Riddick Field was used by NC State from 1906-1965; it replaced their use of Raleigh's Fair Grounds and was replaced by Carter Stadium.

Overall, NC State had a record of 131-92-17 at this field, plus one tie played as a pre-season exhibition game which is not counted in official records. Though college rankings did not exist until 1936 -- halfway through the field's existence -- Riddick Field hosted 21 ranked games; NC State went 6-14-1 in ranked matches, going 2-11-1 when their opponent was ranked, 4-3-1 when they were ranked, and tying the sole time both teams were ranked.

  * Non-conference games

NC State had been using the state Fair Grounds for home games since 1898, following the destruction of Raleigh's Athletic Park. Though the grounds were convenient (the Fair Grounds were located just across Hillsborough Street at the time, rather than their current location), the arrangement was considered "far from satisfactory." Though period sources do little to explain why, the logical reasons are that a) the Agricultural Society, who owned the grounds, got precedence, creating scheduling conflicts; b) a lack of suitable stands -- the bleachers had to be taken down weekly; c) the field, located inside the horse race track, was rocky and did not drain well (South Carolina derided the field as "a veritable patch of stones" and "perhaps the worst [grounds] in the south" following their Thanksgiving 1900 game on the grounds); d) the distance of the field from the street car line; and e) the lack of fencing not only prevented the Farmers from charging entrance fees, but also from holding private practices to work out new plays.

When the Fair Grounds were unavailable, NC State could turn only to their practice grounds, an area in what is now Pullen Park which eventually came to be known as the Red Diamond. Designed with baseball in mind, the grounds were owned by the City Park system, who allowed NC A&M to grade and use the field, but not to enclose it; this made attracting and playing major teams difficult, since it was impossible to ticket, and thus, impossible to disburse gate receipts to visitors. At first, it was hoped to simply improve the existing grounds in Pullen Park, but the plans fell through [1].

In June 1905, five acres of land located "southwest of the Fair grounds on the land owned by the college" were set aside for the new A&M Athletic Field (or Park), and a committee was appointed to begin soliciting bonds. The land was that of the Crawford Farm, in roughly the present location of the campus brickyard and areas to the west of it. The spot was proferred in several local papers with the suggestion that the city's street car system could be extended to facilitate access; if not, taking a train on the spur of the Seaboard Railroad track leading to the Fair Grounds was still closer than the present walk [43].

By December, though, a new spot was selected. Though no reason for the abandonment of the Crawford Farm site has been located, the change seems to have been prompted by a desire to keep the grounds in a more central part of the college. Originally college faculty had hoped to place the grounds behind the Textiles Building (Tompkins Hall) in what is now the Court of Carolinas, but request was refused because "The high fences necessary would detract from the scenic beauty of the grounds and the college." The location selected was a largely vacant part of campus: a map of campus from 1906 indicated that besides a small ditch or seasonal creek running through the plat, the land was an empty pasture with only a few barns. The natural valley created by the ditch was a contributor towards the site's location, as it would help with rainage. By January, half of the $5,000 (just under $171,000 in 2023) needed to build the field had been raised [2].

A charter for the grounds, by the Raleigh Athletic Park Company, was issued in late March, and in June Professor Riddick began surveying work for the grounds. Work started in late July, with the goal of completing the grading in a week and enclosing the grounds in three weeks. The barns were ultimately removed as part of the work, but only because their associated fields had been repurposed; the barns were where Leazar presently stands, north of the field's ultimate location [3]. It was hoped initially that the field would be open for the Red and White's first home game against Randolph-Macon on October 1st, but work was delayed, at first because of rains, and later due to difficulty securing laborers; instead, the venue's first game was on October 11th, 1906, when the Aggies hosted Richmond [4].

The field was not quite ready yet, to say the least: there were no stands or bleachers, the ground was hard from the rain, and there was no grass. Despite this, it showed signs of good planning: it was "level as a billiard table," and had a foundation of clay and cinders to assist with drainage. The field remained unimproved until January 1907, when a quarter-mile cinder track was built around the grounds; work was supervised by star Farmer athlete Babe Wilson. It was not yet outfitted for baseball: they instead played one final season at the Fair Grounds so as to let the grass be planted and grow in well [5].

That grass was planted in early July, in concert with the construction of a fence and privacy hedges; the field was also widened by 90 feet. Construction on a grandstand and bleachers, designed by prominent Raleigh architect Frank B. Simpson, began in early August. The 600-person grandstand was located in the northeast corner of the field, facing southwest, with an additional pair of bleachers, seating 750 each, flanking the first and third base lines. Period photos make it clear that the non-grandstand seating came and went over the years, and even by season. Another 3,000 bleacher seats would go along the western edge of the field during football season, making the venue's total seated capacity about 5,100 in the fall once completed. Work on the grandstand did not finish until late October, and the bleachers remained under construction through 1908's baseball season, occasionally forcing spectators to sit in the unfinished stands; it was said the field had only 1,200 stands in retrospective histories [6].

The field remained largely unchanged for several years, aside from minor modifications or repairs. In April 1908, a 27-foot-tall fence was erected along the south side of the park to block the view of freeloaders who stood along "deadhead hill," an elevated section along the railroad tracks. This was done to help secure the Raleigh Red Birds baseball team, members of the Eastern Carolina League. In March 1910, the approach to the park was beautified, and in 1912, the roof to the grandstand was replaced after a storm blew off the original.

The venue's first scoreboard, located along the middle of the eastern edge of A&M Athletic Field, was also installed in this period. The scoreboard was secured by the efforts of Dr. Burton J. Ray, A&M's Instructor of Chemistry. Construction on the scoreboard started on October 2nd, 1911 and was completed in time for the October 7th game against the U.S.S. Franklin; it was operated by Ray and members of A&M's second string. The board showed the score of each team, the quarter, and the downs and distance. The Farmers were "first among Southern colleges" with such a scoreboard [7].

In February 1912, dissatisfaction began to percolate over the name of the field. An unsigned editorial in Red and White complained that their "New" Athletic Field, as the venue was often called, was now several years old, and joked that by now it ought to be called the Old Athletic Field, were it not for the neighboring Red Diamond (at Pullen Park), which had not yet received its color-based monicker and was still largely called the Old Athletic Field. The student author suggested that then-Vice President of the college, Dr. Riddick, was the best candidate:

To Prof. Riddick more than to any one man in the universe A. & M. owes her present high position in athletics among her sister institutions in the South. He was the first coach an A. & M. team ever had, and into that team he instilled the spirit that has ever since characterized our teams on the diamond and on the gridiron, that spirit that has added victory after victory until now there is a long list that includes most the larger institutions of this section. Why not RIDDICK ATHLETIC FIELD? Put honor where honor is due. For there is no man, dead or alive, who has taken more interest in our athletics than Prof. Riddick has taken, and is taking now, despite the duties that devolve upon him in the class-room and elsewhere. Will not whoever has this important thing in charge let six hundred A. & M. boys give fifteen rahs for RIDDICK ATHLETIC FIELD?

Despite the impassioned editorial and reports of near-universal agreement among students, instructors, and professors, the college delayed the honors, evidently recalcitrant to name the field for someone still living. The movement gained so much interest, though, that in early March some newspaper editors had already taken up the charge and began calling the park Riddick Athletic Field. In mid-May, the Athletic Association finally voted to formally rename the field in honor of Riddick, thus naming the venue Riddick Field [8].

By late 1915, the grandstands and bleachers at the field had fallen into "a condition of feebleness that makes them dangerous." In response, the class of 1916 began initiating a plan to donate a single set of concrete bleachers as their class gift, with class treasurer and civil engineering graduate Louis E. Wooten* spearheading the efforts. The section of bleachers, located on the western side of the field, were formally presented to the college on May 30th, and completed just a few days later, on June 4th [9]. I could not find estimates on the bleacher's capacity or cost.

The bleachers proved a popular addition: so popular, in fact, that in late September, rumblings emerged that the other classes were hoping to match the bleachers with sets of their own. At first, this was to be on a similar annual basis; before the school year started, however, they were slated for immediate construction. The reason for this was that Riddick Field was hosting the annual Thanksgiving day game against Washington & Lee, which had proved a popular draw in Norfolk the last four seasons. Work on the new sections, designed by civil engineer Carroll L. Mann, began by October 27th. The new bleachers were made up of six sections (one from the class of 1916, one from the four present classes, and one donated by members of the Wake County alumni chapter) and sat 2,200 persons for a cost of $4,000 (about $110,500 in 2023) in total. All of the old bleachers and grandstand were torn down, with new wooden bleachers constructed in their place. The field was expected to accomodate about 5,000 seated spectors, and 8,000 persons in total [10].

In August 1923, more than 5,000 cubic yards of dirt were removed from the eastern side of Riddick Field, and the remainder of the grounds re-graded. The result of the work was a widened field with more space between the sidelines and the stands. Other than a new scoreboard, the field again saw few modifications for the remainder of the 1920s. The new scoreboard, sponsored by local dairy Pine State, could show the score, down, and distance to go; it was installed in the southeast corner of the field in 1925, and equipped with telecommunication in 1927. This was replaced in 1929, before the Wake Forest game (but after the season-opening Washington & Lee game) by a nondescript dark green and white board located outside the south endzone which showed the quarter and the time remaining, in addition to the details of the previous scoreboard. That same year, the field was re-planted, the stands renovated, and reserved seats re-numbered. (Though retired in 1934, this scoreboard stuck around for a some time afterwards -- see this view of the field in 1936-37 with the decaying board in the background).

Despite this updating, by late Fall, more action was needed, with the east stands in particular noted for their dilapidation. Some fans went one step further and argued that, rather than a new set of bleachers, a new stadium was a necessity. Tal Stafford, an important figure in alumni relations, wrote: "Those of you who have attended games at Riddick Field in the last few years must realize that our athletic plant is no longer adapted to our needs. With comparatively small crowds attending the games this season... there are no choice seats left for alumni, or the general public.... We cannot provide these things in the narrow confines of Riddick Field, and there is no question but that the lack of proper facilities has hurt our gate receipts almost as much as a losing team" [11].

The university had other plans to adapt the venue to their needs. In May 1930, the Wolfpack hired John Van Liew, a coach from the midwest. Ignoring the issues of capacity and instead hoping to raise attendance, Dr. Ray R. Sermon installed lights in Riddick Stadium under Van Liew's recommendation. "When Drake launched night grid games," Van Liew asserted, "the attendance was increased ten times at the first game." Installation of the lights made Riddick Field just the second lighted football field in North Carolina, behind Lenoir-Rhyne's College Field. Sermon insisted the lights "would pay for themselves with the first game." A second benefit was that they would protect the health and safety of both players and spectators, as night scrimmages and night games would allow each to avoid the southeast's brutal summer heat.

As it turned out, the first game was the only one played under the lights that season. Though early plans were to make every home game of the season a nighttime affair, they were unable to convince any teams other than the High Point Panthers. And even that game almost didn't come off after the sun set: installation of the 28 new arc lights (mounted on 8 poles, 4 per side) wasn't completed until September 18th, affording the Wolfpack a single late-night practice ahead of the game after Friday's practice was rained out. The next day's game, the state's second-ever night football game ^†, was played under similar wet conditions. In the end, it proved difficult to convince teams to play at night, meaning the only consequential change imparted by the lights was that it allowed the opportunity for night practice and forced the baseball team to play elsewhere [12].

Despite the addition of lights, the stadium remained as insufficient as before: one sportswriter noted retrospectively that "we had at State College a few antiquated concrete seats and some rotting wooden stands as a campus eyesore and called it a stadium." To remedy this, the wooden eastern stands were replaced with concrete bleachers in 1933. Original plans called for a 7,500-person section, but it was reducted to 6,700 persons after bids came in higher than expected. It was hoped construction would start under a tight schedule by end of June so as to open by season's start, but the review process delayed things, forcing the first game of the season, against Catawba, to be played using temporary stands. Instead, the stands saw their first use just under a month later, on October 14th, 1933, when the Wolfpack hosted the Florida Gators; they tied 0-0 [13].

The completion of the new eastern stands brought the capacity of the venue up to 10,700 permanent seats in 1933, or 12,000 with wooden bleachers. Those numbers would not stand for long: the eastern stands were expanded the next season to the originally-planned capacity with the help of a grant from the Public Works Administration, raising those numbers to 11,500 and about 13,000 apiece. The grant also included the erection of a wall on the north end of the grounds and a year-delayed improvement to the entrance gates and fences. The lights were also replaced with more powerful ones as NC State made a push to host more night games; these were themselves replaced again before the 1939 season [14].

Never satisfied, when the east stands were replaced, it was hoped that funds could be secured to tear down the old west stands and replace them with new, matching stands, with the eventual goal of making a 20,000-person seat horseshoe with a built-in field house. Half of this came to fruition in 1935, with the 20-year-old class gifts being torn down and new 8,000 person stands going up to replace them; at this time, the venue began to be referred to as Riddick Stadium. The new concrete stands held about 16,000 total persons. For the first time in field history, the stands were completed before the start of the season [15].

Concurrent with the construction of the new concrete stands was the destruction of the venue's cinder track, the last vestige of Riddick's multi-use origins after baseball left in 1930. The track was improved several times over the course of the field's existence, with the most major improvement coming after the 1925 season, when concrete curbing was added to aid in track drainage and longevity. Track was never the college's main focus, though, with funding for most intercollegiate competition being suspended from 1932-1938. In that sense, it makes sense that the track, which hadn't seen major use for nearly 3 years, would fall by the wayside [44].

Around 1947, 3-4,000 seats were constructed in the end zones, as well as along the base of the concrete bleachers, upping the capacity to 20,000, though I have found no information regarding their construction. Sometimes the stands were also borrowed from Reynolds Colliseum. Capacity seems to have peaked at 22,000 for the 1951 Wake Forest game. A new public address system was also installed before the 1947 season [16].

The same year the new west stands were completed, Riddick field saw its fourth scoreboard installed. Constructed in the northwest corner of the field, it bore no sponsor, and was used for just three years (1935-1937) before being replaced by a new board, funded by the News and Observer. For the next five years, this board was sponsored by Esso. In 1942, the board sponsorship changed to Coca-Cola, which it retained for the remainder of its long, belabored life. The scoreboard was nearly constantly broken, apparently due to difficult-to-source parts. The clock had no hands in images from the late 1940s, and students begged for its replacement as early as 1951. That finally happened in 1957, when it was replaced with the stadium's first and only digital scoreboard; a nondescript "Fairplay" model scoreboard, it addressed the teams simply as "home" and "visitor" [17].

Continuing on their improvements to Riddick Field, NC State administrators began building a field house on the south end of the field in 1936. Work on the $35,000 (just under $775,000 in 2023) building started in August with a 3-to-4 month timetable. The two-story red brick structure -- stuccoed white to match the concrete bleachers -- was to be fitted with staff offices, training rooms, and dormitories for most of the varsity players. But the most important feature were the new locker rooms -- for the previous decades, both teams dressed in Thompson Gymnasium and had to cross the tracks pre-game and for halftime. Unfortunately, work paused for much of the 1937 season while further funding was sought, and was finally finished ahead of the 1938 football season. Perhaps the most interesting element of this building was a tunnel which bisected the building's lower level to connect a passageway beneath the train tracks [18].

The press box was the next part of the field to get some attention. The venue's first press box was reportedly constructed in 1923 in the center of the concrete stands, along the western side of the field ^‡. In 1928, this was replaced by a new press box, attached to the top of the Morris Building, a building built primarily for storage along the rear of Riddick's stands. In 1948, the writers' accomodations were enclosed with sliding glass windows, and stairs were added to reach the upper level, which was previously only accessibly with a ladder. A third tier was added to the press box the following season, and new lights installed in 1950. Despite promises of improvement throughout the 1950s, Riddick's decrepit nature was a hindrance to further work.

When it was built, Riddick was located in a roomy part of campus; in fact, early press reports envisaged a stadium cozily nestled mid-campus among dorms and educational buildings. And though that is partially how it happened, it became crowded, bounded by the railroad tracks to the south, Leazar Hall to the north, King YMCA and Syme Hall (formerly South Dormitory) to the east, and several buildings to the west, including the steam power plant and the laundry building (now the Language and Computer Labs building). The small venue limited attendance, which prohibited the site from holding contests of any intrigue. Additionally, its press facilities were considered "the worst of any college playing field" and were so inadequate that they lacked even radio booths [19].

"No one ever looked forward to going Riddick Stadium," recalled athletic director Frank Weedon, "and who could blame them?" The Wolfpack themselves played just 3 games at home every season from 1957 through 1964, and played only two games at home in 1963. The reason for such uneven scheduling? "[I]t would be a disadvantage to the Wolfpack financially to keep the game in Raleigh," Durham columnist Elton Casey explained; "it would lose money." As head coach Earle Edwards begged in 1962, "A [new] stadium would open a whole new door for us. It would put us on a sound financial basis."

Financial longevity aside, the fans were not happy. During the 1963 homecoming game against Virginia Tech (a 13-7 win where a 20,500 person crowd burdened Riddick's old bleachers), the student body made their opinions known: chants of "We want a new stadium" reverberated through the air during the game's final minutes. Plans for Carter Stadium, Riddick's replacement, emerged in late 1963 and were formalized in 1964. Though it was hoped briefly that the 1965 season could be played in the new venue, work was not finished in time, leaving one last season of play for Riddick's final send-off [20].

The 3-0 slugfest against Florida State which closed Riddick's usage was widely viewed as a perfect send-off to the crumbling venue's life. The day opened cloudy and overcast, but around the half, the clouds cleared and sunshine prevailed; around the same time, Harold Deters kicked a field goal to provide the final three points of Riddick's life. The band played a farewell and fans lingered in the stands as the field's last intercollegiate action came to a close. "Since it is obvious that the needs have gone far beyond the capacities in the stadium," noted Technician sports editor Jim Kear, "today's game marks the end of an era in football. When the crowd finally drifts out after today's game, Riddick Stadium will have seen its end. Soon," Kear predicted, "it will be razed to make way for badly needed classroom space" [21].

Though the Wolfpack's varsity had left, the stadium limped on for another couple years, hosting two annual Red and White games and two more seasons of Broughton High football. The final season of Broughton football at Riddick Stadium was played in something of a construction zone: demolition work had begun on the crumbling sexegenarian of a stadium in mid-November. The last collegiate football action on the field was in late November 1967, when the Shriner-sponsored Sudan Temple All-Star Game, pitching collegiate players from eastern and western North Carolina against each other, hosted practice sessions at Riddick [22].

Much like the construction of the stadium, its demolition came in fits and bursts. Demolition of the east stands began in April 1968, with several important figures to the stadium's history, including "Doc" Newton (head coach, 1937-1943), Robert Warren (team captain in 1928), and Louis Wooten (who you may recall for his fundraising efforts in 1916) taking part in the process. The field had become a parking lot by the Fall of 1968, though the western stands and the Field House continued to stand sentinel over the area: they were used by plant maintenance and campus police respectively [23].

That remained business as usual for three and a half decades. In 2003, destruction of the west stands finally began, with about half of the stands being demolished to make way for a new chiller plant. The final half stood until August 2005, when they, along with the old Morris Building, were finally demolished to allow for the construction of SAS Hall, which began in 2007 and was completed in 2009. The Field House stood until March 2013; the primary justifications for its demolition included the fact that the structure obscured sight lines heading out of the tunnel, that it was dilapidated, and was in the location of a new proposed rail easement. The primary excuse for its continued existence was housing construction offices while other on-campus work, such as the final demolition of the west stands, was completed: the police had left in 2004 [24].

There were several irregularities about Riddick that people would come to miss. One was the proximity to student housing, which provided both free viewing of the games and an entertaining canvas for collegiate antics. "When 'State College' boys were literally boys, rah-rah style," remembered Frank Jeter, Jr., "some in the dormitory behind the eastern segment of that stadium [South Dormitory, later Syme] had a delightful prank -- push their dormitory dressers, with large mirrors atop, to the window on a sunny afternoon, and then reflect the sun's rays into the eyes of people seated on the shady side of the stadium. Great fun."

Others also noted the ever-present rumbling of the trains on the rail line which abutted the field. As recalled by long-time fan Joe Moore, "The quarterback might by saying 'Hike!' and the next thing you'd hear was 'Toot! Toot!'" In the early days of the field, rail cars parked on the spur track which led to the power plant would sometimes afford empty-pocketed patrons an opportunity to watch the game for free. During the 1957 game versus Duke, it was said that the boys in Red were inspired by the locomotive, noting that each of their two touchdowns came within close proximity to the train's passing. And during the venue's final game, a passing train fittingly played the "shave and a haircut, two bits" ditty to formally signify the grounds' closure [41].

Pictures of Riddick Field