Pullen Park was used as a practice field by NC State's football team from 1900 to mid-1906, and possibly sporadically afterwards. It was used for a single football game, and also may have been used periodically for smaller baseball games, but the historical record is unclear. The field supplemented the Fair Grounds as the main location for team practices, but never managed to usurp the venue as the team's home field for match games; it was largely replaced by Riddick Field for football scrimmages, though athletics (especially baseball) continued to utilize the field for another three decades. Care should be taken when attributing games to these grounds, as sometimes the Fair Grounds were referred to as the "college grounds" (or some variation thereof) while at other times Pullen Park was, and also because NC State appears to have constructed several poorly-documented athletic fields around the same time.

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-1 at this field; they also scrimmaged once in the area prior to the field's construction. That intracollegiate game from 1896 was likely played in a different spot in Pullen Park than the location of this field (due to the slope of the site before it was improved), but has been placed at the same location due to the dearth of information surrounding the game's true whereabouts.

  * Non-conference games

After using Raleigh's Athletic Park (1889-1897) to host their match contests for nearly a decade, the grounds were suddenly shuttered in early December 1897. Left without a spot to play, and city interests being indecisive about what, if any, grounds would be built, the students of North Carolina Agricultural & Mechanical College petitioned the governor to use convicts for "several days" to level an area for a new combination drill ground and athletic park. Local papers sympathized with the request, noting that "The college boys have long needed an athletic ground on which they may practice for their football and baseball contests." Before then, practices had been held "on whatever part of the College ground happened to be uncultivated and without trees" [1].

Unfortunately for the students, superintendent of the state penitentiary J. M. Mewboorne declined to lease the men out for less than 65 cents a man per day; given that the students had requested 20 men, three days' worth of work would have run up nearly $40 in expenses -- almost $1,500 in 2024. Instead, the students went to work leveling out the field themselves. The exact location of these grounds has not been identified, but was somewhere in Pullen Park, likely the flatter southern section. "The grounds we have for practice are on city park property," complained Mark Squires, manager of the baseball team, "where we can charge no gate receipts, hence it is a hard task to keep up athletic interest.... It is extremely unfortunate we have no grounds," he continued, "but do not let this altogether kill our athletics in Raleigh." NC State had to get a guarantee (ie, private citizens or promoters promise money in advance) in order to host games at the grounds due to their unenclosed nature [2]. Baseball was the only sport officialy played on the grounds in 1898, though football practices may have taken place there.

The following season, "the old bugbear once more appears -- grounds." In addition to the issues of enclosure referenced above, they were said to be quite rocky and unfit for playing without a great deal of work: "It is the height of folly," explained the editor of Red and White, "to attempt to develop a team on our old ball field." The request for money and new grounds "beyond the railroad" was first formally made by the students to the faculty on January 9th, 1899; a special committee (which included Dr. Riddick) was assigned to the case. Two weeks later, the committee returned, reporting that the students could use "a part of the meadows west of the railroad for a ball ground." Later reports pinpoint more specifically that this was roughly in the vicinity of the present location of Thompson Theatre.

In February 1899, shortly after the grounds were approved, the college began the process of leaving their ah-hoc field in Pullen to the on-campus site. As was the case before, the college remained in a great deal of debt; accordingly, the grounds were furnished through student labor once again, incurring a cost of just $25 to build. "We have, at last, secured an athletic ground on college property," praised the students, "one we are able to call our own." The new grounds were reported to be in good condition by March -- in time to hold a handful of baseball games. They were then regraded and covered with a new soil the following July, but remained unfenced for reasons of cost; this was doubly disadvantageous, as the Agricultural College had requested the grounds be enclosed "to prevent damage to neighboring crops when Ball Games are in progress" [3] [28].

Despite the improvements being done, in September 1899 the college was finally allowed to formally develop land on a section of Pullen Park adjacent to the college. Though a similar request had been denied less than a year prior, the plans were approved this time around, with college president Dr. George Tayloe Winston promising to turn the grounds into a "picnic park" without major cost to the city. The request seems to have been something for a formality -- work on the area had already begun in August. Construction was formally authorized on September 17th; this time around, the new prison superintendent, Captain W. H. Day, was more amenable to the students' request to get convict labor. The city also approved a separate $200 appropriation (nearly $7,500 in 2024) in order to allow the school "to make a good athletic ground of part of Pullen Park" [4] [5].

I would be remiss not to mention briefly the history of Pullen Park. Richard Stanhope Pullen worked under (and inherited a substantial sum from) his maternal uncle and aunt, Richard and Penelope Smith, the former being a successful merchant and financier in Raleigh in the 1850s. Starting around 1870, Pullen became a substantial force in the Raleigh real estate market, and through this he began curating a steady stream of rental properties. Though his work made him wealthy, Pullen was by all acounts an extremely humble and private man, and is best remembered for his great generosity and charity. One such example of this was his April 1887 decision to donate over 60 acres of the former Eason Lee farm to the state's forthcoming agricultural institute (NC State), and the remainder to city of Raleigh for use as a public park; he reportedly balked at the idea of the grounds bearing his name. The park opened to the public in the Spring of 1888, and was given a dedicated stop on the city's street car line in 1893 [26] [27].

Though the athletic association wrote that the land was college grounds, that was not exactly true. Instead, the city "gave the A. and M. College the privelege of a portion of the park adjoining the college grounds." Covering about 3 acres, the new grounds were located on what was formerly "a steep declivity between the college and the railroad tracks" requiring about 4 feet of the site's heavy red clay soil to be moved. Work began around December, and by the following March grass was sown in and all things were ready so it would be "in perfect shape next year." The following Fall, though, it was reported that the field was still "not yet in good shape." The press release containing the report of the grounds opening is also one of the few period accounts I've come across which mention the no fence stipulation, explaining "the grounds must at all times be open to the public." In addition to their athletic usage, the grounds were to be used for the college's military drills [6].

As alluded above, though the grounds were ready in time for baseball season, I've found no definitive record of them actually being used for an intercollegiate game that season. Caution should be taken when researching this matter, as several reports which discuss improvements or games being held "on college grounds" (or some variation thereof) are simultaneously said in other reports to have been at the Fair Grounds; even the 1905 UNC-NC State track and field meet -- by far the most well-known athletic event which possibly took place on Pullen Park -- disagrees on this point, with local papers and UNC's Tar Heel noting the meet was held "on the new track lately built around the baseball diamond in the college grounds," while NC State's own yearbook reported it was at the Fair Grounds. And to that point, a preseason report on the college's 1900 baseball team noted that "The diamond at the Fair Grounds is in excellent condition" and that "The farmer boys are looking after that end of the line." Instead, one of the most reliable ways to identify the field is through the mention of cedars, which were said to ring the grounds as early as December 1899; the stately trees still encircle the field to this day [7]

Despite the initial excitement about the new grounds, the feelings quickly abated. The inability to enclose the field meant any noteworthy athletic events had to take place on the nearby Fair Grounds so that admission could be charged. Further, by 1901, the college baseball team didn't even practice on it full-time, owing either to its rudimentary nature or its dual use as a parade grounds. Nonetheless, it remained in use for decades as an intramural field and a drill field/parade ground for the college's military divisions. Though it was often used for football and baseball practice, it was almost never used for actual match games [8].

By 1905, the Athletic Association was at their wits' end. While juggling the ever-changing schedule of games and events at the Fair Grounds was likely a nuisance, it was nothing compared to the city's requirement that stands be taken down and re-assembled between each game. The college Athletic Committee petitioned for permission to "use a space within Pullen Park for an Athletic Park" in January 1905, and in June, Dr. Winston reiterated the need for "a good field with a fence around it and a grand-stand inside worthy the fair spectators" [9]. Shortly thereafter, the college began their push to create a new athletic field; the endeavor eventually concluded with the construction of Riddick Field in 1906.

Though the field was largely abandoned for intercollegiate athletics, it remained in constant use for military dress parades and drills, intra-team scrimmages, fraternity athletics, high school competition, intramurals, and local youth or vocational teams. It was used predominantly for baseball and softball, but in 1910 hosted the college's first game of basketball; the following season, new accommodations had been found in nearby Pullen Hall. It was particularly ill-suited for football: it seems to have lacked goal posts by the 1920s, though one picture from 1927 appears to show some; perhaps the issue was temporary in nature. As a venue for local baseball and softball, the grounds are still used to this day [10]. Its lingering importance, however, can be seen in a September 1907 request by the college to the Mayor requesting "not to have the 'Athletic Ground' on Park property plowed up or interfered with as an athletic field" [28].

Aside from its use in athletics, the field did also see a great deal of work for the school's military program, which was, after all, one of the two main factors in constructing the grounds in the first place. To that end, it remained the campus drill field and parade ground long after its displacement as a collegiate athletic venue; in fact, in 1936 the location of the Raleigh Armory (now the Theater in the Park) was dictated by the field's availability, allowing the soldiers stationed there to use the grounds for their own drills [12]. It also remained a popular location for various on-campus gatherings, including pep-rallies, mass meetings, and homecoming bonfires.

One of the most enduring memories of the field was in 1907, when Dr. Winston set about abolishing the widely-prevalent system of class hazing in a unique way: by encouraging an all-out fist fight between the Freshmen and Sophomores. Though the activity was sufficient in ending most of the fisticuffs, Frehsmen were still required to don red caps to indicate their status as a compromise of sorts. The field remained useful in that regard as well, wherein it hosted an annual ceremony where the Freshmen immolated their so-called "Frosh caps" upon finishing their first year [11].

Around the 1920s, the grounds started to be called Red Diamond (or, less frequently, Red Field) -- previously, it had only been referred to informally under various combinations of College (or Campus) Athletic Fields (or Park or Grounds), with "Old" appended to the front after Riddick Field opened. Though no formal indication of the name change has been found, the first reference I've come across was in April 1921.

Despite the staid and ancient history of Red Diamond, details on its improvements are scattered and inconsistent: stands, lights, and bleachers seem to have been frequently added or removed without comment. Of the extant reports, we know that in 1927 a "small grandstand" was added, though some of these were burnt in a fit of enthusiasm during a Frosh cap burning ceremony. Just over a decade later, the park truly came into its own as a burgeoning local softball scene exploded in popularity: lights were added in 1938, and in 1939 the stands were enlarged to hold over 4,500 persons, alongside the addition of dugouts and a press box [13].

While amenities improved in one regard, others were sorely lacking: in 1940, several groups requested that restrooms and showers be added to the field, as players had to use facilities at the Armory, which were not separated by gender; none were available for patrons. Plans to implement the work were approved by city commissioners, contingent on WPA approval, in late March, but no description of the work has been found. There were eventually bathroom facilities built; a submittal to the National Register of Historic Places estimated their construction as circa 1955, which tracks with a park timeline put together by Elizabeth Reid Murray, who estimated they were added at the same time as the "pony league field," a second, smaller field which was constructed to the southeast of Red Diamond from January to June 1954. The restroom was torn down and replaced with a more modern structure in 2015 after having been passed over during the extensive renovations to the park which took place between 2009 and 2011.

The construction of Pony League Field probably yielded a couple of other changes, the most major of which was a change in the field's orientation. Batters now faced northwest, rather than southeast, as had been the case since at least circa 1918, as shown in the earliest known aerial photograph of the field. The rotation likely occurred so that home runs from Red Diamond wouldn't land in the smaller park. The grounds were also put in good shape. The following season, more bleachers were added; though I've found no report of their removal, there are no longer permanant stands around the field [14] [15] [26].

Though not many particulars exist on its history, textual and photographic evidence of the field shows the grounds still exist in the same location to this day. Though information on the park's history is relatively scarce, its role in NC State's athletic development is impossible to ignore. Overlooked and underdocumented, Red Diamond Field soldiers on, and will likely continue to for ages to come.

Pictures of Pullen Park