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Furman's Manly Field was used by the Paladins from 1919-1936; it replaced University Grounds and was replaced by Sirrine Stadium.

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-1 at this field, losing their sole game as a non-conference matchup.

  * Non-conference games

After decades of playing at their on-campus University Grounds, Furman moved off their campus, first to League Park (1907-1914), then to Augusta Street Park (1915-1917), and finally to Riverside Park (1917). Discovering that the grass was not always greener (a 1915 Bulletin article noted the need for "a better and more conveniently located athletic field"), the prodigal Mountaineers returned home for the abbreviated 1918 athletic season, reviving the old stomping grounds in light of war difficulties.

Fans soon began to clamor for a more permanent home for Purple and White athletics. And rightly so: fundraising for a new home venue had been ongoing since 1915. Already, the faraway venue had been christened Manly Field in honor of the college's second president, Charles Manly. More than just the collegians, the City of Greenville was interested in the endeavor, since they lacked a field adequate to secure better athletic and social events. Initial plans called for the field to be located between the Main Building (Richard C. Furman Hall) and the Fitting School building, several hundred feet almost due east. Despite some deliberation about the location (with critics noting the site "slopes considerably"), the spot ultimately prevailed..

In the meantime, Furman fans grew agitated with the wait. In one 1919 article, a Furman editor satirized the situation by reporting the field "Lost, strayed, or stolen," remarking that students were caused "embarassment" by the old field. Perhaps spurred on by the ridicule, work lept forward at an astounding rate, even despite an increase from $10,000 to $15,000 (just over $277,000 in 2025) since the original proposal. Ground broke in early March, with plans calling for a combination football-baseball field to share a roughly 500-person concrete grandstand, which was dug out of the south hillside; total capacity was set to be about 1,700 persons including standing room and bleachers. About 1,000 new wooden bleachers were added to the opposide side of the field in mid-1920; these were done away with at some point, but replaced in 1923 by a similar set-up holding a couple thousand more persons, putting the total capacity at about 4,000 spectators. A press box was built atop the concrete grandstand at the same time [1].

The field's days as a multi-use field were short-lived. In 1925, the baseball team moved to Graham Field, named for Greenville Spinners president Allen J. Graham, who donated the land located just south of campus at Augusta Road and Thruston Street. Though the grounds opened primarily for the bat sport, it was initially envisioned that all of Furman's athletics would move there since the field was larger, more accessible, and would allow the Manly Field area to be developed for educational use, keeping the University more centrally located. The move doesn't seem to have been one of utmost necessity, but instead of convenience: changing from football to baseball was "awkward" and not well-suited for the latter sport. Plus, the Spinners needed a new athletic ground and agreed to develop and donate the grounds in return for a decade of free usage. Furman's baseball team simply moved there because the purpose-built baseball diamond was better than the old field [2].

For reasons which remain unclear, football never did move to Graham Field. Instead, as the team's popularity grew, Manly Field was retained and even often augmented with additional semi-temporary wooden bleachers. At some time in the 1920s, the roof to the grandstand was removed, though it's unclear when or why; the concrete base remained, as it would throughout the venue's entire life. The old bleachers were replaced in 1929 and enlarged in 1930 so as to hold 3,000 persons; the press box was not replaced until 1931. But these numbers only capture a small subset of reported seating -- actual seating was often likely higher, as belied by a report the venue could hold 7,000 persons before the 1927 NC State-Furman game, or 12,000 persons before a 1929 game where seating was enlarged to help Furman host South Carolina's first night football game. The lights allowed for increased usage, including several local high school teams.

This increased usage came with considerable wear and tear to both the field and its environs, and managing both fields proved difficult. During the 1934 Furman-Georgia game, a section of stands seating 600 persons collapsed, sending six spectators to the hospital with predominantly minor injuries. The collapse was attributed to "the sinking of timber supports in the rain-soaked ground" rather than rotten wood or improper construction. That was not the case over on Graham Field, which was stripped down to just one 1,000-person bleacher section in 1935 after the bulk of the grandstand dilapidated. The entire thing was demolished in 1936, forcing the usually-successful Hurricane baseball team to suspend operations for a season before returning to Manly Field. The old diamond was eventually turned into residential property, and after a years' respite, the Furman nine returned to their old stomping grounds in north campus [3].

The baseball team's move was enabled primarily because the football team was in the process of moving to a new location themselves. After several years of posturing, work on Sirrine Stadium began, with football fans eagerly awaiting the change. Recapping what was initially meant to be Furman's final grid contest at Manly Field, one reporter explained that "The game has far outgrown the facilities of Manly Field" before noting that fans and players alike left spangled with mud. Construction delays to the new stadium yielded another half-season's worth of play in a similarly sloughy vein, with at least one local high school game canceled after a rainy practice by the collegians churned the field so mightily it was impossible to play on. Calling the situation an "embarassment," the writer went on to laud Furman's impending stadium [4].

In late October 1936, Sirrine Stadium finally opened, ceding Manly Field to the baseball team. Manly Field remained in use for the batters through about 1946, when Furman's baseball team moved most of their home games to Meadowbrook Park; collegiate baseball was permanently exiled for the second time (grounds were reserved for naval cadets during World War II) after the home grounds were reserved solely for the track meets and football scrimmages the following year, though it remained in use for practices. It remained used for those purposes, as well as ROTC training, minor league baseball (when availability permitted), and horse shows from then on out. Baseball and track moved to the new campus (Latham Baseball Stadium and the Irwin Belk Complex, respectively) in 1956, while wootball abandoned scrimmages on the field in 1959 [5].

Despite the encroachment of the Bell Tower Shopping Center (see more on the development in the write-up describing University Grounds), Manly Field continued to see periodic action at the practice or youth level through the mid-1960s; the last reported athletic action I found was for a 1965 softball league. Though increasingly informal usage may have taken place until about 1968-1969, by the turn of the century, development of the Bell Tower Shopping Center had rendered the field a victim of progress [6].

Pictures of Manly Field