentions were most likely more multifaceted: firstly, the locomotive syndicate could improve the grounds in an effort to host more excursion trains for special athletic events, and secondly, the grounds allowed Norfolk & Western to engender intra-company athletics and bolster employee morale. N&W purchased the field for about $150,000 (over $2.8 million in 2025) [3].
Immediately after taking charge of the grounds, Norfolk & Western enlarged the field by extending the grandstand on each side, pushing capacity to about 15,500 persons. At this time, papers began clamoring for the grounds to be renamed Maher Field (or Stadium) in honor of the rail magnate's magnanimity; though some reporters began using the name as early as November 1923, it was not formally renamed in late October 1924. A rash of expansion closed out the roaring 20s, with 2,258 seats added behind the northern bleachers in 1928, another 2,500 in 1929, and 350 stands in 1930 pushing seating from 18,000 to 20,000 to 20,350 resectively. The first documented scoreboard was installed in 1928 [4].
Despite a few additional improvements (a new press box added to the north bleachers in 1934, a new scoreboard and public address system in 1936, and a field house in 1939), the field began showing its age. By the late 1930s, several reporters had taken to calling the venue the "Splinter Bowl" in reference to the worn-out wooden seating around the field. Athletic authorities at Virginia Tech and VMI began bandying for their long-standing "Military Classic of the South" to be relocated to new digs for the first time since 1905; rumors pointed predominantly towards Lynchburg's new concrete City Stadium. And after 1932, the grounds became sub-prime for baseball when N&W authorities stopped taking down football bleachers, with hits over the northern bleachers resulting in a home run by rule [5].
Starting in 1939, Roanoke agreed to lease the land from Norfolk & Western for three years provided the owners completed a series of improvements, primarily the construction of a fieldhouse and the rehabilitation of the race track. As part of the improvements, the seats were renumbered, lowering capacity to 19,700. At the same time, a move was afoot for Roanoke to solve not only the city's absence of a modern athletic venue, but also another source of civic disappointment: Roanoke's lack of an armory. Like many other cities at the time, the Star City of the South elected to kill two birds with one stone and have the structures cohabitate on a single plot of land, keeping local costs down via WPA assistance. Roanoke elected to tear down old Maher Field and construct Victory Stadium on the property, which was donated to the city after just a year of rental; preliminary reports indicated the field demolition would begin after the 1940 edition of the VMI-VPI game and be complete in time for the following year's festivity [6] [7].
Before that could be completed, though, the river made sure its voice was heard. Though the field had been flooded before -- major incidents were also noted in 1910 and 1932 -- never before had the damage been quite so major as the August 1940 flood, which dealt some premature demolition to the site, knocking down the old exhibition building, as well as sweeping away several bleachers and a few sections of fencing. While the grounds were recovering (and to keep the field in good condition for the semi-pro Dixie League games hosted by the nascent Roanoke Travelers), temporary stands, seating between 5,000 and 5,500 persons, were built and used through mid-October, when repairs to the main stadium had been completed. These stands, located just west of the regular athletic field, were also oriented running east-west, inside the original Fair Grounds' racetrack.
Demolition of the old wooden field began in late April 1941 once the deed was formally transferred, destroying the racetrack, grandstand, and eastern bleachers; the northern and western stands were spared initially since they did not interfere with work. Work lagged as war efforts, funding problems, and a shortage of steel compounded to the point that all collegiate football games were relocated, with Roanoke losing the Military Classic to Lynchburg for a season. In the interim, the temporary western field, which had historically been Jefferson High School's practice field, was pressed back into service. This time, the non-demolished stands of old Maher Field were utilized, providing capacity for somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 persons in a north-south orientation mirroring the coming stadium. Despite the construction, the city still managed to provide temporary lights [8] [9].
The 1941 season proved what is technically the end of Maher Field's life. However, Maher Field lives on to this day in the form of a baseball diamond at the west end of the property called Maher Field II; see the Victory Stadium page for details.
Map of the Fair Grounds from 1919. Most football and baseball action was held in front of the grandstand, the yellow structure at the eastern edge of the track's southern straightaway. Part of the 1940 and all of the 1941 season were played to the immediate west of that location [10]
Approximate location of River's Edge Park on a modern map of Roanoke.
Pictures of Maher Field
Two aerial images of the Fairgrounds / Maher Field site. The first shows the transition from the old Fairgrounds to the new one location, taken from the top of Mill Mountain circa 1906. The second image is from 1924; the more developed athletic field in front of the grandstands was the primary playing surface, while the patchier land to the west of it was the Jefferson High School practice field which was utilized in the last couple years of the venue's life [11]
Early photos of fair activities. The first image is from the cover of the 1908 fair flyer, while the second is of a plane preparing for takeoff in 1910 [11] [12]
A series of photos taken during the 1913 Virginia Tech-Washington & Lee game. The first two photos make a sort of panoramic of the grounds from the grandstand, with the railway's turntable in the background. The final image shows the endzone [13]
More images from the 1910s; the first is from the 1914 edition of the Military Classic of the South between VPI and VMI, while the second and third are still images of local teams, with the former showing the 1913 Roanoke High School football team at the southeast corner of the grounds, while the dual grandstands can be seen in the background of the latter, which is of an unspecified baseball team [14] [15] [16]
Pictures of baseball at Maher Field. The first image is the opening game of the 1925 season, while the next two are of the 1923 Norfolk & Western championship game between Bluefield and Roanoke. The fourth image is also dated 1923, but may be from a different game [16]
Football at Maher Field in the 1920s and 1930s. The first image and second images are of the the 1933 edition of the Military Classic game, facing southeast and northeast, respectively. The third image, which is undated, offers a similar, but more elevated, view to the first image, while the fourth image shows the 1927 William & Mary-Roanoke game [16] [17]
Renovations to the park in the late 1930s. The first image shows the press box in the background during the 1940 John Marshall-Jefferson High football game, while the second and third show the construction and completion of the new field house. The fourth image shows some of the new paved walks added to the complex, as well as bolstered bleacher support [18] [7]
Scenes from 1940, with the first three images showing damage from the 1940 flood to the fences and exhibit building, respectively. The fourth, fifth, and sixth images show some of the few shots of relocated football during the 1940 season, with one image from Jefferson's game against Danville and two from their game against Granby [9] [19]
Images showing the last general action at the proper Maher Field in the original grandstand. The first three images are from a couple automotive events in the summer of 1940, while the remainder all show the field's final college football game, on Thanksgiving 1940 between the Virginia Military Institute and Virginia Tech. The fourth image shows VPI's cadets in formation on the field, while the photographers who took the picture can probably be seen standing atop the grandstand in the fifth photo; the grandstand is also visible in the sixth image. The seventh and eigth photos offer good images of the other seating in the stadium. The ninth image shows the demolition of the grandstand in April 1941 [20] [15]
Football action during the 1941 season, where all games took place at the old practice field. The first image shows the the Dixie League's Roanoke Travelers fumbling the ball during their October 19th loss (14-15) against the Newport News Shipbuilders. The second image shots the Portsmouth Cubs' Larry Weldon running the ball during the Travelers' October 26th loss (2-7), while the third shows Jefferson High defeating Andrew Lewis on the day prior. The fourth shows Greensboro gaining over Jefferson during their Thanksgiving Day game (organized to replace the temporarily-relocated VPI-VMI game), while the final picture shows the Norfolk Shamrocks' Ken Batson getting tackled during the Travelers' 31-0 loss on November 16th [21]
A faded transition from the 1937 aerial image of to the 1953 aerial [22]